In January, PayPal and Ipsos conducted a survey of men and women in the United States and the United Kingdom to learn more about their buying habits related to Valentine's Day. Interestingly, the study found that people from the United Kingdom are far more likely to purchase Valentine's Day gifts online than their American counterparts. This finding held true for both single and married shoppers (about 20% shopped online for Valentine's Day gifts in the U.K. versus about 10% in the U.S.).
Valentine's Day shoppers in the United Kingdom also planned to spend more than shoppers in the United States ($136 versus $92). While these statistics are telling in terms of shopping behaviors, it's also interesting to see what kinds of gifts people would like to receive this Valentine's Day. This should give an idea of where Valentine's Day spending will go.
Below is a useful chart from eMarketer that outlines what respondents in the U.S. and U.K. in this study want to receive for Valentine's Day this year.
Looks like even though people from the U.S. and U.K. vary in terms of how they shop for Valentine's Day gifts and how much money they spend, an ocean does not make much of a difference in terms of the gifts people want to receive for Valentine's Day.
The most interesting part of this study? It has to be the number of people who said they want an iPhone or an iPod for Valentine's Day. First, they don't seem very romantic. Second, they're the only non-traditional Valentine's Day gifts on the list (except money, that seems strange, too, but since it's not a product and this is a blog about marketing, I'll leave that out for the purpose of this post).
What do you think?
Comment Preview