With Mother’s Day fast approaching, how is digital media affecting the UK’s gift buying habits? Experian has used Hitwise data to pull together ten online facts for retailers and marketers.
1. 11% of all Mother’s Day UK searches include the word ‘when’. It’s Sunday 10 March so get cracking!
2. This week the UK will make 800 visits a minute to the Flowers & Gifts shopping category. In total a million hours will be spent shopping online for Mother’s Day gifts this week.
3. Visits to the Flowers & Gifts category will account for over 2% of total Internet shopping in the UK, higher than Valentine’s Day which just goes to prove no matter how much we love our partner, we love our Mums more!
4. The average online shopper has less time to spend looking for Mother’s Day gifts this year than last year. Average time spent on Flowers & Gift websites has declined from 8 minutes and 18 seconds to 6 minutes and 23 seconds.
5. Last year retailers which included the phrase ‘mother’s day’ in the subject line of their emails saw a 61% increase in transaction rates.
6. This year searches for gifts are five times more popular than flowers, although there is always a late surge in searches for flowers for last minute online shoppers.
7. People are looking to add a personal touch to Mother’s Day this year. Searches including the word ‘homemade’ have more than doubled compared to last year.
8. Demand for personalised and more unusual gifts continued to rise this year with increased volumes of searches including the word ‘unique’ (1.6% of all gift searches) and ‘unusual’ (1.3% of all gift searches).
9. With stretched budgets this year there has been a decrease in searches for expensive hampers (last year’s fastest moving gift) and a 10-fold increase in searches for novelty Mother’s Day items as a token gesture.
10. Stevenage remains as the Mother’s Day capital of the UK for a second consecutive year. Internet users in are 23% more likely than the average user to visit the Flowers & Gift category in March.
Analysis from James Murray, Digital Insights Manager at Experian Marketing Services
As more of our shopping is being conducted online events like Mother’s Day are getting bigger each year for Internet retailers. The UK now spends 10% of all time online shopping so it is no surprise that there will be 20% more visits to retailers for Mother’s Day this year than there was last year.
However, although overall more visits are being made the amount of time spent on site per visit is declining quite rapidly. This is in line with trends we saw over Christmas, where consumers are short on time and skimming through sites looking for the perfect gift. More than ever it is becoming imperative for brand to make onsite navigation as simple and intuitive as possible and to highlight offers clearly on the homepage to make the user experience as seamless as possible.
With only a few days to go until Mother’s Day consumers are looking for reassurance that if they order gifts online now that they will definitely be delivered by Sunday. Just like at Christmas, guaranteeing late delivery or offering click and collect services is a great way to secure last minute sales.
Source: Experian