Alliance Data released findings from its Valentine’s Day study, a survey of 1268 U.S. consumers. The survey focused on spending behavior around the holiday and found that almost 40% of Gen Z consumers intend to purchase luxury goods for their loved ones. While younger consumers planned to purchase more luxury goods than other age groups, 27% of all respondents believed that they would spend more on Valentine’s Day gifts this year than they did last year.
The rise of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solutions may be partially responsible for the increase in spending. According to the study, two-thirds of Gen Z and Millennials had refrained from purchasing expensive Valentine’s Day gifts in the past because they did not have the money up front, but 38% indicated that they would spend more if there was a BNPL option available.
The study found that Valentine’s Day is the number one gift-giving holiday for consumers, with over 90% of respondents indicating that they would mostly likely purchase a Valentine’s gift, as compared to just 81% for winter holidays like Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa.
For more on this research, see Alliance Data’s press release on the subject.
Overview by Laura Handly, Research Analyst at Mercator Advisory Group
