Mother’s Day spend will continue to grow despite falling later in the month (31 March 2019 versus 11 March 2018) which has led to a number of retailers focusing on other occasions earlier in March. The event holds significance among consumers and spend will increase 0.8% to £1.6bn, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Gifting is the largest contributor to the Mother’s Day occasion with consumers forecast to spend £1.0bn on presents in 2019. However, with the gifting market expected to grow by just 0.9% this year, the grocers are best placed to capitalise on the greater focus on value for money in gifts and simple tokens such as bouquets of flowers or boxes of chocolates.

Zoe Mills, Retail Analyst at GlobalData commented: “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. 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.”

Cards and gift wrap will be the best performing category, forecast to grow by 1.2%. With this event about showing appreciation to mums, a card with a kind message is a cost-effective way for shoppers to show their gratitude without spending on lavish presents that are perceived as unaffordable.

Mills concludes: “The most popular activity for Mother’s Day last year was visiting mum with 28.2%* respondents saying they did so. Such a visit does not require any spending and places a greater focus on the meaning of the event. 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.”

* This data is based off a 2,000 nationally representative Mother’s Day survey, asked in the weeks following Mother’s Day 2018.