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M&S was among the winners and losers this Valentine’s Day as shoppers spent almost £1bn to celebrate the day, according to NIQ.
NIQ found that £962m was spent across Valentine’s Day on food and gifting with £100m (+6.6%) spent on Cut Flowers, £5.8m (+27%) spent on Toiletries Gift Packs and £19m (+11%) on Fragrances.
While overall supermarket sales slowed during the month of February at +4%, down from +5.3% in Jan, grocery multiples saw their strongest growth leading up to Valentine’s Day in the week ending 15th February driven by increased shopper visits (+5.9%) as 17% of households looked to celebrate and make special purchases.
Retailers embraced the occasion, with promotional spend contributing 24% of sales, supported by continued investment in price cuts and Dine-In offers. While in-stores sales benefited the most (+4.3%), online sales growth remained muted at +0.7%, with market share declining to 12.9% from 13.3% a year ago.
Over the four weeks, meat, fish and poultry was the fastest growing super category (+8.5%) followed by dairy (+6.4%) and produce (+5.7%) as fresh foods were favoured over packaged grocery (+2.4%) and frozen food growth was weaker (+0.7% and -0.6% units). Beer, wine and spirits remained in decline (-2% and -2.8% in units).
In terms of retailer performance, over the past 12 weeks, Tesco led the growth of the nation’s big four supermarkets (+5.5%), with Sainsbury’s (+4.7%) close behind. Waitrose’s growth improved (+3.8%) with an increase in shoppers compared to a year ago.
Dine-in for two for £25 also helped drive M&S sales (+10.8%) this Valentine’s Day as almost one in four shoppers visited M&S in the last four weeks. This helped lift market share to 4.2%. Aldi continued to improve sales (+4.7%) with Lidl (+8.4%) and Ocado remaining the fastest growing retailers (+16.1%).
Mike Watkins, head of Retailer and Business Insight at NIQ, said: “Retailers capitalised on the opportunities around Valentine’s Day as shoppers wanted to create a special occasion at home. With the pinch of the cost of living, many shoppers dined in to save money this year, with premium food options growing and themed meals and gifts very much in vogue for treating loved ones.
“There are three things to consider looking ahead. Firstly, the GfK Consumer Confidence Index for February suggested that people don’t expect the economy to show any dramatic signs of improvement and with many household bills, such as energy, water and council tax, increasing over the next few weeks, shoppers will be looking carefully at their discretionary spend.”
He added: “Secondly, the recent sales trends in Hospitality from CGA show some weakness. Finally, the increase in food inflation reported by BRC NIQ this week looks to be a turning point. The overall impact will be that many shoppers will need to seek out more discounts when shopping, in particular from supermarket loyalty schemes – maybe switching some food and drink away from out-of-home to supermarkets.”
