Member Article

Brits leave it late to say it with flowers

Analysis of top brands around Valentine’s Day found a 2:30 pm surge in traffic to Interflora

Key findings

• Interflora had the slowest average time for search with site traffic peaking at 2:30 pm yesterday
• LoveHoney.com is the best performing site when it comes to responsiveness of load time and search
• Testplant CTO claims, “Valentine’s Day is Viagra for the retail market”
• Amazon is consistently one of the highest trafficked and quickest performing sites
• Lingerie sites like Victoria’s Secret and Boux Avenue performed slower than others
• Tinder experienced a slower than average performance in the run-up to the big day

Some things never change, and it would seem like a last minute dash for flowers on Valentine’s Day is one of them. That’s according to website testing company, Testplant.

It conducted analysis into the website performance of a selection of UK brands in the retail sector in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. It found demand for flower-delivery peaked at 2:30 pm yesterday from those ordering a last-minute delivery from Interflora. The high volume of online ordering saw the site slow considerably. In fact, it was found to have the slowest average time for specific search items in all of the categories measured, taking on average, over four seconds per search.

LoveHoney.com was the best performing site when it came to the responsiveness of load time. The company, which specialises in toys for adults, proved to be the quickest, taking fractionally over two seconds to load. It also topped the charts when it came to searching for items, with the average search being displayed in under a second. Handy for discretion and for those looking to make a quick visit.

Following LoveHoney.com in the high-performance stakes was the retailing heavyweight, Amazon. It performed consistently high, both in terms of traffic and load time, irrespective of Valentine’s Day. Elsewhere, the online-only company, Notonthehighstreet.com, was found to have the fastest time for a specific item to load.

“Without a doubt, Valentine’s Day is Viagra for the retail market”, commented Antony Edwards, chief technology officer, Testplant. “But these findings also underline speed and performance remain key drivers for UK consumers searching for gifts.”

Despite the high performance of sites like LoveHoney.com, stand-alone sites for lingerie performed relatively slowly in comparison with Brands like Victoria’s Secret and Boux much slower than any others monitored. This suggests that, while no less in-demand, retailers in this space are still seeing a preference for in-store footfall. Perhaps the traditional image of the flustered male in a last minute dash to find the right size in-store, remains as strong as ever.

Analysis of the mobile dating app, Tinder, also showed a last-minute dash for those looking for a Valentine’s Day date. The platform experienced a much slower than average performance on the Thursday before the last weekend before the big day. While the online card company, FunkyPigeon, also experienced a consistently high surge in visits on Tuesday and Wednesday, making it slower than usual.

Edwards continued: “Speed is not normally the biggest barometer of success when it comes to Valentine’s Day. That is, unless you are an online retailer tasked with servicing with the last-minute dash for gifts. Yet, what we’re seeing, across the board, is that unlike other events swayed by trends or socioeconomic spending conditions, the desire for the traditional gifts of cards, flowers and dinner remain resilient.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Bates .