Valentine's Day: The business of love
Love is in the air, but so is business. From florists to restaurants, travel agencies to luxury gift shops, businesses are capitalizing as consumers open their wallets for their loved ones. CNBC Africa's Ericks Shyaka filed this report.
Fri, 14 Feb 2025 10:31:23 GMT
Disclaimer: The following content is generated automatically by a GPT AI and may not be accurate. To verify the details, please watch the video
AI Generated Summary
- Florists, gift shops, restaurants, and hotels in Kigali are witnessing a surge in sales and bookings as consumers prepare for Valentine's Day.
- Businesses are introducing unique experiences and packages, catering not only to couples but also to single individuals, showcasing creativity and innovation in their offerings.
- Consumer spending on Valentine's Day is on the rise globally, with the United States alone projected to reach 27 billion US dollars in sales, primarily driven by gifts like candy, jewelry, and dining experiences.
Love is in the air, but so is business. From florists to restaurants, travel agencies to luxury gift shops, businesses are capitalizing as consumers open their wallets for their loved ones. Our very own CNBC Africa's Ericks Shyaka has a compiled report for us on this Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day, a celebration of love, is a time for grand gestures and heartfelt gifts. People across the world are spending more than ever to make this day special. In Kigali, from high-end boutiques to small flower stalls, businesses are seeing a surge in sales. This is a very big day to us because in the floral world and floral business, this is a big day that we all celebrate. It's tomorrow, so 14th February. It's a love day, Valentine's Day, so we're all so expectant. It's a day where you, okay, business-wise, I make money, good money. Yeah, I think it's the only day in the air where you get to make good money. First of all, the number of clients increases and people are willing to buy everything. So compared to other days, other days are normal, like five to six orders, ten. But now you find from morning till, on 14th, from morning till 12 in the night, I'm still making money. And somebody, they don't, okay, most of them don't bargain. They'll be like, yo, give me this, give me that, give me that, let me go, you know. I may say pre-orders, there's so many, people are calling like a lot. I'm so messy. The shop is so messy. I think you've got here, you've got to see what's happening here. We've started working on the orders already, and it's a busy, busy season for us as florists. Yeah, and maybe some other businesses, but yeah, for us, it's actually so worse. It's so busy. And it's not just florists and gift shops benefiting. Restaurants and hotels are also experiencing an influx of bookings. I think we've basically almost booked the entire place. Well, it's like individuals and groups, and also people are looking for more, wine sales have gone up. People are, you know, asking for unique things. Oh, can we have flowers on our table? So it's fantastic. I think it's one of the most, even compared to New Year's and Halloween, we do a lot of unique things, but we have marketed this even more compared to all of those combined. So people are really interested in the Festival of Love. Businesses are getting creative with their Valentine's Day offerings, introducing special packages and unique experiences. A lot of people focus on the aspect of couples and, you know, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, partners, basically, where we try to do something new and also provide, you know, I believe everyone deserves love. So we also try to provide for the single people of Kigali. And so we're doing something a bit different from everywhere else, where we try and invite people to be open and free to express themselves, in the sense that we have two events planned for Friday and Saturday. One is called Rhythm and Rum, where we will showcase a live band, a DJ and also a magician. So this will be a new concept that a lot of restaurants haven't tried before. And this allows, you know, both couples or single people to come and, you know, try to interact and also enjoy their evening. And it's not very, it is not just based on, you know, hearts and roses. And on Saturday we have something called the Love Pitch, which is a very interesting concept that no one has ever done in Rwanda. It's where you get to pitch your single friends. So you have a friend, you think they would be, you know, great, but they're not good at meeting people or, you know, maybe need some encouragement. And it's also a bit of a, it's a bit of fun, laughter, lightheartedness. And also a lot of people would like to see what this concept is. So they're very interested and people are looking, are booking the place out. Some consumers are taking it a step further, opting for travel experiences by flying in and out of the country, boosting sales for hotels and travel agencies. Quite a number of tour operators, be local or regional or even from abroad, they are actually offering special Valentine's packages. So that means the prices are specifically reduced to increase the volumes. And that is happening. In fact, that is happening. A number of, whether the forum we work in as Rwandan tour operators, we have quite a number of tour operators offering in partnership with different hotels, Indeed, the airlines are offering packages to travel abroad for that occasion of love season. Different places, whether within Africa or outside Africa, mainly Dubai, Doha and other places. So there is that aggressiveness, if I may say, to take advantage of the last season. Again, I say this is where the people calculate the least when it comes to spending. So whoever is able at whatever level of their financials, they are definitely willing to pay whatever it takes. According to data from National Retail Federation, NRF, consumer spending on Valentine's Day in the United States alone is projected to reach 27 billion US dollars. This surge is primarily driven by high sales in gifts such as candy, gift cards, jewelry and dining experiences. From a single flower like this, which costs cents, to a bouquet and various other gifts, people are working overboard to put a smile on their loved ones. In Kigali, venues are overbooked while people are willing to stretch their spending. But just how much are they willing to spend? Maybe I would be willing to spend like 100,000 Uganda shillings. That is like 50,000 here. No, like roughly less. Like I said, I love love. And personally, I love showing my love. My love language is gifting people and just showing them how much I love them through gifts, through just expressing my love with materialistic things. So I'm willing to spend for someone I love. As spending continues to rise, businesses are innovating to meet consumer demand, ensuring love remains not only sentimental, but also a major financial contributor to the economy. Eric Shekhar, CNBC Africa, Kigali.