How important is Valentine’s Day to some e-retailers? Very, comScore says

Flower, gift and greeting sites have a lot riding on Valentine’s Day, comScore Networks Inc. reports. Last year, 13% of all sales for the year at those sites occurred in the three weeks ahead of Valentine’s Day. Sales in the flowers and gifts category grew 308% to a weekly average of $37 million in the three weeks leading up to and including Valentine`s Day from the preceding first four weeks of 2002.

ComScore says the following were the top floral/gift sites in December, with number of visitors:
AmericanGreetings: 16.6 million
Hallmark: 9.7 million
FTD.COM: 2.9 million
1-800-Flowers.com: 2.3 million
RedEnvelope.com: 1.7 million
Proflowers.com: 1.1 million
Martha Stewart Sites: 1.1 million
LillianVernon.com: 894,000
OrientalTrading.com: 847000
GiftCertificates.com Sites: 806,000
Williams-Sonoma.com: 749,000
Pier1.com: 627,000
VermontCountryStore.com: 546,000
VermontTeddyBear.com: 495,000
WeddingChannel.com: 493,000

ComScore reports that 57.5% of visitors to flowers and gift sites are female, 42.5% male. The sites attract an older market, with 65+ users represented at the sites 29% more often than they are in the general web population. Shoppers 55-64 are 32% more populous at flower and gift sites than on the web in general; 45- to 54-year-olds, 20% more. Internet users living alone are 17% more likely to visit flowers, gifts and greetings sites than the average Internet user.

Search engine Terra Lycos reports that the term “Valentine`s Day” was No. 5 in search popularity last week. But while older adults are over-represented at the Valentine-related shopping sites, children were a big factor in the search. Some of the fastest-rising Valentine`s Day queries are Valentine`s crafts, Valentine`s coloring pages and Valentine`s decorations, Terra Lycos reports. Searches for Valentine`s gifts for men far exceeded searches on Valentine`s gifts for women, Lycos says.