Although Valentine’s Day unsurpingly delivered a week-on-week boost in demand for UK online retailers, the period wasn’t able to better last year’s performance. But helping support this year’s static figures were the growing influences of Galentine’s (women’s friendships) and ‘Palentine’s (general friendships) trends.

That’s according to the latest data from performance gatherer Wunderkind’s Marketing Pulse, which analysed over 54.4 million online shopping journeys.

It showed that year-on-year demand leading up to Valentine’s Day matched that of 2024.  Week-on-week, the event delivered a 6.4% boost to e-commerce sales (7-14 February vs 31 January-6 February).  This also followed a 5.9% two-week-on-two-week jump in online revenues compared to the fortnight before (26-31 January). Meanwhile, conversion and traffic also saw weekly rises, increasing 8.1% and 12%, respectively.

This year, lingerie and swimwear retailers saw the biggest revenue gains in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, according to Wunderkind’s data, with e-commerce sales up 10.9% on average. While sales of these two categories outperformed others,  Shopify’s data also suggested that classic event gifts, (flowers, chocolates etc) have fallen out of favour with consumers. Instead, fragrance, make-up and houseplants were the most popular gifting alternatives. 
 
Additional information showed that ahead of the event, the UK was the second-highest country searching around Valentine’s Day worldwide.  

Meanwhile, separate research from Globaldata suggested 69% of 25-34 year-olds in the UK intended to spend on the occasion, a rise of almost 8% compared to 2024. Its research also highlighted the growing trend of Galentine’s and Palentine’s celebrations, with 12% expected to have bought gifts for friends during the event, a rise of 3% year-on-year.  
 
Cian Agnew, RVP Client Success International of Wunderkind, said: “Valentine’s Day continues to be a key moment within the retail calendar for brands to boost engagement and conversions. Now, with growing adoption of the ‘Galentine’s and ‘Palentine’s movements, there’s an even bigger opportunity for retailers to increase revenues, extend ranging, and capitalise on additional website traffic by capturing visitor email and phone numbers to grow their opted-in databases for later 1:1 retargeting.”