Shoppers love beauty gifts for Valentine’s Day, reports say. Here’s how brands can stand out.
February 07, 2024 | By Jareen Imam, Sr. Content and Editorial Manager
From decadent chocolate boxes to fluffy stuffed animals to delightful perfumes, Valentine’s Day is a time when consumers are treating someone they care about to a special gift that demonstrates their love. Valentine’s Day is a popular gift giving opportunity for shoppers. It is the sixth largest consumer spending day in the U.S., according to Statista.1 And more than 52% of consumers surveyed by the National Retail Federation said they will be partaking in the holiday.2
Beauty products are one of the most requested gifts for Valentine’s Day, according to a 2021 report by Bazaarvoice’s Influenster.3 In the report, about 70% of consumers said they preferred beauty and cosmetic products over other gifts.4 Therefore, beauty brands have the opportunity to engage gift shoppers ahead of Valentine’s Day. Here are some tips about Valentine’s Day shopping trends that could help beauty brands drive awareness, consideration, and purchase.
Valentine’s Day shoppers start browsing ahead of the holiday
Beauty products are among the top 10 most gifted items during the Valentine’s Day season in Amazon’s store.5 And shoppers start looking for gift options weeks before the holiday.6 In fact, Valentine’s Day gift browsing in Amazon’s store steadily builds throughout January and peaks the first 10 days in February.7
Among beauty products Valentine’s Day shoppers consider, hair care, beauty appliances, and skincare are the top most purchased beauty products in Amazon’s store during the holiday.8 And for luxury beauty products, luxury skincare, professional salon and spa, and professional skincare products are the most purchased items from Amazon’s store during Valentine’s Day.9 Beauty brands may want to consider building campaigns around similar beauty products using solutions like Streaming TV ads, Sponsored Display, and Sponsored Products and running those campaigns weeks before Valentine’s Day in order to pique shoppers’ interests.
Engaging Valentine’s Day shoppers before and after purchase
Beauty brands have several options with Amazon Ads for how they may want to reach and engage Valentine’s Day shoppers. When it comes to expanding reach, advertisers may want to consider adjusting their audience strategy by including adjacent beauty categories shoppers are browsing. For example, skincare brands may also find it valuable to run campaigns in categories like hair care and perfumes.10 By running campaigns in adjacent beauty categories, beauty brands may be able to connect and engage wider audiences with similar interests. Additionally, implementing campaigns that reach shoppers across multiple touchpoints could help beauty brands stand out and stay top of mind. Beauty brands may want to consider using Streaming TV ads to reach audiences who are watching content on Fire TV, IMDbTV, and live sports on Prime Video. This could help beauty brands engage with new-to brand shoppers and help improve brand recall with audiences.
After shoppers make their Valentine’s Day gift purchases, there may be opportunities for brands to drive loyalty through remarketing strategies that could help beauty brands stay top of mind for shoppers. This can be important since more than 70% of beauty shoppers made a second beauty product purchase within three months of their initial beauty purchases in Amazon’s store.11 And when it comes to luxury and professional beauty shoppers, more than 75% of shoppers who purchased a beauty product in Amazon’s store made a second purchase within three months.12 That means Valentine’s Day customers may consider shopping for gifts for events like Mother’s Day, which occurs in May in the US. Advertising solutions like Sponsored Display purchases remarketing and Streaming TV creative remarketing could help beauty brands reconnect with existing customers and share new products and offerings to help shoppers find more products they may want.
As shoppers look for gifts this Valentine’s Day, Amazon Ads can help beauty brands reach and engage shoppers on their purchasing journeys, and help them discover beauty products for the ones they love.
1 “Total expected Valentine's Day spending in the United States from 2009 to 2021,” Statista, US
2 NRF’s Valentine’s Day Spending Survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, 2021, US
3-4 Bazaarvoice’s Influenster, 2021, US
5-9 Amazon internal, December 2020 – February 2021, US
10-12 Amazon internal, January 2019 – September 2021, US