UK eCommerce retailers saw online revenues bloom in the lead up to Mother’s Day (27 March, 2022), up 54 per cent year-on-year (YOY) and up two-fold on pre-pandemic levels, as traffic to eCommerce websites ahead of the day dedicated to celebrating mums also rose 32 per cent compared to 2021, latest data from Wunderkind, reveals.
The growing demand for Mother’s Day follows the popularity of the 2021 iteration, when UK spend for Mothering Sunday was tipped to have exceeded £1.34billion, according to Statista. Wunderkind’s data showed a double surge in sales, with the biggest spike in online revenues taking place on Thursday 17 March, when online sales jumped +80 per cent on the daily average for the two week period preceding Mother’s Day. A second surge took place on Mothering Sunday itself, when revenues rose by +72 per cent on the daily average for the same period.
Sales on Mother’s Day itself jumped +164 per cent on the previous Sunday (20 March vs 27 March) and this ‘same day’ online gifting trend follows that of 2021, when Deliveroo said it saw sales of Mother’s Day gifts increase by over 80 per cent on its platform, with flowers the most ordered ‘last minute’ gift item last year.
Meanwhile, rather than the surges seen in the Mother’s Day online sales spikes, web traffic followed a steadier trajectory in the build up to the gifting day, rising +15 per cent week-on-week, and up +31 per cent versus 2021.
Jon Halley, regional VP EMEA at Wunderkind, commented: “Mother’s Day has blossomed into a key gifting day for retailers and consumers alike. The online increases in sales we have seen year-on-year are particularly marked because last year digital was the only shopping channel available during lockdown. Even with physical stores open this year, we are continuing to see the rise of eCommerce play out in shoppers’ buying behaviours, as demand for online shopping shows no sign of abating. 
“As with Valentine’s Day, we’re starting to see a two-pronged trend to demand when it comes to celebration or gifting days. We still see the cohort of shoppers who buy early to guarantee product availability and allow for potential shipping delays, but we’re seeing a real uptick in the volume of sales now taking place on the day itself. This can, at least in part, be attributed to same-day fulfilment capabilities, both via q-commerce businesses and retailers increasingly offering same-day click-and-collect to accommodate last minute shoppers.”
Customer engagement for Mother’s Day peaked on Friday 25 March, with email opens up +49 per cent on the daily average for the two weeks prior, representing a 148per cent increase YOY for the same period.
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