For the 2018 Mother’s Day Holiday, Rakuten Marketing Expects Consumer Spending to Increase by 20 Percent

Rakuten Marketing, a leading technology company that enables marketers to profit through digital marketing, today released industry data and insights for Mother’s Day 2018. Comparing year-over-year (YOY) holiday spend for the two weeks leading to Mother’s Day 2016 and 2017, Rakuten Marketing expects 2018 consumer spend to increase, making this Mother’s Day a sweet retail period for online brands.

Along with this news, the company also provides YOY comparisons on consumer shopping behavior, including cross-device shopping tendencies; marketing and advertising budget allocation over the Mother’s Day holiday period; top-performing product categories; and publisher shopping peaks. This data and insights equip brands, advertisers and publishers with valuable information to improve and deliver better online ad and shopping experiences.

For the 2018 Mother’s Day holiday, Rakuten Marketing expects consumer spending to increase by 20 percent, with revenue increasing across all key product categories. The company believes top-selling gift categories will include personal experiences (dinners, outings, movie, etc.), flowers, candy, jewelry and gift cards. Mother’s Day spend is expected to peak in late April with most consumers turning to content publishers early in their shopping journey to purchase. Gift orders (e.g., spa gift cards and gourmet gift baskets) from content publishers are expected to peak the Saturday before Mother’s Day and sales from loyalty coupon and rewards publishers peaking the week prior to Mother’s Day. The highest selling day for flowers is expected to occur May 10th, 2018, the Thursday before the Mother’s Day holiday. Sunday and Monday before Mother’s Day 2017 served as peak selling days for jewelry and Rakuten Marketing expects this trend to continue in 2018.

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Key Insights from Mother’s Day 2017:

• Loyalty rewards publishers saw orders peak the week of May 7, 2017, for department stores, flowers, food and drink, and gift and luxury. These verticals showed solid year-over-year (YOY) sales not only during the Mother’s Day holiday but during springtime shopping in general.
• Shopping publishers focused on the sales period following Mother’s Day 2017, with apparel and accessories, department store and luxury retail orders peaking at the end of May.
• Sales conversion rates peaked on May 8, 2017, for all publisher types.

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Device Behavior and Advertising Spend

• In 2017, mobile sales for Rakuten Marketing Affiliate advertisers were approximately 20-25 percent of total orders for the Mother’s Day holiday shopping period. Flower orders accounted for 20 percent of total orders and mobile device orders accounted for 30 percent of total flower orders.
• With a heavy push for advertising on mobile this year, Rakuten Marketing expects mobile-driven conversions and revenue to increase by about 40 and 70 percent respectively.
• Rakuten Marketing expects overall online revenue to increase by 20 percent.
• In 2017, luxury items had the highest percentage of orders placed on tablet at 7 – 8 percent.
• Rakuten Marketing clients running same-store display campaigns during Mother’s Day 2016 and 2017 saw YOY mobile average order value (AOV), conversions and revenue increase by 41 percent, 21 percent and 70 percent respectively. These clients also increased social and video budgets through this period by 74 percent and 43 percent respectively.
• Personalized gifts are popular during Mother’s Day. Based on 2017 insights, Rakuten Marketing expects the top-selling product to be flowers, but more specifically flower arrangements designed for Moms and Grandmothers. More specifically, consumers tend to request spring flower arrangements, followed by tulip and rose arrangements.

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“Individualism is at the heart of consumers, which means it should be at the heart of marketing. Advertisers and publishers should strive in tailoring their consumer online experiences and Rakuten Marketing can help deliver these kinds of experiences,” commented Rakuten Marketing President, Stuart Simms. “Through our data and insights, we encourage advertisers, brands and publishers to understand their consumers’ trends and behaviors so they can create the best kinds of advertising and content and, therefore, receive the best results.”

Rakuten Marketing prioritizes understanding and catering to consumers’ wants and needs in the digital advertising world to implement positive online experiences and increase performance for advertisers, publishers and brands. Rakuten Marketing data and insights are based on aggregated and anonymous data analyzed from leading U.S. retailers running Rakuten Marketing Display and Rakuten Marketing Affiliate campaigns.

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