By Andrew Greissman

According to numbers released by the National Retail Federation this month, the average American consumer celebrating Valentine’s day is set to spend $142.31 treating their loved ones, up from last year’s $133.91. The increased spending is largely expected to take place in brick and mortar retail locations, with 75% of consumers planning on making their purchases at a physical location, but despite this, a healthy 25% are planning on buying their gifts online, providing plenty of incentive for etailers to prime their holiday marketing campaigns.

While most of the survey respondents were planning on buying candy for their sweetheart, a record one out of five were planning on purchasing jewelry for an estimated spend of $4.8 billion, the largest number since the NRF began tracking Valentine’s day spending in 2010, and a further signifier that those bit by the love bug might be more willing to splurge this year.

In the weeks leading up to the holiday, ecommerce professionals should ask themselves the following questions:

• How might the significance of the holiday drive traffic to less looked-at landing pages? You may need to renovate product pages for seasonal products that might not have been looked at recently.
• How can you fine tune copy to reflect a personalized Valentine’s Day message? Since the perception and experience of the day can vary greatly depending on what demographics and segments customers fall into, it can be a challenge to deliver something that hits the right tone at the right time.
• Have you identified what products are historical top-performers on and around Valentine’s Day? Take steps to highlight them in featured and recommended products sections.

Author Bio

Andrew Greissman is a digital content manager for WBR Digital. Andrew’s writing background spans genres and formats from poetry and magazine writing to website copy and press releases. When not writing, Andrew enjoys travel, good food and reading books. 

Photo credit: Pikakoko

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