Valentine’s Day Gift Shopping Survey 2026: Results, Key Findings and Statistics

This three-quarter majority was consistent across several sub-groups within the survey. Gender had little impact, with 76% of male respondents identifying as romantics, and 74.3% of female respondents, nor did being a parent. 75.1% of respondents with children classed themselves as romantics, as did 74.9% of respondents without children.

The age of respondents, however, did appear to have a significant impact on how romantic the respondents were. Across all six age groups surveyed, the percentage of romantic respondents decreased as age increased. In the 18-24 age group, a huge 95.7% identified as romantic, dropping to 82.1% for 25-34s, 73.9% for 35-44s, 69.4% for 45-54s, 66.9% for 55-64s and 55.6% for the 65 and overs. Could this be a reflection of generational attitudes, or perhaps a sign that the tendency towards romance decreases with age?

Where do you usually find inspiration when shopping for Valentine’s gifts?

The most popular way to find Valentine’s Day gift ideas is through an online search. 66.5% of respondents said they search online for Valentine’s gift inspiration, while the next most popular sources of inspiration were browsing in person (52.2%) and social media (40.46%). Respondents could select more than one option.

Where do you usually buy your Valentine’s Day gifts?

Most Valentine’s Day gifts in the UK are bought online. In our survey, the most common places that respondents usually bought gifts for Valentine’s Day were online stores (70.4%), high street retailers (55.3%) and supermarkets (43.3%). Small businesses and social media were also chosen, albeit less frequently (22.4% and 13.6% respectively). As in the previous question, social media was used more by the younger age groups than by older respondents.

Respondents could choose multiple options.

How much do you usually spend on Valentine’s Day gifts each year?

The majority of shoppers in the UK spend £10-£50 on Valentine’s Day gifts each year. 

Our 1,001 respondents were asked to select from the following spend brackets: under £10, £10-£30, £30-£50, £50-£75, £75-£100, £100-£250 and £250+. The most common response was £10-£30, with 31.1% of shoppers in this range, followed by £30-£50 at 25.6%, thereby putting £30 as an assumed average spend. The proportion declined as the price bracket increased, with just 3.7% shoppers spending in the top £250+ bracket.

£10-£30 and £30-£50 were the two most popular brackets across all groups.

Comparing genders, male respondents were most likely to choose the £30-£50 bracket (25% of all male respondents) while the female respondents shopped more often in the £10-£30 range (39% of all females). Male respondents were also much more likely to fall into the top three spending brackets than female respondents.

The £10-£30 bracket was the most popular among both parents and non-parents, but those without children were most likely to shop in higher brackets. The £10-£30 range was also the most popular in all age groups except the 25-34 age bracket (where 26% answered £30-£50) and the 65+ group (where a third answered under £10). It is worth noting that the 65+ group were the smallest sample of all categories.

Across regions, there was no noticeable difference in spending compared to the national average.

What kinds of Valentine’s gifts do you usually buy?

The top three most common Valentine’s Day gifts in the UK are chocolates (chosen by 55.6% of respondents), fragrance (44.1%) and flowers (41.2%). They might seem cliched, but they’re popular for a reason, and consistently appear in the top three categories amongst all age groups surveyed.

In fact, the only group where the top three differed was the female group, whose most common answers were chocolates (54%), personalised gifts (43.7%) and fragrance (36%), notably not including flowers. Only 22% of female respondents said they usually buy flowers for Valentine’s Day, compared to 66% of male respondents.

Despite being a Valentine’s Day trope, underwear was the least popular of all listed options, with only 14.3% of all respondents selecting this answer.

When shopping for Valentine’s Day, is it important for gifts to be Valentine-themed?

Chocolates and flowers may be the most commonly chosen Valentine’s Day gifts, but according to our survey, “themed” gifts are not a deciding factor.

We asked whether it’s important for gifts to be Valentine-specific, things like red roses, heart-shaped items, or pink-and-red colour schemes (think of the Valentine’s collections that typically flood the high street). 32.1% said yes, they prefer themed gifts, but a 62.4% majority answered “no, I look for gifts I think the recipient will like, regardless of theme”.

5.5% said they like to choose a “token” themed gift alongside a main Valentine’s Day present.

Best and Worst Valentine’s Gifts

What’s the best Valentine’s Day gift you have ever received?

What’s the worst Valentine’s Day gift you have ever received?

Personalised Gifts

Have you ever bought a personalised gift for someone on Valentine’s Day?

57.6% of respondents to our survey have previously purchased personalised gifts for Valentine’s Day.

Gender did not appear to influence this result, with male and female respondents equally likely to purchase personalised Valentine’s gifts (58% of males answered ‘yes’ compared to 57% of females). However, other factors did have an impact.

Younger respondents were much more likely to have purchased personalised Valentine’s Day gifts, with the percentage of ‘yes’ answers declining substantially as the age of respondents increased, following the same trend as the ‘would you call yourself a romantic?’ results.

81% of respondents aged 18-24 said they had previously bought a personalised gift for someone on Valentine’s Day, 71% of 24-34 year olds, and 64% of 35-44 year olds. For the older groups, the personalised gift shoppers were in the minority, with 48% of 45-54 years olds answering ‘yes’ and just 29% of 55-64 year olds. The percentage for the 65+ age group increased slightly to 33.3%.

Respondents who identified as romantic in our earlier question were also more likely to be personalised gift shoppers. 67.0% of the romantic respondents said they had bought personalised Valentine’s Day gifts in the past, compared to just 29.6% of non-romantic respondents.

Given the choice, would you prefer a personalised gift over a non-personalised one?

Finally, we asked respondents whether they would prefer to receive a personalised gift for themselves, rather than a non-personalised one. 58.4% said that yes, they would prefer a personalised gift, and 41.6% said no, correlating almost exactly with results from the previous question.

We found that gender had a small impact (54% males would prefer to receive a personalised gift compared to 63% females), however, as in the previous question, age and romantic interest were more influential on the results.

Again,we found that the younger the respondent, the more likely they were to prefer a personalised gift. 83% of 18-24s answered yes, 73% of 25-34s, and 63% of 35-44s. This dropped to below half as the age range increased, with 48% of 45-54s, 32% of 55-64s and just 22% of the 65+ age group.

67% of respondents who identified as romantic said they would prefer a personalised gift, while 32% of the non-romantics expressed a similar preference.

We also found that respondents who have previously bought personalised gifts for others would like the favour to be returned. 83% of previous personalised gift shoppers said they would prefer to be given a custom gift, compared to only 27% of those who do not typically shop personalised.