UK Mother’s Day spend to reach 1.6 billion pounds

Shoppers in the UK are expected to spend as much as 1.6 billion pounds on this year’s Mother’s Day, which takes place on Sunday, 31 March, according to new research by GlobalData.

The data, based off a 2,000 nationally representative Mother’s Day survey, found that spend would increase 0.8 percent compared to last year, with ‘gifting’ named the largest contributor, accounting for 1 billion pounds.

GlobalData said, however, that the gifting market is expected to grow by just 0.9 percent this year, meaning that grocers are best placed to capitalise on the greater focus on value for money in gifts and other tokens such as bouquets of flowers or boxes of chocolates. Cards and gift wrap are expected to be the best performing category, forecast to grow by 1.2 percent.

“With Mother’s Day falling later in the month, retailers have been concentrating on events such as World Book Day, International Women’s Day and Easter,” Zoe Mills, retail analyst at GlobalData, said in a statement.

“With less than two weeks until the occasion, the majority of retailers are only now placing their Mother’s Day displays instore and this, coupled with consumers’ growing concerns around limited disposable incomes, will mean the event will not see the level of growth as it has done in previous years.

“Often consumers state that occasions have become too commercial and this shift in focus towards time spent and away from retail products may indicate a slight backtrack to the original values of Mother’s Day. Retailers must focus on the message behind the occasion, using innovative signage instore and taking advantage of social media to promote a point.”

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