Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2012, for Valentine’s Day 2012 (a Tuesday), during Spain’s economic crisis. The sales increases are presented as expectations for that year.
Valentine’s Day is coming up, and without taking the spotlight away from Cupid and a couple’s romance, let’s remember that this date was added to the commercial calendar to encourage spending at a critical time of year for sales. In other words, it’s a “helping hand” for shoppers recovering from the cuesta de enero (the January slump, when Spanish households feel the pinch after the holidays).
The Valentine’s Day business goes far beyond selling flowers and chocolates. The flower industry alone will generate billions in sales thanks to this date, as will chocolate makers and confectioners, which could see their sales rise by more than 30%. But other industries will welcome this day too. Durex sees its sales rise by 20% in February, so condoms join the list of side sales generated by this day.
Sales of pregnancy tests soar in February and March. In some countries, pregnancy test sales rise by as much as 15%. In the past, this time of year led to a considerable rise in births, although with the crisis hitting us, this year’s increase will probably be much smaller than in previous years.
Just as Christmas is in theory a time of happiness but in practice a painful reminder for families who have lost a loved one, Valentine’s Day is an ideal date for reminding single people that they’re on their own, so dating platforms and websites such as Match.com and Meetic.es will see a 6% increase in “premium” sign-ups compared with other months of the year.
Of course, shops selling original, inexpensive gifts, as well as restaurants, will increase their takings that day by as much as 58% compared with a normal day.
Another industry that will benefit is credit, because many people will feel obliged to spend even if they can’t afford it, and they’ll do it by reaching for the credit card, forgetting that they’ll have to pay it off later.
This year the day of love falls on a working day (Tuesday), so there could also be an increase in demand for virtual assistants to arrange our romantic dinner and pick up our partner’s gift, although this statistic will have to be confirmed once the date has passed.
So: some flowers, some chocolates, a romantic dinner followed by a night of passion, and a charge on the credit card. For everything else… there’s always love.
See also: Business ideas related to love
Featured image: LASZLO ILYES, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
