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Valentine’s Day in India: what women want and what men really think

PicodiFebruary 4, 2019

What are the expectations of Indians towards the holiday of love? What does the perfect Valentine’s Day look like according to women and men? Which gifts are the most expected and which should be avoided? Picodi Analysis Team decided to look into one of the most commercialised holidays in the world and check how much love is still there.

How much Indians spend on Valentine's Day?

The popularity of this holiday is evident if you look at the number of Indians who declare that they celebrate Valentine’s Day — a staggering 43%. Although an overwhelming majority of people prepare a surprise mainly for their significant other, there are some who don’t leave out their relatives (4%) or colleagues (3%).

An average Indian is going to spend 2448 INR on a Valentine’s Day gift. Men spend around 926 INR more than women do: 2859 INR vs 1933 INR.

What’s interesting is that more than half (63%) of Indians don’t think about Valentine’s Day gifts until February. This is consistent with Picodi’s internal data, according to which we can observe a spike in shopping activity around two weeks before Valentine’s Day. Especially in demand are products such as jewellery or perfumes. 1 out of 4 Indians leaves shopping until the last moment — 13th and 14th of February.

Women’s take on Valentine’s Day

What women want for Valentine's Day

What is it that sparks joy in a woman’s heart on Valentine’s Day – a gift, displays of affection and love or perhaps a promise of commitment? The survey results show that both material and non-material aspects are equally important for half of the surveyed women (50%). 26% of women find gifts to be important on Valentine’s Day whereas 24% of respondents would rather spend time with their partner.

Women chose flowers (52%), jewellery (49%), perfumes (38%), clothing (37%) and sweets (32%) to be the perfect Valentine’s Day gift whereas sex toys (61%), home appliances (54%), money (37%) and plush toys (30%) were deemed as unpopular gift choices. Interestingly, sweets were also voted as the least desirable gift by 33% of the surveyed women.

What is the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day according to women? The survey results don’t give the perfect recipe for a successful Valentine’s Day date, however, among the most popular activities were having a romantic dinner in a restaurant (34%), going to the movies (28%), spending time actively, e.g swimming or cycling (27%), watching a movie at home (24%) and going out of town (13%).

It turns out that relaxing doing nothing is a bad idea (37%), same as playing board games (28%) and seeing a play (22%). Spending time actively turns out to be a controversial idea — 31% of women chose it as a poor way to spend Valentine’s Day. Similarly, going to the movies was also voted an unwelcome date by 12% of the surveyed women.

Men’s take on Valentine’s Day

What men want for Valentine's Day

The answers of the surveyed men show that pleasing them can be more difficult than pleasing women. 24% of men expect a material gift from their partner, 41% does not want any gifts but they would like to spend time together with their significant other and 35% declares that they would like to get both.

The most desired gifts:

  • Clothing (41%)
  • Money (40%)
  • Electronic devices (28%)
  • Perfumes (25%)
  • Gift vouchers (19%)

The least desired gifts:

  • Plush toys (35%)
  • Candies/chocolates (31%)
  • Flowers (30%)
  • Underwear (19%)
  • Sex toys(17%)

What does the perfect Valentine’s Day look for men? In this case, they partially agree with the fairer sex: men would like to go to the cinema or a restaurant, watch a movie at home, go out of town or cook dinner together. The list of unfortunate Valentine’s Day dates among men looks almost the same as the one compiled by women.

Because the thought is all that matters

How much money people spend on Valentine's Day gift around the world?

On average Indians spend 2448 INR on gifts (around $35), which places them third to last in the ranking. They spend less than British people ($124) and Singaporeans ($103) but more than Belarusians ($34) and Filipinos ($33.

Valentine’s Day drives the economy the most in Ireland, Thailand and the UK, where more than $120 is spent on average on gifts.

Want to prepare a romantic dinner for your significant other? Or maybe order some food and enjoy a movie night? Regardless of your plans, Picodi will help you save money with cashback and discount codes offered in shops such as Floweraura, FNP, Indian Gifts Portal, Nykaa and The Man Company.

Methodology

This report is based on the results of a survey conducted in the second half of January 2019 among 6400 people from 38 countries where Valentine’s Day is celebrated. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate for January 2019.

Public Use

Are you willing to share the information and infographics about Valentine’s Day in India and other countries with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.