• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 11, 2019

Brands looking to tap organic search to help them increase exposure and the likelihood the consumer will purchase a gift online need to learn that for consumers, love means never having to go to page 2 of Google -- the name of a new study.  

The report from Conductor reveals the top performers of online search for Valentine’s Day this year. The focus remains on the theory that "love means never having to go to page 2 on Google" to find what they need.  

The search for flowers isn't held by one brand, either -- about 47% of the total market share. Small brands also dominate this sector. FTD holds about 9% market share, ProFlowers about 8%, 1-800flowers.com about 7%, and Teleflora 7%.

Jewelry, another popular item during Valentine's Day, is mostly made up of small brands as well, about 71%. YouTube holds about 5% in this space, followed by Overstock at 5%, and Blue Nile at 5%.

Consumers do a lot more research when it comes to making expensive purchases. The report breaks down these searches by top brands in the early stage of a consumer search, the mid-stage search and the late-stage search.  

Similar with searches for wine, 43% of the total market share in this category is not consistently held by one brand, but by smaller players. This is followed by Total Wine & More at 10%, Vine Pair at 5%), Wine.com at 5%), and Wine-searcher at 5%.

When it comes to searching for chocolate treats, about 77% of the total market share is not consistently held by one brand, but by smaller ones. Amazon takes 7%, Delish about 2%, and Godiva takes 2%.

The report also includes a breakdown of categories that consumers are searching for that fall under chocolate, including paleo, sugar-free and vegan, and who the major brands are for each.

As for candy, data from Numerator’s InfoScout OmniPanel suggests that 58.3% of households bought candy and 3.4% bought flowers between February 1 and February 14, of last year. The top candy brands by sales were Hershey’s, Reese’s, M&M’s, Russel Stover and Dove.

Select candy brands rise on special events like Valentine’s Day, and their sales index climbs higher on the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day.

The top brands based on performance for Valentine’s Day in 2018 point to Elmer Chocolate, which indexed highest at 1,105. Whitman’s followed with 651, Galerie at 387, Russell Stover at 337, Dove Chocolate at 215, Sweetarts at 193, and Wonka at 189.

Candy buyers are most likely to be Gen X, less likely to be Asian, and more likely to have children between the ages of 6 and 12.