Are You Searching for the Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift?

With Valentine’s Day coming soon, many consumers are scrambling to find gifts for their dates or romantic partners. Although retail stores and florists try to make consumers believe in their ads that the solution is so easy (“Nothing says ‘I love you’ like a box of chocolate/flowers/jewelry”), consumers might feel that heart-shaped chocolates or bouquets of roses are too generic to really express their romantic feelings, or they might have given very similar gifts on previous Valentine’s Days. But what is the alternative?

Researchers Julian Givi and colleagues argue in their recent work (published in 2023 in the Journal of Consumer Psychology) that consumers often overthink gift-giving and focus on specific aspects of the gift while thinking too little about the actual needs and wants of the recipient. Valentine’s Day could supercharge this behavior, as the pressure to show one’s feelings by means of selecting a great gift might be even greater than on other holidays.

As a consumer researcher, here’s my advice on how to select gifts that put the recipient front and center, and (hopefully) make them feel special:

• Forget about the price tag. We might believe that the more we spend, the more the recipient will appreciate our gift. That’s not the case. The positive effect of an expensive gift is small and can even turn into a negative effect when people perceive the gifts as so expensive that they seem patronizing.
• Think longer-term. We will likely only be with the recipient when they open the present and much less likely to be there when they actually consume it. Thus, it might be tempting to focus on fun or surprising gifts that elicit stronger emotions in the moment. But the recipient will appreciate a gift that they use more than a gift that looks great in the moment when it’s opened.
• Don’t worry about novelty. Especially for long-term partners and spouses, it can be tricky to come up with gifts because we’ve seemingly given them everything possible already. We feel like we need novel ideas. Yet, recipients often don’t mind repetition. If they were happy to receive a great book last year, chances are they would be just as happy this year. Don’t be afraid of repetition if you feel like a particular gift made the recipient truly happy.

Most importantly, keep in mind what you want to express with the Valentine’s Day gift. If you’d like to feel closer to your romantic partner, the best gift might actually be creating memories together. Research by Leif Van Boven and Tom Gilovich (2003) shows that buying experiences makes consumers happier than buying material gifts, so why not give quality time together?