Valentine’s Day in the UK: what women want and what men really think

What are the expectations of Brits towards the holiday of love? What does the perfect Valentine’s Day look like according to women and men? Which gifts are the most expected and which should be avoided? Picodi Analysis Team decided to look into one of the most commercialised holidays in the world and check how much love is still there.

The popularity of this holiday is evident if you look at the number of British people who declare that they celebrate Valentine’s Day — a staggering 61%. Although an overwhelming majority of people prepare a surprise mainly for their significant other, there are some who don’t leave out their friends (20%) or relatives (12%).

An average British person is going to spend £96 on a Valentine’s Day gift. Men spend around £29 more than women do: £110 vs £81.

What’s interesting is that more than half (51%) of Brits don’t think about Valentine’s Day gifts until February. This is consistent with Picodi’s internal data, according to which we can observe a spike in shopping activity around two weeks before Valentine’s Day. Especially in demand are products such as jewellery or perfumes. 13% of British people leave shopping until the last moment — 13th and 14th of February.

Women’s take on Valentine’s Day

What is it that sparks joy in a woman’s heart on Valentine’s Day – a gift, displays of affection and love or perhaps a promise of commitment? The survey results show that both material and non-material aspects are equally important for almost half of the surveyed women (47%). 39% of women find gifts to be important on Valentine’s Day whereas 14% of respondents would rather spend time with their partner.

Women chose Valentine’s Day cards (41%), flowers (39%), jewellery (24%), sweets (20%) and plush toys (12%) to be the perfect Valentine’s Day gift whereas gift vouchers (21%), lingerie (20%) and cosmetics (19%) were deemed as unpopular gift choices. Interestingly, flowers and jewellery were also voted as the least desirable gift by the surveyed women.

What is the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day according to women? The survey results don’t give the perfect recipe for a successful Valentine’s Day date, however, among the most popular activities were going to the movies (40%), having a romantic dinner in a restaurant (29%), cooking dinner together (28%), going to a concert (21%) and going out of town (20%).

It turns out that relaxing doing nothing is a bad idea (28%), same as playing board games (20%) or spending time actively, e.g. ice-skating (16%). Going to the movies or to a concert turns out to be controversial — some women chose it as a poor way to spend Valentine’s Day.

Men’s take on Valentine’s Day

The answers of the surveyed men show that pleasing them can be more difficult than pleasing women. 27% of men expect a material gift from their partner, 42% does not want any gifts but they would like to spend time together with their significant other and 31% declares that they would like to get both.

The most desired gifts:

• Valentine’s Day card (42%)
• Flowers (25%)
• Gift voucher (24%)
• Money (22%)
• Electronic devices (17%)

The least desired gifts:

• Valentine’s Day card (21%)
• Flowers (20%)
• Gift voucher (17%)
• Plush toys (13%)
• Sex toys (8%)

Valentine’s Day cards, flowers and gift vouchers seem to have stirred quite a controversy among men since they voted those items as both the most and least desirable gifts.

What does the perfect Valentine’s Day look for men? In this case, they partially agree with the fairer sex: men would like to go to the cinema or a restaurant, take a romantic bath, make love or see a play. The list of unfortunate Valentine’s Day dates among men looks similar to the one compiled by women.

Because the thought is all that matters

On average British people spend £96 on gifts (around €108), which places them third in the ranking. They spend less than Thais (€114) and Irish people(€116) but more than Americans (€98).

People don’t splurge on gifts in India ($35), Belarus ($34) and the Philippines ($33).

Want to prepare a romantic dinner for your significant other? Or maybe order some food and enjoy a movie night? Regardless of your plans, Picodi will help you save money with cashback and discount codes offered in shops such as Morrisons, Muscle Food, Thorntons, Pizza Hut and Domino’s.

Methodology

This report is based on results of a survey conducted in the second half of January 2019 among 6400 people from 38 countries where Valentine’s Day is celebrated. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate for January 2019.

Public Use

Are you willing to share the information and infographics about Valentine’s Day in the UK and other countries with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.