Many shoppers tend to be procrastinators, waiting until the last possible minute to purchase gifts. Fortunately, a number of retailers decided to offer special promotions to those who didn't do their Valentine's Day shopping until the day before the holiday.

According to a recent survey, 22 percent of consumers waited until 48 hours before Valentine's Day to buy cards or other gifts for their loved ones. Not looking to give up sales to retail stores, a number of online etailers offered free next-day shipping on orders placed as late as 6 p.m. on Monday.

BlueNile.com, a jewelry etailer, was one of the companies offering this specific deal. Ice.com launched a similar promotion for orders of more than $200.

"Nineteen percent of Valentine’s Day gift shoppers say they will purchase candy for the holiday and 9 percent say they'll buy jewelry," Internet Retailer notes, citing a survey by PriceGrabber. "More than one-third of survey respondents (34 percent) say they will shop for Valentine’s Day gifts online."

According to separate research conducted by the National Retail Federation, consumer spending for Valentine's Day is expected to surpass $17 billion.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, February 17th, 2012 at 2:06 am .