A lot of customers haven’t shopped for Valentine’s Day yet

A last-minute Valentine’s Day sales bump may be coming.

According to a new consumer survey from online deals and savings platform RetailMeNot, 32% of respondents will buy their gifts the week of the Valentine’s Day holiday, and 2% will wait until Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) itself.

Meanwhile, 40% of respondents got an earlier start (two weeks in advance) to their Valentine’s Day shopping, and 11% made Valentine’s Day purchases at least a month early.

Female respondents are more likely to buy a Valentine’s Day gift in advance, with 15% of women and 9% of men saying they are likely to buy a gift a month in advance compared to men (9%). Similarly, 47% of women are likely to buy a gift two weeks in advance compared only 35% of men.

Conversely, male respondents are more likely to buy a gift last-minute. One-third of men are likely to buy a gift the week of Valentine’s Day compared to 29% of women. Three times as many male respondents as female respondents (21% compared to 7%) are likely to buy a gift two to three days before Valentine’s Day.

Two-thirds of respondents of will spend at least some money on Valentine’s Day gifts in 2023, spending an average of $80.

[Read more: Valentine’s Day spending to be second highest on record at $25.9 billion]

Among those respondents in a relationship, the most desired gifts are:

• Nice dinner at a restaurant (24%);
• Holiday card (12%); and
• Chocolate (10%).

Clothing surprisingly, jewelry (3%) was one of the less popular Valentine’s Day gift items, tying with intimate toys/accessories and new electronics items such as smartphones. Flowers were also low on the list, only preferred by 4% of respondents.

The least popular holiday gift items are:

• Clothing: 2%.
• Shopping/Retailer Gift Card: 2%.
• Fragrance: 1%.
• Purse/Handbag: 1%.
• Wine: 1%.

Meanwhile, 8% of respondents in a relationship won’t be exchanging gifts this year.

There are some differences by gender when it comes to the most popular gifts:

• Women are more likely than men to want an experience (8% vs. 4%) and chocolate (11% vs. 9%), while men are more likely than women to want a Valentine’s Day card (16% vs. 6%)
• Both men and women agreed about food, with dinner at a restaurant clocking in as the top most-desired Valentine’s Day gift for both men (28%) and women (18%). More than half (52%) of all respondents want chocolate this year.

Get more information on the survey here.