15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Mother’s Day

In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation that recognized Mother’s Day as a national holiday—and card companies, florists, and chocolatiers have been raking in the dough ever since.

15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Mother's Day

In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation that recognized Mother’s Day as a national holiday—and card companies, florists, and chocolatiers have been raking in the dough ever since.

Indeed, Mother’s Day is the third largest retail holiday in the U.S., according to the National Retail Federation. Here are some more stats on Mother’s Day spending behavior and how marketers are responding.

  1. This Mother’s Day we’ll be celebrating more than 85 million moms in the United States.
  2. In the U.S., $21.2 billion was spent on Mother’s Day in 2015, up 7% from 2014.
  3. When it comes to gifts, the majority of consumers picked up a greeting card for mom (80%) last year, spending more than $786 million, and more than two-thirds (67.2%) of those celebrating bought flowers, to the tune of $2.4 billion.
  4. According to new data from the Adobe Digital Index, online sales in the important Mother’s Day gift categories of flowers/gifts and jewelry are both trending 2%-3% higher this year than they were in 2015.
  5. Last year, the average U.S. consumer spent $173 (up from $163 in 2014) on Mother’s Day gifts.
  6. CPMs are highest one to two weeks before Mother’s Day. In order to ensure delivery during this peak time, increase bids at least two to three weeks prior to the holiday.
  7. The most common way in which smartphone owners in the U.S. planned to use their mobile devices for Mother’s Day shopping in 2015 was researching products and comparing prices (25%).
  8. Shoppers plan to buy gifts for more than just their mom. Twenty-three percent will buy gifts for their wives, 10% for their daughters, and 9% will buy gifts for a sister.
  9. Three in 10 shoppers will buy a Mother’s Day gift online this year.
  10. Mother’s Day accounts for one-fourth of the floral purchases made for holidays. About a third (35%) of adults bought flowers or plants as gifts for Mother’s Day 2015.
  11. Mother’s Day email marketing should incorporate emotional language. Subject lines that evoke emotion have a 21.5% higher open rate than those that do not during the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day.
  12. Email subject lines that begin with “Mother’s Day” have a 16% higher email engagement rate than those that include the phrase later in the subject line.
  13. The majority of consumers, 70%, plan to actually go to a store to purchase their Mother’s Day gifts.
  14. Thirty-three percent plan to shop at a department store, and 23.1% will go to a small business.
  15. Of course, marketers try their best to entice shoppers for Mother’s Day. The most common techniques used include free shipping (55%), price cuts (44%), and coupons (41%).