You love it or you hate it, but you definitely can’t avoid it. Valentine’s Day is one of the many important holidays of the year and an excellent opportunity for eCommerce brands and online retailers to increase site traffic and sales.
Read our blog post to know the top eCommerce trends and best gifting ideas this Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day Past Impressive Online Trends
- 29.1% of US consumers shopped online for Valentine’s Day in 2018 and 2019, with average spending of more than $100.
- In 2020, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), consumers worldwide spent an average of $196 online for Valentine’s Day.
- Research by Nextopia found that average order value increased by 11% and total conversions in February month rose by 24%.
- In 2018, companies such as FTD.com, ProFlowers.com, and 1800Flowers.com saw a bloom in orders five days before Valentine’s Day.
- Web traffic increases in the weeks leading up to the valentine’s day date night and Flowers are the top choices to buy online for Valentine’s Day.
- Flowers with over 22% are the top item to buy online, followed by 17.4% of shoppers purchasing chocolate/candy.
- As per data from CNN, NRF, aboutflowers and business2communit
- 51% of people purchase red roses for this day of which 64% are men.
- Total spending reached on Valentine’s Day was $18.6 billion out of which $1.9 billion was spent on flowers while $4.4 billion was spent on diamonds, gold and silver.
- $700 million was spent by Americans on Valentine’s Day gifts for their pets.
Marketing tactics to drive Your Valentine’s Day Sales
1.Segmentation
Segmentation allows marketers to take control of customer data and deliver the highly relevant right content to the right shoppers. Using Google Analytics, create a segment of shoppers who made a purchase with you around last year’s Valentine’s Day and target them by creating content relevant to them.
Create another segment for shoppers who have browsed your products a couple of weeks before Valentine’s Day but have not made any purchases yet, encourage them to buy a gift for their loved one to enhance their love story.
2.Countdown Timers
Add countdown timers to your Valentine’s marketing campaigns to create a feeling of urgency to a sale deadline, to drive more traffic to your site, and to highlight the last delivery date before the final day. More than 1 in 4 consumers appreciate when online retailers highlight the important cut-off dates, making countdown timers an essential eCommerce tactic around all big holidays.
3.Product Trends
Finding the perfect opportunity can be easy by following product trends. Create a FOMO (fear of missing out) and show the potential buyers, how many other shoppers are looking at their product and how many are left to be ordered yet. A little urgency can be even more effective than usual. Send Basket abandonment SMS for more conversions at a quicker rate.
4.Emails
A week before Valentine’s Day is the best to offer special discounts valid for a limited time. Send special offers via email and use calls to action such as “Gifts for him” and “Gifts for her” in the email, to generate a sense of urgency for extra sales. Send basket abandonment emails using free tools to remind customers what they have left behind. Be creative and offer special voucher codes and use countdown timers to gain conversions from these emails.
5.Upsell & Cross-Sell
Add some dynamic product recommendation content to your checkout process that can help you persuade your customers to add extra products. Valentine’s Day is the perfect time for upsell & cross-sell for many gifts like flowers and chocolates that are in high demand and usually purchased together.
6.Appropriate product recommendations
Right product recommendation to the right user, at the right time, and on the platform can increase your brand awareness, generate more traffic, and more conversions.
Product recommendations are fruitful all year round as it helps you to display items that are most likely to catch your shopper’s attention and convert them into customers.
Display these product recommendations on your website and email marketing for maximum impact a month prior to Valentine’s Day.
7.Personalised content
The right Content marketing will work wonders while promoting your message across all your communication channels. With personalised content, you can provide useful information to potential customers, attract new visitors, and improve your SEO. Share your content on product pages and social media platforms.
8.Optimise shopping experience for mobile users
Almost 50% of Valentine’s Day eCommerce searches come from mobile devices. So, plan your promotions for the Valentine’s Day that work smoothly on a mobile phone. Avoid the risk of losing any shopper due to bad mobile-user experience. Optimise the navigation, ease to access, and employ payment platforms with faster purchase process.
In Summary
Online retailers should get involved in the Valentine’s Day prep soon after the New year. It’s a time of the year when shoppers can be reluctant to spend. So, offer faster or free shipping or next day delivery option, right product recommendations with personalised content, unique gifting ideas, special discounts, etc.
Go creative and do everything you can, to get shoppers ready to fall head over heels in love with your brand and your products!
SaleCycle. (2022, June 16). How to improve your Valentine’s Day ecommerce strategy [2021]. SaleCycle. Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://www.salecycle.com/blog/strategies/how-to-spice-up-your-valentines-day-ecommerce-campaigns/
Tips to increase traffic and sales this Valentines Day. Recommend. (2020, April 27). Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://recommend.pro/increase-traffic-sales-valentines-day/
Bass, C. (2022, August 22). 3 ecommerce tactics to boost Valentine’s day sales. Fresh Relevance. Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://www.freshrelevance.com/blog/valentines-day-ecommerce-tactics/
