How the holidays have changed. Although Valentine's Day is still about celebrating love, long-held traditions have new twists. Lovers shop for gifts online and send text messages rather than cards, while those without a mate search for one in cyber space at dating websites.
Oneupweb tracked the behavior of a quarter of a million consumers online from February 1 through the 12, across a range of online retail clients selling Valentine's Day gifts. The study found that Valentine's Day sales peaked online on Tuesday, February 6, while online traffic to websites was highest on Monday, February 12.
Low weekend figures support the theory that many consumers did their Valentine's Day shopping at work. "Using the office broadband may be more convenient or consumers may be trying to keep their purchases a secret," explains Oneupweb President/CEO and iMedia Contributor Lisa Wehr.
The report confirms one earlier conducted by Constant Contact that indicated fewer small businesses expected a strong Valentine's Day season, although 64 percent expected stronger online sales.
Meanwhile, lovers increasingly are using text messages to connect. According to a survey of U.S. adult cell phone users conducted for ATT's Cingular Wireless by International Communications Research (ICR), 33 percent of the respondents said that they have communicated with their date or mate via text messaging in 2007, an increase of six percent over last year.
The survey found that 59 percent of active daters use text messaging to communicate with their dates, and 28 percent of users say they use text messaging to flirt.
"Text messaging has become part of the social fabric of dating in America," Jennifer Bowcock of Cingular told eMarketer. "People can text one another to make plans or even say 'I love you' when they may not have the time or ability to make a voice call. It is definitely a discreet and simple way to stay connected."
For those hoping to make a new love connection, Hitwise reports that they are turning to online dating sites. According to the reporting company, the gender profile of visitors to the online dating category is nearly equal, at 50.8 percent male and 49.2 percent females. But they may have a hard time meeting up as many of the sites within the category exhibit an imbalance of male and female visitors.
An examination of the top 100 websites in the Hitwise Lifestyle - Dating Category by gender reveals that the website with the largest percentage of female visitors for the week ending February 10, 2007 was Love Access, which comprised 87.4 percent female visitors. Other websites that were comprised of more than 70 percent female visitors in that period were SeniorPeopleMeet.com, proving that older women are adopting online dating faster than older men, CatholicMatch.com, a website for connecting Catholics, and Don't Date Him Girl!, a website where women can post warnings about bad experiences with men they met online. EHarmony.com also showed a large female visitor base of 68.6 percent and received the largest market share of visits for the week ending February 10, 2007.
The top 100 dating websites with the largest portion of male visitors for the week ending February 10, 2007 were Gay online dating websites including ManHunt.com, Adam4Adam.com and Gay.com. Also ranking high among male visitors were websites focused on matching American men with foreign brides, such as AnastatiaWeb.com, FilipinaHeart.com and Globaladies.com.
"Gender differences are evident everywhere online," says LeeAnn Prescott, director of research at Hitwise and an iMedia Connection contributor. "While the larger dating websites have more equal male/female visitor ratios, this data proves that online dating sites must work harder to provide a critical mass and balance of members in order to attract additional singles."