Valentine’s Day 2024: UK Consumers Shopped for Sex Toys and Ready Meals

Valentine’s Day in eCommerce 2024: Key Insights

• Special Product Pairing: The UK online supermarket Ocado reported a 190% increase in sales of dildos during Valentine's Week compared to last year. 73% of sex toy shoppers also bought ready meals.

• Prominent Collaborations: Sex toy retailer Ann Summers has teamed up with UK food delivery company Deliveroo ahead of Valentine's Day, as 82% of UK sexual wellness shoppers order online.

• Special Valentine Offers: Amazon and Flipkart offered additional events for Valentine's Day, while 90% of eCommerce brands do not participate at all.

Dildos and ready meals: that is what online shoppers at Ocado in the UK needed for Valentine's Day 2024. Compared to last year, sales of dildos increased by 190% in the run-up to this special day for couples. In addition, people tend to order ready meals along with sex toys, as 73% of sex toy shoppers choose this combination.

Massage oil and vibrators were also popular in 2024. With sales increases of 45% and 17.7% respectively, customers chose these items to make this day even more interesting.

Deliveroo Cooperates with Sex Toy Company

The UK online food delivery company Deliveroo had a special offer for Valentine's Day. It teamed up with Ann Summers, a sex toy and lingerie retailer, to offer a range of wellness products such as vibrators, massage oils and other adult toys on-demand before and during Valentine's Day. So, after deciding what to eat for a romantic dinner, users could decide to order a special dessert afterward.

This offer fits well with the shopping behavior of sexual wellness buyers in the UK, as it is one of the countries with the highest share of online purchases of these products. In 2019, 78% of sales in this market came from online purchases. During the pandemic, the figure was even higher at 82% and did not decrease in 2022. The numbers show a unique position for the UK shopping behavior, as the numbers of other countries show.

While online sales in the United Kingdom remained the same in 2022, France and the United States saw slight declines. France's online share of sexual wellness devices grew from 67% to 78% during the pandemic but dropped to 73% in 2022. The same goes for the U.S., which saw a significant improvement from 2019 to 2020/21, from 59% to 73%, but also saw a slight drop to 70% in the following year.

eCommerce Giants Offer Special Valentine’s Day Deals

Big players like Amazon and Flipkart also had exclusive offers for Valentine's Day. While the UK market offered more sex toys, Amazon opted for family-friendly products such as flowers, grooming essentials, clothing, accessories, and electronics with discounts of up to 70%. To help last-minute shoppers get their gifts on time, Amazon added a "Get it by Tomorrow" filter.

India's largest marketplace, Flipkart, used Valentine's Week to offer special sales on gadgets and smartphones. The result was a mix of traditional romance and modern shopping in Flipkarts shopping carts: Gift sets, headphones, rings, chocolates, men's t-shirts, stuffed animals and cards were the top products during Valentine's Week in 2024.

Unlike Amazon and Flipkart, most brands have chosen not to promote Valentine's Day at all in recent years. 90% of companies did not participate in Valentine's Day at all in 2023, according to research by Omnisend. With $14.2 billion expected to have been spent on this special day for loved ones in 2024, most brands are not even trying to grab a share.

The crucial step will be to keep online buyers at Valentine’s Day, as the pandemic led to lovers buying more online on February 14. In 2020, the share jumped from 27% to 32%. In the following years numbers reached 39% and 41% respectively, before it dropped to 35% in 2023.

Valentine’s Day 2024: Closing Remarks

Online Retailers all over the world opted to go different paths to approach Valentine’s Day. As Deliveroo in the UK offered exclusively sex toys and lingerie on demand, sex toys and ready meals have been successful for Ocado.

As Amazon and Flipkart opted to go more family friendly, most of retailers did not choose to participate in special Valentine’s selling at all. That there is room for improvement on that day is shown by the mentioned sellers, that could more than double the purchases of specific products during Valentine’s Week.

Sources: Retail Gazette 1 2, Mediapost, Business Standard