Mothers Day encourages online spending

Tuesday, March 28, 2017 - 10:15 by Sarah Collinson

This weekend saw millions of Brits express their appreciation for their mothers in a national event which always encourages plenty of consumer spending as a result. Interestingly, it seems that people intended to splash out more on their mums via safe shopping online this year than in the past.

This is according to a survey from Savvy which revealed that a little over a quarter of respondents were going to up their Mother’s Day budget in 2017 compared with what they spent last year.

In addition, 45 per cent of those questioned said that they would be buying gifts online as opposed to heading to the high street. This is a healthy seven per cent year on year increase in e-commerce activity, with the lack of diversity of product options in bricks and mortar stores being cited as the main reason behind this change.

Thirty six per cent said that one of the main advantages of safe shopping online was that it gave them more options across a broader selection of price categories. So no matter how much they intended to spend on their mothers, people could find gifts and experiences to accommodate their needs.

Thirty eight per cent said that they believed it was up to retailers to do more to offer up interesting, unusual gift concepts to get the creative juices flowing and would mean that consumers did not end up buying the same generic items for their mothers this year.

This shows that the web is really raising expectations about the kinds of experiences that retailers should deliver to customers. People not only want a degree of customisation when they shop online, but they also want a more directed experience which points them towards the best gifts, depending on the event or occasion in question.