Advertisement

Mother’s Day spending expected to reach $14.6 billion

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Good news for moms – your Mother’s Day bouquet and other gifts might be bigger and better this year.

According to a survey released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation, consumers plan to continue the recent trend of spending more on holidays by shelling out some extra bucks for Mom. The average person will spend $126.90 on the holiday, which falls on May 9 this year, compared with $123.89 in 2009.

Advertisement

Total spending is expected to reach $14.6 billion.

Mother’s Day is the second-biggest U.S. consumer spending holiday behind the winter holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, the trade group said.

Nearly two-thirds (65.2%) of celebrants will buy flowers, totaling $1.9 billion. An additional 51.8% will treat mom to a brunch or dinner, spending $2.9 billion. Jewelers will also see some traffic this year with 26.2% of shoppers planning on buying a special bracelet or earring set, totaling $2.5 billion. Others will buy clothing or clothing accessories ($1.3 billion), gift certificates ($1.5 billion), personal service such as a day at the spa ($933 million), consumer electronics ($906 million) and greeting cards ($671 million).

Specialty stores such as florists or jewelers will see the most traffic, but 30.6% of shoppers will head to department stores, compared with 27.2% last year. Others will shop at a discount store (30.4%), online (19.7%), specialty clothing store (6.2%) or catalog (2.5%).

Of the 83.3% of Americans celebrating the holiday this year, most will focus on buying a gift for their mom or stepmom (62.6%) or wife (20.6%). Others will treat their daughter (9.4%), grandmother (7.9%), sister (7.6%), friend (6.8%) or godmother (1.7%) to something nice.

Men will spend much more than women on Mother’s Day, shelling out an average of $154.74, compared with women who will spend an average of $100.46. Adults 25 to 34 years old will spend the most with the average person expected to spend $156.84; young adults will spend only slightly less at an average of $155.52 per person.

The poll of 8,197 consumers was conducted from April 6 to April 13.

-- Andrea Chang

Advertisement