For its annual Valentine's Day survey, the U.S. National Retail Federation surveyed more than 7,000 consumers. They were asked how much they planned to spend and where they would shop for Valentine's Day gifts and other items.
They published the results with information on what they will give away on February 14 and how much they plan to spend. NRF conducted the survey between Jan. 3-11, asking 7,616 U.S. adult consumers.
Jewellery was the sixth most popular gift mentioned by survey participants. They were behind the standard Valentine's Day gifts. Such as sweets (57%), greeting cards (40%), flowers (37%), a night out (32%). Even an experience gift, i.e. concert tickets, a spa day, skydiving, etc. (32%).
21% of consumers surveyed said they intended to give jewellery as a gift. With the total spend potentially exceeding $5.5 billion.
Jewelry outpaced both gift cards (20%) and clothing (19%) as Valentine's Day gifts this year.
The NRF survey also showed the trend of consumers' trend on whether they will celebrate Valentine's Day. Also, who with and how, continues to evolve alongside the trend regarding traditional romantic relationships.
The percentage of survey respondents who said they plan to celebrate continues to hover around 50%. For this year 52% , down slightly from 53% last year, as it has been for the past decade.
The last time the percentage of Valentine's Day worshippers exceeded 50 percent was in 2013, when it was 60 percent.
However, a not insignificant proportion of respondents said they intended to observe the day in a less traditional way.
