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Gifters Expected to Spend More for Valentine’s Day Gifts This Year
About two-thirds of gifters are expected to celebrate Valentine’s Day
Stevens, PA January 24, 2006 — With Christmas gift shopping just barely over, gifters are already in the mood for the next major gifting holiday: Valentine’s Day. To date about 15 percent of gifters have already made their Valentine’s Day purchases, with some 54 percent planning to make purchases, according to Unity Marketing’s Gift Tracker survey conducted in January 2006. Overall Unity expects some 60-to-65 percent of gifters to make Valentine’s Day gift purchases this year.
In 2005 some 60 percent of gifters bought Valentine’s Day gift, making it the third most popular gifting holiday after Christmas (98 percent bought gifts in 2005) and Mother’s Day (67 percent).
To date Valentine’s Day gifters have spent on average $105 on their gifts, which is about 40 percent more than the $73 they averaged last year. “With gifters being more cautious in their holiday gift spending in 2005, we expect the amount they spend on the major gift holidays during the first half of the year to be ahead of last year. Shoppers don’t feel the hit as much to their budgets when they only have one or two gifts to buy, so they are likely to be more generous for Valentine’s Day 2006,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses — as well as the Classes.
In addition some 30 percent of shoppers are expected to buy Valentine’s Day decorations this year, giving an additional boost to retailers’ sales results of the holiday.
Gifters spent nearly $2,000 buying gifts last year
Overall gifters averaged $1,935 buying gifts throughout 2005, with their budgets divided 61 percent for gifting holidays or $1,190, like Christmas, Valentine’s Day and so on and 39 percent or $745 for gifting occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, new baby, etc.
Gifters spent about 6 percent less overall buying gifts in 2005 than they did in 2004, when gift purchases averaged $2,062. “Gift shoppers continue to look for gifts that offer the maximum value for the lowest cost. That is why they favor shopping in discount department stores where their gifting dollars stretch farther,” Danziger explains.
About Gift Tracker Survey
Unity Marketing, on the forefront of market research on the gifting market, conducts a quarterly gift tracking study to measure the pulse of the gift consumer in a longitudinal survey of 500-600 gift buying consumers. Every quarter Unity tracks what gifts they bought during the past quarter, what gift occasions and holidays stimulated those purchases, how much they spent per holiday and occasion, where they bought gifts, the store and product brands they relied upon for gifts and their expectations for future purchases of gifts. The next Gift Tracker survey will be fielded early April 2006 to track 1Q2006 gift purchases.
Find out more about Unity Marketing's Gift Tracker survey.
For media: Charts, tables and graphs are available upon request.
About Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing
Pamela N. Danziger is a nationally recognized expert specializing in consumer insights for luxury marketers, whether they sell luxury to the masses or the ‘classes.’ She is president of Unity Marketing, a marketing consulting firm she founded in 1992.
Advising such clients as Lenox, Cartier, Herend, Rémy Amerique, Stearns & Foster, Prudential Fine Homes, Baccarat, The World Gold Council, The Conference Board and American Express, Danziger taps consumer psychology to help clients navigate and master the changing luxury marketplace.
Her latest book, Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses—as well as the Classes, (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $27, hardcover) is in book stores now. She is the author of the recent book, Why People Buy Things They Don't Need: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior (Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2004). She is working on her next book about shopping set for publication in Fall 2006.
She has appeared on CNN’s In the Money, NBC’s Today Show, CNBC, CNN International, CNNfn, CBS News Sunday Morning, Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, ABC News Now, NPR’s Marketplace and is frequently called upon by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, American Demographics, Women’s Wear Daily, Forbes, USA Today, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune for commentary and insight.
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