With Mother’s Day a lovely excuse to recognise not just mums, mummies and mammas, but also mother-in-laws, step-mums, foster mums, grandmothers and female guardians, Mother’s Day was another success for most gift retailers, arriving a week or two earlier than usual in mid-March.
“Sales were up this year for Mother’s Day,” confirmed Louise Bawcutt, owner of The Present in Barnet. “It’s always great for us but this year we were even busier. It was condensed into the Friday and mainly the Saturday, but we were even busy on the actual Sunday too, with ‘last minuters’!” Continues Louise: “The main sales were fashion accessories which have really grown for us in the last year or so, to include scarves, pouches, bags, kaftans and socks which we have just started buying in. Home fragrance always sell well so, as always, candles were another popular gift.”
At Something Special in Edenbridge, owner Karen Ebers confirmed that the shop had a very busy week leading up to Mother’s Day, “although this did follow a somewhat quieter week with both sales and footfall affected by the snow,” Karen pointed out. “We had a Mother’s Day gift display in store with assorted merchandise featuring the words Mum or Mummy on photo frames, mugs, glasses, candles, reed diffusers, necklaces, bracelets, plaques, LED bottles and books, and did especially well with Xpressions’ Light Up glass plaques and glittering glass hanging plaques as well as the handbag gifts from Bath House. As always, balloon displays were as popular as ever.”
For Claire O’Donnell, owner of The Herbary in Troon, Mother’s Day was very much about thinking outside the box, “or the basket in this instance!” she quipped. “It was about offering our customers something new and exciting, giving them a reason to buy their leading ladies a gift from The Herbary. We came up with a hamper idea which worked really well, involving us making up hampers using our Madaraff baskets, and filling them with a bundle of goodies. All hampers offered a saving on individual retail which added to the appeal. It made us a one-stop shop for Mother’s Day gifts and brought us in on par with last year. However, had we not ‘reinvented’ this event I’m not sure we would have reached last year’s figure,” she adds.
“Mother’s Day is always a huge gifting occasion for us,” confirmed owner Alison Ireland, owner of Cloud 9 in Market Deeping. “We offer an wide range of gifts to suit an eclectic mix of customers, and locally, we are well known for offering something different that’s good value – not necessarily cheap – but definitely different!”
Treating mums to a personalised Yankee Candle was the theme of TV commercial aired in the run up to Mother’s Day.
A recent study by Mintel found that, on average, sons spent just over £40 on a Mother’s Day gift compared to just under £29 for daughters. Almost a quarter of men that bought Mother’s Day gifts bought them on impulse as a last minute panic purchase.
