Top 2025 Valentine's Day trends for online retailers

Valentine’s Day presents a significant opportunity for eCommerce retailers to boost sales, attract new customers, and strengthen the relationships they have already built with existing customers.

With the right strategy, brands can capitalise on the surge in consumer spending during the season of love. From optimising your product offerings to implementing a specific, targeted marketing campaign, there are several ways to maximise revenue and improve overall customer engagement.

Today, we want to take a moment to explore the key search terms and retail trends leading up to the big day whilst offering a few useful ways to implement them into your overarching marketing plan. Let's take a look now.

Understanding the Valentine’s Day retail landscape

According to recent consumer trend data from our Data Analyst, Jen Pollard, we’ve seen a decrease in mobile sales, as consumers become more conscious of how they spend their money after the cost of living crisis. Valentine’s Day spending, however, will likely rise, with gifts such as jewellery, lingerie, health, beauty and cosmetics being among the most sought-after.

What does this mean for retailers? Well, simple additions to services such as the option to engrave, or the ability to customise some aspect of the product so that shoppers feel like they’re getting something a little more unique will likely help. For eCommerce businesses and retailers, this opens the door to a broad range of product offerings and marketing tactics. Remember to identify and cater to those niche segments available whilst ensuring a seamless shopping experience.

Valentine's Day 2025: What to look for

• Personalisation is key

As consumers are increasingly looking beyond traditional gifts, personalisation has become a fundamental add-on service. This is largely down to shoppers searching for items that have a personal touch to them, rather than generic hearts, love and chocolates among others.

• Eco-friendly and sustainable products

Eco-friendly and sustainable products have become big concerns for consumers meaning brands who promote this as one of their core values clearly set themselves up for success resulting in a positive impact on their bottom line.

• Luxury and designer items

Luxury and designer items are becoming more popular for gifting, as customers try to cut back on treating themselves to luxury purchases, but look to give the gift of luxury to someone they love.

Top search terms in the lead-up to Valentine's 2025

It may come as no surprise but there are a few standard search terms relating to Valentine's Day this year.

• 'Ring'

Consumers searching for 'ring' is already one of the highest search terms in the lead-up to Valentine's Day. Although this doesn't specifically relate to 'engagement ring', we can more than likely contribute a vast portion of the searches to the term. Every day 'wearing', 'promise' and 'engagement' are all likely to factor into searches as we get closer to Valentine's Day.

• 'Charm'

A popular search term throughout the year due to customers' viewing it as an easy option for future gifting. It has dropped in popularity from 2024 though in the lead-up to Valentine's Day, it should take an expected bump with the usual brands being searched.

• 'Lingerie'

Not too surprising given the links to Valentine's Day and the season of love. 'Lingerie' is currently one of the top search terms leading up to Valentine's 2025 with ethical and sustainable fashion brands leading the way for the attention of potential consumers. For more niche searches, we've found 'suspender', 'body stocking' and 'pink' to have been some of the more popular searches in 2025.

How best to optimise your retail business for Valentine’s Day

So with all this search data, how can we best prepare for the event? Well, having a forward-thinking retail strategy will help drive conversions and enhance the customer experience of your online store. Here are a few tips on how to optimise your approach:

1. Curate special Valentine’s Day collections

Creating themed collections can help customers navigate your offerings more easily. Consider grouping products into categories such as:

• Gifts for him/her - Traditional and personalised gifts tailored to different recipients.
• Luxury & indulgence - High-end products, limited-edition items, and premium experiences.
• Last-minute gifts - Digital gift cards, fast-shipping products, and subscription services.
• Self-love & wellness - Skincare, self-care kits, and mindfulness products for individual shoppers that are ethically sourced.

2. Create a Valentine’s Day in-store and online experience

Updating your storefront, whether physical or digital, with a seasonal theme can create a sense of urgency. Consider adding:

• Banners & displays - Highlight sales and limited-time offers.
• Themed graphics & colours - Incorporate Valentine’s hues - we want to see you paint that store with all the reds…
• Countdown timers - Build anticipation for sales, especially for limited-stock items.

3. Enhanced product presentation & descriptions

Consider refining your product descriptions to highlight Valentine’s Day relevance. Use effective storytelling to connect with consumers and include high-quality images and videos to showcase your products. Additionally, ensure that product displays highlight:

• Clear pricing and available discounts.
• Delivery deadlines for Valentine’s Day.
• Customer reviews and testimonials.

Ensure your store is ready for Valentine’s Day and beyond

And there you have it - a selection of key Valentine’s Day retail trends designed to help your online store utilise a data-driven approach and maximise your sales. Remember, the retail opportunities don’t end on February 14th, so ensure that your marketing strategy is in place to capitalise on this high-spending period while setting the foundation for long-term success.

Interested in more retail trends as we move further into 2025? Take a read of our Top 10 eCommerce Trends in 2025 here.

Ready to upgrade your eCommerce strategy in 2025? Get in touch with the Visualsoft team today and find out how we can help your brand build a lasting footprint in-store and online.