STORY:
The Cost of Valentine's Day
Who will spend more this year, men or women?

Thinking of what to buy that special loved one? You can't decide on a Valentine gift, and don't know how much you should spend? Here's a survey that may clue you in to spending habits between men and women. The survey was conducted by the International Mass Retail Association and shows that spending for Valentine's Day this year will be up from last year...as is the going trend with most holidays in the 21st century.

It may not surprise many that men will outspend women on gifts this year, dishing out roughly $95 million dollars just to say "I love you."
Why do they spend more? Men tend to wait until the last minute and usually have to fork out an additional amount for shipping and rush fees in order to receive the gift in time for Valentine's Day. In addition, "Men are much more likely to buy big-ticket items and to shop at specialty stores for Valentine's Day," said IMRA President Robert J. Verdisco. "Valentine's Day is kind of a do-or-die holiday for men, who shop mostly for the women in their lives.

Women, who buy gifts for children and parents in addition to husbands and boyfriends, find that Valentine's Day poses different challenges. We continue to see women choosing discount department stores for their Valentine's Day shopping needs. They seem to buy in bulk and hand loving items out to more than one person as suggested above.

"Men will spend more because they don't shop around. They want to get the gift and be done with it, even it means spending more money than they need to. Many men plan to shop at specialty stores and florists (30%) as opposed to women (18%).

On the other hand, nearly 40% of women will do the majority of their Valentine's shopping at discount department stores while only 25.2% of men will do the majority of their shopping there.

Men are also somewhat more likely than women to put off their Valentine's Day shopping until February 14 or the day before (36%) versus women (28%).

Most consumers plan to do their Valentine's Day shopping a week or more prior to the holiday (64%). This means florists, shops, stores and online venues have to be fully stocked for those lag time shoppers.

Valentine's Day is the second most popular holiday for greeting card sales. Over one billion valentines will be sent this year. According to Sharon Cole-Schneider, American Greetings executive director of seasonal cards, women (83%) purchase the most valentines, but the number purchased by men (17%) is inching up, according to American Greetings' research. "We believe this is because many men are buying two cards for their significant other," she said, " ... a funny one and an obligatory romantic one they think is expected."

According to IMRA's study, half of all consumers would prefer to receive a humorous Valentine, followed by romantic one (31%).

Women are much more interested in romance than men. At least they are more interested in receiving a romantic, thoughtful Valentine's Day card. More than a third (36%) of women surveyed prefer receiving a romantic Valentine whereas only 26% of men do. On the sexy side, 13% of men would like to receive a sexual or playful Valentine versus only 3.5% of women.

When it comes to Valentine's gifts, classics like flowers, candy and jewelry still reign supreme. In fact, according to the National Confectioner's Association, consumers are planning to spend $1.1 billion on candy this year. 32 percent of annual flower sales, according to the American Floral Endowment Consumer Tracking Study, take place during the Valentine's Day season.