UK Valentine’s Day spend will be sluggish in 2020

37% of UK shoppers are planning to get involved in Valentine’s Day this year, with spending set to reach £855 million.

That’s according to Savvy research involving 1,000 people. Alastair Lockhart, Insight Director at Savvy, says: “Despite seeing a small improvement in consumer confidence at the beginning of the year, our analysis points to only minor growth in Valentine’s Day 2020.”

“In part this is due to a tough comparative as the market grew by 7.8% in 2019. However, we also attribute the slowdown to a shift away from eating out, to eating at home.”

An interesting development this year is the growing role of social media as a source of inspiration, he adds. “This is not entirely surprising as retailers and brands are more actively using social media to provide inspiration and also the platforms are becoming more convenient as they increasingly offer users the option to buy directly from posts.”