AIB Spend Trend reveals Valentine’s Day shopping habits

On Valentine’s Day 2024, spending in restaurants was 44% higher than the average Wednesday, while cinema spending surged 69%

When it comes to buying flowers for loved ones, Mother’s Day topped the poll in 2024, the latest AIB Spend Trend has revealed. 

The day before Valentine’s Day was the second busiest day for buying flowers in 2024, but the busiest day was the day before Mother’s Day.

Spending in florists peaked between 4pm and 5pm on 14 February, as people made a last minute dash on the way home from work. 

More men than women were buying flowers that day, with men accounting for 85% of spend.

The average spend per transaction in store was €47, whereas this figure increased to €71 online. 

Those of us who may have forgotten to mark the occasion may have felt the need to make up for it, with the average spend per transaction on flowers in the days after Valentine’s Day, increasing to €89 online.

Spending surge

The average transaction on flowers in the week before Valentine’s Day 2024 was highest in Kildare (€70), Mayo (€67) and Limerick (€66) while it was lowest in Louth (€48), Westmeath (€51) and Monaghan (€52).

Valentine’s Day fell on Wednesday 14 February 2024 and there was an increase in spending in restaurants that day as couples marked the occasion. 

Spending in restaurants that day was 44% higher than the average Wednesday in 2024.

While Christmas was that busiest time of year for jewellery spend, it was a busy week for the sector with the busiest day being 10 February, the Saturday before Valentine’s Day, with an average transaction of €153.

In the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, Dublin (€156), Louth (€149) and Laois (€148) had the highest average transaction on jewellery while Leitrim (€91), Sligo (€100) and Donegal (€101) had the lowest.

The data was compiled from 71.5 million card transactions carried out by AIB customers in store and online during February 2024 and has been anonymised and aggregated. 

Data provided by AIB features one of the most comprehensive and accurate data sets on consumer spending in Ireland.

AIB Spend Trend 

• When compared with other Wednesdays in February 2024, cinema spend increased 69% on Wednesday 14 February 2024, pub spend increased 27%, gift card spend increased 23% and spend in hotels increased 17%.
• On the other hand, Golf courses had a bad Valentine’s Day, spend fell (-21%) compared to the average Wednesday in February 2024.
• Valentine’s Day was the best day in February 2024 for in store confectionary spend while the best day for confectionary spend for online shoppers who were planning ahead, was 8 February. The week leading up to Valentine’s Day saw spending on confectionary 14% higher than the average week in February 2024.

Adrian Moynihan, head of consumer, AIB, said: “It’s really interesting to see how consumer spending patterns change around Valentine’s Day, with notable increases across a number of sectors and categories. 

“AIB’s robust, comprehensive data enables a better understanding of consumer spend trends and also can help businesses plan accordingly, for example by having more staff available for that evening rush. We expect that spending will increase on Valentine’s Day this year across a number of sectors, with retail and hospitality set to benefit the most.”