Print Friendly and PDF
How to have a more sustainable Valentine’s Day
Happy Valentine's Day

Still looking for a Valentine’s Day deal?

Centerpiece Flowers From a BanquetIt’s late, but DealNews.com has some suggestions that could be helpful if you’re still shopping for the big romantic day Saturday. Its recommendations are:

Jewelry and flowers reign supreme

Of the many deals DealNews.com listed last year, jewelry and flowers were the most dominant, accounting for 35 percent and 17 percent of all Valentine's Day deals. For jewelry, expect to see aggressive discounts ranging from 60 percent to 94 percent off. Retailers to look for include Szul, Jewelry.com, Blue Nile, Sears, and Amazon.

While some of those sales won't top the best April deals, which are traditionally the best jewelry discounts seen all year, they're still respectable discounts when compared to the rest of the year.

Likewise, flowers will see better discounts in April. Last February, 1-800-Flowers took up to 30 percent off select items, but in April it took 40 percent off the same items. A slightly safer bet is to get your flowers using vouchers or credits from daily deal sites such as Groupon.

Opt for perfume over chocolate

By now consumers know and expect to see overpriced chocolates on Valentine's Day. For instance, Godiva took 15 percent off its products last Valentine's Day, but later it took up to 50 percent off its chocolates during one of its semi-annual sales. The same can be said of Ghirardelli, which was only discounted by 5 percent in February, but later saw discounts of up to 20 percent off.

Although they only accounted for 6 percent of last year's Valentine's Day deals, perfume sales were strong during the month of February, beaten only by Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. Perfumania had a memorable sale last February, taking 30 percent off site-wide with a stackable $10 off $50 coupon. By comparison, the same retailer took 35 percent off site-wide on Cyber Monday, which was its best discount of the year. Target also had an impressive deal last Valentine's Day, bundling a complimentary third fragrance with the purchase of any two fragrances.

Say it with a personalized gift

You could take advantage of Shutterfly's or Groupon's various card offerings to create your own personalized Valentine's Day card. Or, you can turn to Google Play or Amazon for free or cheap MP3 downloads that you can then use to create a personalized playlist for your significant other. Retailers like Walmart and GOG will also discount DVDs and video game downloads.

It’s probably too late to get most other personalized gifts, but you could go to your favorite photo processor and see if you can make a photo album made before Saturday. Getting a mug or other personalized item isn’t likely in a 24-hour period.

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)