Shoppers will spend $29.1 billion—nearly $200 per person—on loved ones, friends, and pets.

This week, online reviews convince Gen Zers, Valentine's Day breaks records, and where consumers learn about new products.

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching (a helpful reminder), and ahead of the romantic holiday, Sweethearts put out a collection of “situationship” hearts with “messages as blurry as your relationships.” The candies are targeted at Gen Zers in an aim to get buy-in from consumers who may not be head over heels for celebrating Valentine’s Day.

Calendar context: With the invention of Prime Day, Amazon created an industrywide retail holiday consumers can now count on in the summer each year. Last year, Amazon also launched its Prime Early Access Sale in October. “We now have three key tentpoles,” said our analyst Andrew Lipsman on “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail,” referring to Prime Day, the Prime Early Access Sale, and Black Friday. But spring remains untapped. “A question I get is, ‘Is Amazon going to do more of these?’ And I think the answer is yes, eventually,” said Lipsman.

Consumers expect to spend nearly 10% more on Valentine’s Day this year: And nearly one-third plan to give the gift of an experience, the highest share ever.

In this visual report, we dive into major holiday shopping events in 5 Western European countries, as well as total sales and consumer behavior surrounding these events.

On today's episode, we discuss whether Donald Trump's new "Truth Social" platform can make some noise, Facebook rebranding the News Feed, whether LinkedIn is the best social network, Uber and Lyft's rebound, how Apple changed Facebook, an unpopular opinion about Disney, where Valentine's Day came from, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our director of forecasting Oscar Orozco and analysts Blake Droesch and Peter Vahle.

On today's episode, we discuss the main takeaways (and the best/worst ads) from this year's Super Bowl, the power of bad customer experiences, what repeating ads can do, how hard it is to hold on to subscribers, whether people will pay more for news, an unpopular opinion about Valentine's Day, what the Scottish are best known for, and more. Tune in to the discussion with director of reports editing Rahul Chadha and our analysts Paul Verna and Dave Frankland.

Brands test new marketing strategies ahead of Valentine’s Day surge: Spending on the romantic holiday will increase thanks to single and coupled consumers.

Consumers in the US are planning to spend roughly $196 on Valentine’s Day this year, an increase of 21% over 2019, according to research from the National Retail Federation (NRF).

In this Valentine's Day edition of "Behind the Numbers," we're digging into the data of love: How do people shop and spend on Valentine's Day gifts? How has the internet affected dating? And what are the risks of trying to find romance online?

Valentine's Day is evolving and growing to be more inclusive—with that, consumers are celebrating and shopping differently.

Singles’ Day is the world’s biggest shopping event, and Black Friday is just around the corner. Holiday shopping is a major driver of retail and ecommerce around the world, but spending and which holidays drive the most activity vary by region.