Surveys: Women Still Want Jewelry for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day, the second most important day of the year for jewelry retailers, is fast approaching, and both men and women will be shopping around to buy gifts for their loved ones.

According to Jewelry.com’s annual Valentine’s Day survey, more than half of those surveyed said they would like to receive a piece of diamond jewelry. Rubies were the second favorite, at 16 percent.  

In addition, the most popular answer to “what’s your idea of the perfect Valentine’s Day gift” was jewelry. However, even if they haven’t received it, almost 30 percent of women stated that in the past they have bought themselves gifts for Valentine’s Day.

Discover Card’s third annual Valentine’s Day shopping survey revealed that consumers planning to buy a gift this year will spend an average of $76.60 on gifts in general, with men spending almost twice as much as women.

In this survey, 34 percent said they planned to gift their loved one with jewelry (46 percent men and 23 percent women), while 22 percent said they would like to receive jewelry (13 percent men and 30 percent women). The most popular gift on the list was a special dinner, with 68 percent saying they would buy dinner for their partner (74 percent men and 62 percent women) and 57 percent saying they wanted to have dinner  bought for them (56 percent men and 57 percent women).

Men who plan to purchase a Valentine’s Day gift indicated that they intend to spend and average of $98.20, down a smidgen from last year’s $100.10, while women said they planned to spend an average of $54.20, up from $51.20.

Single people will on average spend more than married. Also, eighty-five percent said they prefer to shop for a Valentine’s Day gift in a store, while only 22 percent said they would shop online.