Valentine’s day – Understanding the Economy of Love !!
“Love is in the air, and in the business as well”
In India Valentine ’s Day is no less than a festival. From millennials to adults, everyone has a special feeling in their hearts. This feeling is expressed in many ways: words, sentences, filmy dialogues, long WhatsApp messages, Instagram story, snapchat, Facebook post, tiktok videos and the list goes on.
Among these various gestures of expressing love to the special ones, one thing that synchs with the emotions and expressions – ‘The Special Valentine’s Day Gift!
Valentine’s day, unlike other one-day festivals, can go long for more than a week, beginning from the rose day, propose day, chocolate day, teddy day, promise day, hug day, kiss day and then the most-awaited, valentine’s day!
Hence, unsurprisingly, the Indian Valentine’s Day gifts market is nothing less than an estimated 22000 crore! Adding to it, with just the rose exports trade likely to cross Rs.27-30 crores
In a survey done by CashKaro.com, 79% of respondents said it is important to give a gift on Valentine’s day.
Googled published its finding of 2020’s most searched valentine’s day gifts and these are the findings:
- Flowers
- E-cards
- Teddy Bears
- Rose bears
- Chocolate covered strawberries
The excitement isn’t all about materialism gifts but also about moments and experiences.
Recently published OYO’s Love Index Report states that there has been 112% rise with 90.57% jump in room bookings on 14th February including couples, families/group of friends followed by solo bookings with Delhi being on top for valentine day’s bookings followed by Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai.
In February 2019, India’s most popular dating app Tinder did a survey from January 29 to February 4 to know how India’s are spending their valentine’s day. Over 40% of respondents said when it comes to exchanging gifts, they prefer gifts in the form of chocolates and flowers.
While YouGov found that, one in three women expected jewellery and around 18% of men had planned to gift jewellery, while a quarter of the women also looked forward to a holiday. When it comes to Indian’s preferences of buying Valentine’s Day gifts, 25% of respondents prefer E-commerce sites, 15% prefer local shops, 13 % prefer gifting stores whereas 16% prefer to gift hand made things.
Spending on Gifts:
India is a huge market for occasions and festivals where people’s faith, emotional connections for the importance of the occasions play a vital role in boosting the economic prospects and fueling vast opportunities.
The associated chambers of commerce and industry of India (ASSOCHAM) highlight the economic surge infused by this festival of love.
According to their report, gifts like jewellery, chocolates, toys, readymade garments, mobile phones, electronic gadgets, wristwatches are the highest selling items this valentine’s season.
Among this surge, corporate India is happier than ever. ASSOCHAM surveyed 500 corporates love-struck companies. The primary customers of “love” were from the IT, hospitality and retail sector with their spending ranging from Rs. 1000 to Rs. 50,000
As far as millennials and young students were concerned, a survey related to valentine’s day spending conducted in 250 educational institutes and among 1500 students indicated their spending expenses would range from Rs. 500 to Rs. 10 00.
While big salaried youth, especially from MNCs, BPOs, IT and big corporates, are planning to spend heartily on the big day ranging from Rs.1000 to Rs. 50000.
Personal grooming and luxury brands have become very crucial for valentine’s season for both men and women. 75% admitted that they spend Rs.500 to Rs. 10,000 on themselves for the day in which 25% of the sales come from the luxury brands itself, including grooming products, jewellery, clothes, branded apparel, which are among the largest selling items.
Travel companies are also making the most of the moment by selling holiday packages for hill stations, beaches.
Some of the other results of the survey indicate the approximate spending’s:
38% will buy chocolates
37% will give flowers,
7% plans to give electronic gadgets
Residents of Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Bengaluru, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Goa will contribute 75% to the overall spendings.
To understand the most preferred gifts, statistic brain conducted research in September 2017, which stated that the flowing figures :
| Gifts often given on valentines day | Percentage data |
| Candy | 47.5% |
| Flowers | 34.3% |
| Cards | 52.1% |
| Jewellery | 17.3% |
| Dining | 34.6% |
| Clothing | 14.4% |
| Gift cards | 12.6% |
| Other gifts | 11.2% |
Startups taking the leap!
Startups are also ensuring to commercialise the big day in every way with attractive offers and marketing strategies making the Valentine day sort of another mega festival.
Right from home décor, self-drive cars, bike rentals, personal care to dating apps, startups burn cash with freebies and attractive offers to acquire new customers and retain the older ones.
Many fashion brands are coming out with valentine’s day themed collections, while a leading shoe brand also launched a valentines day collection that featured white, red and pink footwear designed for a date night. A fashion jewellery brand came up with heart-themed jewellery.
Startup giants like OYO ran an impressive campaign, especially for valentine’s day with hashtags like #CheckInForLove, #NoRoomForHate, #StayInLove not just in India but in Malaysia, UAE and many other countries.
Online e-commerce giants are also not keeping any stone unturned with booming discount offers and a variety of eye-catchy gift options.
We hope this would help you to understand that Valentine’s Day is not just about the love in the air but the spirit of being a mediator of expressing love through tremendous opportunities of serving your target customers with memorable gifts, experiences and memories.
About Post Author
