Valentine's Day kicks off one of many key shopping events in the 2024 retail calendar. With over 40 million Brits participating, it has evolved into an appreciation of friends, family and pets. There is even a counter event; Galentine's Day.
It's highly accessible, with participation across multiple price points and categories, giving omnichannel retailers the opportunity to put on a diverse promotion strategy. Using Acuity Pricing data, this blog post will review products across key gifting categories to see how brands and retailers have operated during this Valentine's Day period.
Inflation in the gifting category paints a mixed picture, with a 4% YoY increase, although this varies significantly across categories. Health and Beauty retailers are notable as prices have risen less than 4%. In contrast, discount retailers Lidl and Aldi saw price rises of 12% and 16% respectively.
When it comes to Valentine’s Day promotion strategies, there is a divide amongst retailers. 8 out of 18 tracked retailers reduced the number of promotions this year, although they offered a greater depth of cut than the other 10 who had increased the number of products on promotion.
Debenhams saw a 34% decrease vs 2023.
Retailers that decreased their promotions compared to 2023 provided a 26% depth of cut.
Retailers that increased the number of promotions averaged a depth of cut of 15%.
48% of discounts were standard price cuts.
Valentine's Day is a wide reaching event, with promotions reaching across various categories. To provide a snapshot we've looked at seven key categories: alcohol gift sets, confectionary, ready meals, cosmetics, health and beauty gifting, flowers and fragrances.
Below, we dive into some of these categories, selecting those where retailers have been the most active in pursuing competitive price and promotion strategies.
This category saw some of the best quality discounts this Valentine's Day, particularly for those with access to loyalty cards. The significant investment from retailers into this category is evidenced by the 56% YoY increase in promotions, as well as an average depth of cut of 17%. Key findings:
17% depth of cut for standard promotions, rising to 30% for loyalty card holders.
46% of items within this category promoted – compared to 32% in 2023.
Standard price cuts the most popular discount type, with 57% of promotions this Valentine's in this format.
Boots was the leading retailer within this category, promoting 583 products with an average discount of 41%. Boots offered an expansive range of promotions this Valentine’s, as consumers saw over 192 brands discounted, the most heavily of which was Baylis & Harding with an average depth of cut of 62%.
Standard price cuts were the most popular discount type within the category. Interestingly, while most retailers used standard price cuts to promote their Health and Beauty products, Lookfantastic almost exclusively pushed codes/coupons. This could perhaps show a possible opportunity for other online retailers to follow suit in the future if they are looking to increase average order values during key shopping periods like Mother’s Day or Halloween.
This category saw similar investment to Health and Beauty Gifting, with promotions across 12 of the 18 retailers in this analysis, including Boots, Debenhams, Tesco and LookFantastic. Key findings include:
15% depth of cut for standard discounts, rising to 28% for loyalty card holders.
38% of items promoted this Valentine's Day, a 4% increase compared to 2023.
77% of promotions in the form of price cuts, with multibuy and bundling offers dropping by 16% compared to 2023.
Within standard promotions, Sephora was the standout performer with 577 promotions averaging an impressive 33% discount, which includes luxury brands. The investment from Sephora into a competitive price strategy is also evidenced by the 49% discount it's been able to leverage on a range of Lalique products that have an average base price of £110.
The retailer with the strongest loyalty card promotions within this category was Superdrug, averaging a 36% depth of cut across 662 products. Luxury brands were a key offering here with Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne all discounted above 20%.
Chocolate is a key category during the Valentine's Day period, and inflation has impacted it more notably than other areas, seeing price rises of 9%. Nevertheless, retailers have still been active promoting these items to encourage purchases. Key findings:
10% depth of cut for standard promotions, increasing to 15% for consumers with loyalty cards.
25% of items promoted this Valentine's Day, representing a marginal decrease of 1% compared to 2023.
Mixed promotional offering, with 41% of discounts standard price cuts, 27% loyalty card offers, multibuy 19% and other promotions 13%.
Boots implemented the most impressive discount strategy with an average discount of 48%, albeit from a modest range of 34 products. Asda offered one of the most wide-ranging discount strategies with 156 products discounted at an average depth of cut of 22%, outperforming Tesco and Sainsbury's loyalty card offering. For loyalty card holders Sainsbury's was the most impressive discounter offering, a depth of cut of 21%.
This Valentine's Day has emphasized the higher quality discounts that retailers have been able to offer with their loyalty card schemes, where luxury brands are often promoted more heavily. Euromonitor forecasts that luxury gifts will be a key driver of sales this Valentine's Day so retailers with a significant luxury offering will likely have seen the greatest success this Valentine's Day.
Retailers should continue to emphasize the benefits that loyalty schemes offer to consumers. Access to promotions on luxury brands is a key benefit, however the points system that many cards have in place are a double benefit when more expensive, luxury purchases are made.
Retailers should continue to invest in quality brands to differentiate their promotion from competitors. Whilst a wide-ranging promotion strategy might bring in customers, its unlikely to entice consumers to make that extravagant purchase that they might shop around for instead.
Whilst standard price cuts are a popular discount type, retailers should diversify their promotional strategy. Whilst multibuy promotions weren't as popular, retailers were able to offer a depth of cut of 28%, compared to 17% for standard price cuts. Retailers can consider implementing tiered discounts based on purchase thresholds, exclusive deals for loyalty card holders, or bundled offers to cater to diverse consumer preferences and potentially increase average order values.