Love in the aisles: 6 retailers playing Cupid this Valentine’s Day

Love is in the air this Valentine’s day and whether you are coupled up or looking for romance, some retailers have chosen to get in on the action with campaigns to meet your needs.

Retail Gazette takes a look at how retailers are celebrating Valentine’s Day this year.

Ikea plays matchmaker

Ikea is playing Cupid this year as it teams up with dating app Breeze to give those seeking love the chance to participate in an in-store dating experience based on their sleeping habits.

Breeze will select nine couples from London, Manchester and Edinburgh who were matched between 5 February and 10 February to have their first date in an Ikea store on Valentine’s Day.

The lucky couples, who will share a meatball dinner for two, will be selected based on their sleep compatibility, looking at preferences such as mattress firmness, temperature and duvet thickness.

Ann Summers spices up the kitchen

Ann Summers coupled up with seasoning expert Knorr to launch a special edition “aphrodisiac” stock cube earlier this month.

The lingerie and adult toy specialist was handing out free Knorrplay stock cubes for shoppers at its Marble Arch store in London last week. The “saucy” tie-up was also gifted in online orders for those unable to make it to the store.

Knorr found that 32% of adults enjoy cooking together due to the intimacy it creates and labelled its stock cube as “the new foreplay”.

Last year, Ann Summers teamed up with Deliveroo to offer a selected range of sexual wellness products on-demand in the run up to Valentine’s Day.

Customers were able to order from its range of best selling vibrators, massage oils, and other adult toys via the Deliveroo app or website.

Couple goals with B&Q and Valspar

B&Q has partnered with paint brand Valspar to provide the ultimate couple goals activity this Valentine’s Day.

Valspar has launched a couples colour matching tool that allows customers to discover their perfect colour palette, such as recreating the colour of the front door of a first home or a hue that represents a first date.

After uploading the desired photo to the online tool and selecting the colours from the picture, customers will then need to find the closest Valspar colour match on the website, or take the picture to a B&Q store, where the Valspar colour matching team will scan the sample and create a custom colour recipe. 

Once the colour has been matched to the sample, customers can choose the exact type of paint needed and the in store teams will then mix the colour formula into a tin of paint.

Shoppers can also name and save the custom colour in the instore system so they can visit any B&Q store and mix another tin of the ‘couple’s colour’ any time.

Selfridges plays Cupid

Selfridges and Pears Dating hosted two mixers this February for customers in search of their one true match.

The luxury department store on Oxford Street played Cupid as it welcomed 150 single Londoners for an evening of eating, dancing, drinking and dating.

Customers had a chance to mix with everyone through ice-breakers and quickfire speed-dating and a dance floor.

London was not the only city receiving special treatment for the retailer this year, as Selfridges is running a series of Valentine’s Day special beauty workshops in its Birmingham store with Charlotte Tilbury, Bobby Brown and Gucci Beauty.

Love songs by Morrisons

As part of its Valentine’s Day campaign, Morrisons has turned its customers’ romantic “missteps” into love songs.

Devised by Leo Burnett, ‘Get Personal This Valentine’s Day’ features three original tracks – ‘Dine in for 2, for my Honey Boo’, ‘Oh baby let me buy you a strawberry tart,’ and ‘Nothing says I love you like a giant cookie’.

Each track tells the story of a past Valentine’s Day gift that missed the mark and suggests that Morrison’s products may serve as a better solution this year.

An evening for one with Uber Eats

Spending Valentine’s Day alone? Uber Eats has partnered with Love Cocoa to offer customers an emergency ‘Break Up Box’, designed to help single Brits focus on themselves.

The care package includes a blonde chocolate bar, a decadent chocolate heart with a hammer to smash and an artisan candle.

Uber Eats said the limited-edition box available only on 14th February is “designed to help singles focus on themselves and celebrate their freedom in the most delicious way possible”.

The box is for customers in London and can be delivered in as little as 30 minutes.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter