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Mother's Day causes online gift buying frenzy

Monday, March 11, 2013 - 11:09 by Graham Miller

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Mother's Day has traditionally been an event that results in lots of retail spending amongst British consumers who want to treat their mums to something nice.

In the age of increased web usage, it is no surprise to see Experian Hitwise predicting that people across the UK will spend a combined period of a million hours this year using safe shopping online to buy Mother's Day gifts.

Last year there was a three per cent rise in the amount of cash spent on items for mums and analysts predict that there will be an equally noteworthy bump in 2013.

Online retail spokesperson, Mark Haviland, who represents Rakuten Linkshare, said that gift-giving on Mother's Day was a big catalyser of online spending and e-commerce sites will need to work hard to make the most out of the event.

Last year the sales of clothing, jewellery and flowers all rose ahead of Mother's Day, which shows that many consumers are not hesitant about spoiling their parents from time to time.

Retailers are likely to offer Mother's Day deals which have specific features designed to attract certain consumers, according to Mr Haviland.

For example, you might see promotions that are only available for a limited time, or restricted to consumers who live in a certain area.

This location-based marketing strategy is helping high street shops to earn more sales, by taking a multichannel approach and combining safe shopping online with bricks and mortar collection.

The seven days prior to the main event are usually the busiest, which is unsurprising. However, consumers are advised to plan ahead and avoid leaving it to the last minute to account for delivery issues.

Funnily enough, Experian reports that more than a tenth of all Mother's Day-related searches made online in recent weeks have featured the word 'when,' which shows that some Brits cannot remember the event's date.