Common Valentine’s Day Ecommerce Mistakes

Valentine’s Day is great for picking sales back up after the New Year’s dip. Valentine’s Day in 2024 celebrates love in all its forms; romantic, platonic, familial, self-love and even love for pets. With such a broad scope of a great topic, Valentine’s Day has huge potential for eCommerce success. 

Some points to consider:

• The most popular products sold over Valentine’s Day are confectionery, clothing, personal care and entertainment
• Most people will be looking to do their shopping online
• 27% of people say they plan on purchasing Valentine’s gifts for their pets

With this in mind, Valentine’s Day holds great potential for boosting sales. It’s important to avoid making any mistakes that could cost you sales over this period. Let’s take a look at some common mistakes so that you can know what to avoid.

Using Generic Keywords

SEO is crucial in reaching your target audience. The more advanced your SEO strategy, the more chances you have of finding customers. Generic keywords such as “Valentine’s Day Gift” or “Valentine’s Day 2024” will slip through the cracks. These will be being used by thousands of other businesses, and will not differentiate you from the crowd.

Instead, conduct thorough keyword research that can pinpoint some specific keywords to cater to your target audience. Firstly understand who your target audience is and how they find your products. Then look into different types of keywords:

1. Short tail
2. Longtail
3. Short-term
4. Long-term
5. Product defining
6. Customer defining
7. Geo-targeting
8. Intent targeting 

For example; “Valentine’s gift for dogs” would work better if you are selling pet products, than just “Valentine’s Gift”. Making your keywords more specific will reach your demographics more clearly.

Not Customizing Your Homepage

Having the same homepage during Valentine’s Day season as normal will not work in your favor. If you aren’t using a headless no-code editor, it might be harder to update and change your web design on short notice. If you are using these, you can easily (sometimes even with drag-and-drop functionality) update your website according to the season.

Your Valentine’s Day offerings should be apparent from the moment someone enters your site. This can be via promo tiles, pop-up adverts, discount offers and bright and appealing displays. The more creative and inventive, the better. 

Think about what campaigns will resonate with your brand, and follow through with this. Adjust your merchandising campaign to fit with this, and any marketing outreach efforts. 



Forgetting To Engage Brand Community

Nowadays, having a successful business is more than just making sales. It’s also important to build your community. An effective way to do this is via social media. Here they can build trust in your brand, understand your values, and grow social proof by connecting with one another in their experiences with your business. 

Of course, having an active social media presence is important in achieving this. But it doesn’t stop there. Other things you should be taking advantage of for Valentine’s Day, rather than just making posts are:

• Collaborating with influencers
• Encouraging User Generated Content
• Running giveaways and contests
• Offering more creative ideas

For example, some brands may run charity opportunities. For example passing on Valentine’s Gifts to strangers, or those in need. Or running anonymous ‘Secret Santa’ style Valentine’s Day competitions. All of these will make you stand out from the crowd, and help people feel involved.

Thinking Short Term

Although Valentine’s Day is a great reason to push sales, a more sustainable way of growing a business is by thinking long term. Use new customers who will find you through Valentine’s Day as a starting point, but thinking about customer retention is key. 

Don’t think about the campaign as one short push, but think about:

• Building long term relationships
• Creating the chance for repeat buys
• Following up with other campaign engagement
• Creating a positive brand image
• Nurture customer loyalty

Follow up outreach, especially via email and SMS marketing is important in achieving this. Using businesses such as Attentive or Klaviyo can make sure you reach the ideal customer at the perfect time.

Starting Too Late

The earlier your marketing efforts begin, the more effective they will be. Get a head start, so people have your business in mind when they start to think about making their purchases. Send promotional messages, outreach effectively, launch a memorable campaign, and capture shoppers’ engagement.

There are many elements of having a successful Valentine’s Day Campaign; it’s not a one size fits all approach. However, making sure you at least avoid these common mistakes will set you on a good path for moving forwards. Wishing you a prosperous and loving Valentine’s Day this year.