February 14, 2008

Valentine’s Day planning challenges (and hope for procrastinators)

The celebration of Valentine’s Day is an annual tradition that brings stars to the eyes of some and terror to the hearts of others. For those that love the holiday, planning for the big day presents a challenge for gift ideas, poems & quotes for cards, and of course necessitates a special layout for MySpace profiles.

Searches on ‘valentines day’ increased 65% for the week ending Feb. 8, 2008 over the previous week as excited cupids worked on their Valentine's Day preparations. Within the searches that included the phrase ‘valentines day’ last week, 12% out of the top 200 also included ‘gift’ and 8% included ‘idea’, providing many opportunities for retailers to offer suggestions. One particularly interesting trend that has continued from last year is that among those that were seeking help for gift ideas, many were specifically looking for gifts for men – 9% of the same top 200 ‘valentine’s day’ searches included a male reference like men, guys, or boyfriends. Women, however, may be considered far easier to buy for since female descriptors aren’t found until further past the top 200.

Many Valentine’s Day gifts allow for more procrastination – traffic to the eGreetings and Flowers & Gifts category begin to increase only a few days before the holiday due to quick delivery options. The market share of visits peaked on the actual holiday for both categories, especially eGreeetings, which increased 75% on Feb. 13th, 2007 from the previous day and built upon that growth, jumping another 87% on Feb 14th, 2007 compared to the 13th. The Flowers and Gifts category also increased 19% and 35% on Feb 13 & 14 of last year.

Another online procrastinator’s aid are restaurant reservation and information websites (good for early planners, too) to help make Valentine’s Day plans quickly. Opentable.com and Zagat.com also experience traffic increases closer to the actual day as people decide where to make dinner reservations. Last year, the market share of visits increased 18% for Opentable.com and 17% for Zagat.com on Feb. 13th, 2007 from the previous day.

Even though there are lots of planners out there, it looks like offering last minute gift options and quick delivery may be the way into the hearts of Valentine's Day gift buyers!

Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:20 PM
Posted to Shopping and Classifieds

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