Around 21% consumers would buy jewellery on Valentine’s Day: NRF

A survey on what consumers would spend for Valentine’s Day this year, by National Retail Federation’s Valentine’s Day Consumer Spending Survey and conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, indicates an enthused consumer wanting to spend this season.

It’s encouraging to see consumers show interest in spending on gifts and Valentine’s Day-related merchandise - a good sign for consumer sentiment as we head into 2015,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. According to this study, one in five or 21.1 percent of consumers plan to buy jewellery, making it a total of $4.8 billion, the highest amount seen since NRF began tracking spending on Valentine’s gifts in 2010.

Majority or 53.2 percent of consumers are likely to buy candy spending a total of $1.7 billion. Overall, for this season, the average person is expected to spend $142.31 on candy, flowers, apparel and more, up from $133.91 last year, creating a total spend level of $18.9 billion, a survey high, as per NRF. Also, retailers would be concentrating on promotions on gifts or meal offers.

Around 37.8 percent will buy flowers, around 35.1 percent would spend on plans for a special night out, including movies and restaurants, and consumers would also spend around $2 billion on clothing and $1.5 billion on the gift that keeps on giving: gift cards. Also, one-quarter of Valentine’s Day shoppers this year plan to make some portion of their purchases online.

Although consumers are showing enthusiasm there would be a strain of caution and they would scout for discounts and offers.