NRF Survey Highlights Mother’s Day Shopping Trends
The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects shoppers to spend $35.7 billion on Mother's Day this year, nearly $4 billion more than last year’s record high of $31.7 billion, according to the trade association’s annual survey conducted with Prosper Insights & Analytics.
Eighty-four percent of U.S. adults are expected to celebrate the holiday this year (May 14), spending a record $274.02 per person on gifts. This makes the holiday the second most popular gift-giving holiday in the U.S., following Christmas, per NRF.
However, with inflation still an ongoing concern in 2023, shoppers across the country are thinking hard about what to gift the mother figures in their lives this year.
Seventy-two percent of those celebrating Mother’s Day say they’ve seen higher prices on items they’re considering gifting, particularly flowers, clothing and jewelry, according to NRF’s survey results, which were highlighted in a recent media release. Despite this, consumers seeing higher prices have become more value-driven and are taking advantage of sales and promotions (44%) or cutting back in other areas (34%), rather than passing on gift giving altogether.
What are shoppers gifting this year?
Almost one-third of consumers (31%) plan to gift an experience and almost half (46%) are interested in gifting a product subscription box. Both of these “activity-based” gift options are at their highest since NRF first started asking these questions. (NRF first started tracking gifts of experience in 2016 and product subscription box services in 2019.)
Notably, younger people are leading this trend. Consumers aged 18-24 are the most interested in gifting an experience, with almost half (48%) planning on doing so, followed by those aged 25-34 (47%) and 35-44 (43%). Those latter two age groups are also most likely to give a subscription box (66%).
Where are consumers shopping and getting inspired?
Consumers are looking to retailers for inspiration. Thirty-eight percent of those celebrating Mother’s Day say they “always” or “very often” look to retailers for gift inspiration, the highest since NRF first asked this question in 2019. Additionally, more men (43%) say they look to retailers for gift inspiration than women (33%).
Men are also more likely to shop in-store ahead of Mother’s Day, while both men and women plan to shop online at about the same rates. Men also plan to shop at department stores, specialty stores and specialty clothing stores significantly more than women.
Even though consumers are being price-conscious, “finding a gift that’s unique or different” (47%) and “finding a gift that creates a special memory” (42%) are still their top priorities when shopping for something special this year, per the release.
“While most consumers shopped online last year for the perfect Mother’s Day gift, we are seeing just as many people turn to department stores as a shopping destination this year,” Prosper executive vice president of strategy Phil Rist said in the release. “Gifts of experience continue to grow in popularity."
Other takeaways from NRF's survey include:
- Of those celebrating Mother’s Day, most (57%) are purchasing gifts for a mother or stepmother, followed by a wife (23%) or daughter (12%).
- The top spenders are those ages 35-44, who are expected to spend an average of $382.26 on Mother’s Day gifts.
- The most popular gifts to give are flowers (74%), greeting cards (74%) and special outings such as dinner or brunch (60%).
- Expected spending is up across all gift categories, with jewelry, electronics and apparel are the primary drivers of growth this year.
- Consumers will spend a total of $7.8 billion on jewelry, $5.6 billion on special outings and $4 billion on electronics.
NRF and Prosper conducted a survey of 8,164 U.S. adult consumers from April 3-11.