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Mother’s Day Marketing Tips for Online Shops

27.01.2023, 9m

Mother’s Day marketing is something you simply shouldn't ignore - much like Mother's Day itself is something you shouldn't ignore! Whether you buy a gift for the mom(s) in your life or not, if you run a business, Mother’s Day is a great opportunity to make some sales.

 

When is Mother's Day (around the world)?

It's worth mentioning that Mother's Day is not the same in every country. So, if you sell internationally, it's good to keep up with the different dates around the world. Download our European Holidays calendar, which includes all the most important dates for 2023.

european marketing calendar

In Europe, Mother's Day often occurs in the first half of the calendar year. However, this can range from February (in Norway) to June (in Luxembourg).

Here are a few of the different Mother's Day dates across Europe in 2023:

  • 2nd Sunday of February (12 February 2023): Norway 
  • 3 March: Georgia
  • 8 March (with International Women's Day): Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia 
  • 4th Sunday in Lent (19 March 2023): Ireland, United Kingdom 
  • 25 March: Slovenia
  • 1st Sunday of May (7 May 2023): Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Portugal, Spain
  • 2nd Sunday of May (14 May 2023): Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine
  • 26 May: Poland
  • Last Sunday of May (28 May 2023): Sweden
  • 4 June: France (either last Sunday of May or first Sunday of June if the last Sunday of May is Pentecost)

There are even more Mother's Days around the world. For a complete list, check this wikipedia page.

Mother's Day stats

According to MuchNeeded60% of Brits bought something for Mother’s Day in 2018. That's a huge share of the market!   

According to Statista, retail spending hit £1.23 billion in 2019. This number stayed steady in 2020 despite the pandemic and was projected to hit £1.34 billion in 2021.

Chart: Mothers day retail spending in the UK 2019-2021

Source: Statista

Mother's Day is particularly well-received in Poland. In a Statista survey, Polish people showed themselves to be much less cynical about the holiday than other countries. 85% of Polish citizens view Mother's Day as a "proper" special occasion. Denmark, for example, showed that 61% of respondents celebrate because of "pressure from commercial entities". 

Chart: mothers day want or need

Source: Statista

This is confirmed when we look at this next statistic regarding which occasions do Polish consumers most often buy gifts for loved ones:

Chart: occasions when poles most often buy gifts 2022

Source: Statista

As a business owner, you definitely want a piece of that action, right?

So, what are some ideas for your business? Here are some marketing tips for your online shop leading up to Mother’s Day...

“Mother-up” your Marketing

You, as a retailer, are expected to prepare for Mother’s Day every holiday before any of your customers do. In other words, you should be marketing Mother's Day early enough that it actually reminds your customers that the holiday is coming up.

So, how can you remind them? You can do this in a number of ways.

Website changes

You could redesign your homepage with a floral motif in the weeks leading up to Mother's Day, for example. Likewise, you could do something similar in your newsletter or social media advertising (more on that soon).

Besides creating aesthetic cues on your homepage, you can do something more direct like making a Mother’s Day gift guide and create a special landing page dedicated to gift ideas. Your marketing efforts (i.e. social media and email marketing campaigns) could point to this landing page. With a dedicated landing page, you'd be able to 

Figuring out how to categorize your mums in the context of your products could be a helpful idea as well. Is mother-dearest a chocolate lover, or a travel-mum? Is she a music-collector or a bookworm? Is she an athletic mum?

woman power-walking through forest
Mothers have hobbies, too! This is a sporty mom! Source: Shutterstock/HD92)

Remember that mums can fit into niches as well. Sometimes, displaying each of these categories helps your customers decide what the perfect gift would be. Aim to inspire your site's visitors.

It's also important to remember that Mother's Day should be a fun and warm holiday, so your website (or landing page) texts should reflect that.

Social media posts

You can go a number of directions with social media: Create an ad campaign highlighting your best "mom gifts". If your budget is limited, try some organic posts.

You could share some customer reviews, for example. Sharing the occasional glowing customer review is never a bad idea, but for Mother's Day, you could try something slightly different. For example, try sharing some reviews that contain the word "mom" or "mother":

searching for reviews that contain the word mother

With the Trusted Shops reviews platform, filtering for such reviews is easy. With the Social Media Creator tool, you can turn those reviews into social media posts easily.

trusted shops social media creator

(background image source: Shutterstock/Oliver Hoffmann)

From there, you can get creative with your headlines and hashtags to draw attention to your great product line or your equally awesome customer service.

social media post of customer review

How subtle you want to be is completely up to you, but a simple social post like this should remind your customers that Mother's Day is coming and that they need to stay ahead of the game. After all, hell hath no fury like a mother scorned, right?

Want to read more about sharing Trusted Shops reviews on Social Media? Check out our whitepaper below:

Trusted Shops reviews on social media

Coupons and Pro-MUM-tions

Get it? Pro-mum-tions?! What would Mother's Day be without a good dad joke? ...Probably a memorable one.

Bad puns and jokes, aside, you could also think about offering up some coupons or promoting a sale in your email marketing and advertising campaigns.

We all know Mother's Day is a big holiday. For all the dads reading this, here's a warning: this next stat is going to sting a bit... According to Statista, retail spending on Father's Day in the UK was estimated at £951 million in 2021 (compared to the £1.34 billion spent on Mother's Day as we saw earlier in this article).

Recommended reading: 5 Tips for Promoting Father’s Day in Your Online Shop

Although the numbers for Father's Day are nothing to sneeze at, it's clear Mother's Day is where people spend more money, so investing in promoting your own sales could be well worth the effort if executed correctly.

So, theoretically, whatever you might lose in offering those discounts, you’ll make up for in volume sales. Discounts and coupons are a great way to get shoppers to make purchases on your site. Hopefully, you can build some rapport with these shoppers and earn a second purchase from them in the future.

Target those shoppers with multiple mums in their lives

child, mother, and grandmother

Source: shutterstock/Yuganov Konstantin

Keep in mind that your shoppers might be more than just sons and daughters.

Here are a few interesting stats: Men spent on average £12.18 more than women on Mother’s Day. Men generally spent about £41.15 while women spent about £28.97.

That’s not the whole story though, so here’s the rest of the stat: 62% of women bought presents while only 57% of men did.

It’s difficult to say exactly, but one factor into why men spend more is that men often end up buying presents for their mother as well as their wives. Or mother-in-laws, too (insert joke here), so this might explain why men have been spending more than women.

The point is that shoppers aren’t only sons and daughters, but perhaps, husbands, fathers, grandfathers, nieces, friends or grandchildren. Keeping this in mind could help your strategy when choosing products to sell, how to display them, and when creating marketing materials.

Recommended reading: 5 Marketing Ideas for the Easter Holidays

Be ready for last-minute mother-lovers

We all love our mums, right? But, let’s be honest. Some of us end up shopping for them at the last minute (we've all been there at least once, right?).

About 24% of men who bought gifts for Mother’s Day bought things impulsively. About 18% of women did this. 

However, being prepared for the last-minute rush of purchases is only half the battle, so prepare your marketing budget appropriately and leave some money in your budget for that last week. During those last few days, you might want to switch from subtly reminding them about Mother's Day to obvious reminders.

presenting flowers to someone

Source: Shutterstock.com/Olga Mandryk

You could even poke fun at their forgetfulness or procrastination skills. Give them a mom-like guilt trip (all in good fun of course).

Though it may be hard to deliver physical gifts at the last minute, consider promoting printable gift-cards to your last-minute buyers. If you do offer fast shipping options, make sure to highlight this on your page. 

If you have a local shop, you might want to consider some local-based digital ads, like Google Maps or Waze.  

Conclusion

There you have it- A few quick tips on promoting to those people who love all the special mums in their lives. If you get in the minds of your customers early (and late), Mother’s Day can be a great opportunity for your online shop! Just don’t forget the flowers for your own mum!

Remember, Mother's Day falls on different days in different countries. Download our European Holidays Marketing Calendar to get an overview of the biggest e-commerce holidays in the biggest European markets. 

european marketing calendar