3 types of shoppers to expect this Valentine's day and how to prepare

It's few days to Valentine's day. How are you preparing for Valentine's day shopper?

If your Valentine day's sales campaign is already underway, it's also useful to take note of specific strategies and tactics you can implement today to prepare for Val's day shoppers, enrich their shopping experience, and leverage this sales opportunity to secure lifetime customers for your business.

In a survey we carried out some days to Valentine's day to understand people's spending and shopping plans, we identified 3 type of shoppers you should expect in store for Val's day. We also share tips on how you can prepare your store as they look for the perfect gift items for their partner during this season of love.

1. People in relationship

More than half (65%) of people who took our survey said they are in a relationship. Their aim definitely is to take advantage of Val's day to spice things up in their relationship. We expect to see this type of people visit stores that sell fragrance, fashion accessories and confectioneries.  

You can help these type of shoppers derive the experience and thrill of getting a gift item delivered to their partner doorstep on Val's day.

For this type of shoppers you may want to create Valentine-themed delivery packages to deliver their gift items.

2. Married people

Expect to see the married people who want to treat their spouse this season of love. Ten percent (10%) of people who took our survey said they are married. Marriage Anniversary celebrants falls under this audience type as well.

So while setting up your Ad to drive shoppers to your storefront, don't forget to include people whose marriage anniversary fall on February 14 in your audience targeting.

3. People who are single but searching

Love is in the air for the singles too. We saw a significant number (15%) of respondent describe themselves as not in a relationship but searching.

Our clear guess is that these people already have their eyes on a potential partner they are plan to impress and Val's day is they perfect opportunity to make the move.

 Shopping and Spending behaviors to Expect

Half of the people who took the survey told us they will spend to get their partner a gift item while another half said they are not spending on anyone this Valentine's day.

When we asked what will make them spend this Valentine's day, 3 reasons stood out from a number of reasons people said would make them buy a gift item on Valentine's day.

1. Forty percent of respondents said they will spend if "I saw the perfect gift item for him/her tho I did not originally plan to buy a gift"

2. Another thirty percent of respondents said they will spend only if "the gift item's advert caught my attention"

3.  Twenty-five percent of respondents said they will spend this Val's day only "If the seller gives me a discount on the price of the gift".

Responses were thinly spread across a number of gift item categories when we asked respondents what gift item they plan to treat their partner to this Valentine's Day?

See the list of top gift items respondents says they will treat their partner this season of love.

1. An experience (e.g a spa session, dine at a restaurant, go see a movie, etc)
2. Fashion Accessories (e.g a Bag, a Purse, Jewelry, a pair of shoe, etc)
3. Fragrance (e.g a perfume for her, a cologne for him)
4. Apparel (e.g lingerie, joggers, a dress, a shirt etc)

Considering that 70% of respondents from our 2021 Val's day survey say they had rather gift their partner fashion Accessories, fragrances, apparel, electronics/gadget or beauty products than present confectioneries.

If you sell products in this categories such as bags, dresses, lingerie, personal gadget, cosmetics, hair extensions etc this could be a good news.

When we asked respondents "where will you most likely buy your gift item from?"

1. Twenty five percent (25%) of respondent says they will buy their gift item "on Instagram"
2. Another twenty five percent (25%) of respondent said "I will reach out to the Seller via Whatsapp"
3. Twenty percent (20%), however, said they will simply visit "a seller's website" to buy the perfect gift item for their partner.

Are you guessing how much people disclosed they are willing to spend on gift items this Valentine's day. We thought as much!

When asked how much they are willing to spend this valentine's day, forty percent (40%) of respondents says below ten thousand naira; however a staggering 40% of respondents says they will spend between ten thousand to fifty thousand naira.

6 Action steps to prepare your store for Val's day shoppers

1. Share your store URL in your Instagram bio
   

Twenty five percent (25%) of respondent says they will buy their gift item "on Instagram".

Make sure to display your store URL in your bio on Instagram so when they find your business page, they can easily use your link to visit your storefront and shop the items they plan to gift their partner.

2. Add a whatsapp chat icon to your storefront

Considerable number of people who participated in our survey said they would reach out via whatsapp to buy what they need this Val's day.

So if you do not have whatsapp chat icon enabled on your storefront, you may want to consider adding it so store visitors who want to chat with you can reach you.

3. Set the mood on your across all your sales channel - storefront, social media pages, etc.

It's important that when shoppers visit your social pages, whatsapp, storefront to buy what they need, you make them feel they are in the right place.

Use Valentine-themed headers across your sales channels. No budget to hire a graphic designer? You can leverage tools like Canva and Unsplash to help you create beautiful store headers thereby cut cost.

4. Create an irresistible Valentine's day offer with catching adverts

Considering thirty percent of respondent in our survey told us the only reason that would make them buy a gift item this Val's day is "the gift item's advert caught my attention".

This shows that you can win certain shoppers over just simply with the aesthetics of your Ad creatives.

If you can invest in a video ad creative or carousel ad creative, great! These ad creative format are known to attract attention and perform better that image ads.

5. Lure shoppers with discount coupons

Open your Seller dashboard and generate a valentine-themed discount coupon code to drive shoppers to your store.

Considering that one-quarter of the people in our survey say they would buy a gift item "If the seller gives me a discount on the price of the gift", a discount this val's day could turn out to be an effective sales driver for your business.

6. Run Ads to your Seller website

It's not too late if you are yet to launch an ad especially on Instagram and Facebook.

You can target both your existing customers and new people with Facebook Ads or social media posts. Learn how to setup ads on Instagram.

For Ad creative inspirations you can turn to tools such as canva.com to create beautiful looking creatives for your Ad.

Happy Selling this Val's day!