Online gift store, Brewquets conducted an Australian Valentine’s Day Survey to better understand how couples planned to celebrate the annual day of love. The survey of 1,500 adults revealed that, in total, Aussies will spend an estimated $377 million on gifts.
According to Brewquets Director, Richard Kelsey, Valentine’s Day has a bigger impact on the local economy than most people realise.
“We know for a lot of businesses, particularly florists, Valentine’s Day is a crucial event for their sustainability. This is the one day that can really make or break them,” he said. “The research confirms just how important Valentine’s Day is to Australian retailers.”
On average, consumers are expected to spend $90 purchasing gifts for their partners, with close to half (47 percent) of Aussie shoppers planning to shop both on and offline, while a further 19 percent say they will shop purely online.
Breaking spending activity up by gender, the most popular gift for men is expected to be alcohol (62 percent), while women are most likely to receive gifts of the floral variety (77 percent).
Out of the 77 percent of Australians planning to celebrate Valentine’s Day, 43 percent say they will be buying a gift. Twenty-six percent of survey respondents said they will be spending between $75 and $100 and only seven percent said they would be spending $25 or less.
It seems the average Aussie consumer also has a sense of humour, as Brewquets noted that men will receive a mix of serious and joke gifts (63 percent). But, when it comes to buying a gift for women, partners prefer to play it safe with 58 percent of purchases being serious ones.
For online shoppers, 65 percent of purchasers will have their gifts delivered to them in advance ready to hand over to their partner on Valentine’s Day. A further 18 percent plan to have the gift delivered directly to their loved one’s home on Valentine’s Day and 15 percent will show off their gift-giving prowess by having their purchase delivered to their partner’s workplace on the day.
However, despite sizeable spending taking place in the lead up to Valentine’s Day, the worthiness of the holiday is still in question, as 49 percent like/love the holiday, 41 percent don’t have much of an opinion of it and ten percent of Aussies say they hate it.
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