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In honour of Valentine's Day, Retail Eyes has conducted a survey of 1,677 UK consumers to reflect how men and women are feeling about the most romantic celebration of the year.

Even in a challenging economic climate, it appears Cupid's not feeling the pinch as romance prevails. Two out of three willingly choose to celebrate the day and do not feel any pressure to do so either from their spouses or the media. The survey also revealed that among those celebrating, 74.7% will actually purchase both a gift and a card to win the heart of their loved one, while 14.4% believe a card will be enough to show they care. 43.9% said that they planned to go out and celebrate while 56.1% said that they'd be staying in the privacy of their own home.

More than half of those polled (54%) don't plan to spend more than £20 and 32% are will spend up to £50. 11.4% will invest £150 in their Valentine gift, and 1.6% will spend more than £150.

But what of the most popular Valentine's Day gifts? The classic combination "chocolate and champagne" came out on top with 35% of the respondents. This was closely followed by "something romantic and unique" as the purchase choice for 31.9% of those polled. 21.9% will say it with a humorous gift, while 18.3% of respondents are still saying it with flowers. Among other gifts considered, 13.1% respondents intend to purchase sexy lingerie, 7.1% will give their loved ones a pampering experience such a Spa day, and a smaller 5.9% intend to give jewellery as a gift.

And Valentine's shopping experience??? Among those shopping on the high streets, 91.5% find the sales assistants happy to help. The results suggest that customers remain loyal to their usual shop with only 10.7% of respondents intending to go out of their way to visit shops they wouldn't ordinarily visit to buy their Valentine's present. However, in spite of the good customer service, 90.9% of respondents would consider buying a Valentine's gift online highlighting the need for retailers to create a great instore experience to avoid losing customers to online stores.

The survey also showed that the largest majority of respondents (87.6%) believes Valentine's is more targeted to women, but nevertheless, the biggest percentage of those polled think they will equally enjoy the day (36.3%).