Article: How Walmart customers will celebrate Valentine's Day 2023
Love is in the air, but how are folks going to celebrate Valentine’s Day? We surveyed our Walmart Customer Spark Community for a sneak peek at their Cupid-fueled purchases and plans
Walmart customers are spreading the love this year and planning to celebrate their Valentine's Day by keeping loved ones close. More customers plan to celebrate Valentine's Day this year than last year. In a recent Walmart Spark Community Survey*, we asked 878 verified Walmart shoppers how they planned to celebrate Valentine’s Day and what influences their spending. We found that 64% of Walmart shoppers plan to celebrate on Feb. 14 this year, up from 61% last year.
Of those who are celebrating, nearly two-thirds (61%) will do so with their significant other. Another 51% of people say they'll celebrate the holiday by spending time with family members and friends—and 46% plan to observe it as a day for kids. Interestingly, men are more likely to celebrate Valentine's Day with their significant other (70% vs. 60%), while women are more likely to celebrate the holiday with their children (51% vs. 28%), or with friends (18% vs. 8%).
Valentine’s Day on a budget
When it comes to the cost of love, 27% of Walmart shoppers say they plan to spend around the same amount on Valentine’s Day gifts as last year - between $25 and $49 despite the current economic landscape. However, 26% of men are prepared to open their wallets and spend more than $100 on the people they love. Only 25% say they plan to spend more and 14% say they are going to spend less. And to make sure they stick to their budget, shoppers are leaning into sales and promotions (49%), store display suggestions (41%), and traditions (40%).
Sweets remain a Valentine’s Day must-have
Candy and chocolate remain the most popular planned purchase items—76% of shoppers say they plan to purchase these treats. But, what’s Valentine’s Day without flowers and cards? Over 80% of shoppers plan to make room for those items in their carts. Many shoppers over the age of 55 are sticking with traditional gifts and leaving flashier gifts to younger shoppers. 29% of shoppers aged 18 to 34 say they are most likely going to buy jewelry or electronics for a loved one, compared to only 14% of shoppers 55+.
Customers are planning their shopping trips early
Customers aren't waiting until the last minute for their gifts. More than half of shoppers (56%) plan to begin their Valentine's Day shopping during the weeks of January 29 and February 5. Only 16% of shoppers will wait until the last minute and pick up something special the week of Valentine's Day, with 21% of those shoppers being male. Most shoppers (70%) plan to make their purchases in stores, and many say they will do so during routine shopping trips. However, the percentage of shoppers who intend to make purchases online at Walmart.com or using the Walmart app follows closely with 59%.
Dig Even Deeper:
The insights don’t stop here; dig even deeper with more customer behavior and sales performance insights from Walmart Luminate’s suite of products:
- Use Walmart Luminate Shopper Behavior to understand historical purchase behaviors and reveal what buyers are adding to the cart alongside top reported Valentine’s Day categories.
- Leverage Walmart Luminate Channel Performance data to see which stores achieved the highest sales for your items or categories during the Valentine’s Day season—and where out-of-stocks or nil-picks affected your ratings.
- Follow up with the Walmart Customer Spark Community with another Walmart Luminate Customer Perception survey, post-Valentine's Day, to compare planned spend with actual spend and understand what promotions drew them to the category. Better yet, hyper-target customers understand why they chose your brand and if you got a new loyal customer through their verified transaction history.
About Walmart Luminate
Walmart Luminate is a suite of data products that gives. U.S.-based Merchants and suppliers unprecedented access to rich, aggregated, customer insights that enables smarter, faster decision-making. Within our unique closed-loop data ecosystem, Walmart Luminate uses advanced data science to synthesize data from across the omnichannel path to purchase, allowing suppliers to analyze shopper behavior and channel performance, gather input directly from customers, test new growth strategies, and measure impact. The three products that make up Walmart Luminate – Shopper Behavior, Channel Performance, and Customer Perception – help make the jobs of Merchants and suppliers easier with a single, omni-view of customer habits and needs in a dynamic, user-friendly tool.
References:
*Walmart first-party data. Walmart Luminate conducted this survey of 878 verified members of the Walmart Spark Community between January 24 and 27, 2023.
©2023 Walmart Inc. All rights reserved.
