Price of romance hits £2.4bn

12 April 2012

The price of romance will hit £2.4 billion this week as Britons splash out on Valentine's Day.

Flowers remain the most popular gift followed by chocolate and jewellery, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Spending will rise by a predicted 4% compared to last year, with shoppers planning to spend an average each £95.80 for the event.

About £1.32 billion of that total spend will go on purchases of flowers, cards, jewellery and other gifts, the BRC said.

The average man will spend £97.12 for the day of romance while women will spend an average £91.89.

Shoppers will buy around 21 million roses, eight million boxes of chocolates and 25 million cards to mark February 14.

BRC director-general Kevin Hawkins said Valentine's Day was an important boost for retailers. "The number of romantics, their expectations and their desire to show their feelings seem to rise steadily each year," he said.

Lingerie is the only Valentine's Day gift expected to see sales decrease this year.

Romantics looking for a more alternative gift could buy the Oxfam condom kit. The charity is selling the £20 kits containing condoms for men and women via its website.

It will send the kits to HIV hotspots around the world as part of its efforts to fight the disease.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in