• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 27, 2016

"What would you like for Mother's Day, mom?" my daughter typically asks.

"A hug and a kiss," I say.

While a hug and a kiss cannot be purchased through an ecommerce site or a favorite physical store, moms can still receive the warm-and-fuzzy feeling after being handed the flowers or chocolate gift.

Can marketers advertise and market a hug and a kiss? Possibly -- if they are tied to a good deed or some hidden gem that mom really wants.

Microsoft Bing and Connexity Hitwise are making suggestions to marketers to help them plan for last-minute holiday searches and purchases.

Mother's Day mobile searches grew by more than a third in 2015 compared with 2014, according to Microsoft's search team. Mother's Day searches begin in April, but users are most active seven days before the holiday.

The keyword "gifts" at 43% took the top spot, with flowers coming in No 2. With 31%. Jewelry follows with 13%; cards, 7%; and chocolate and other foods, 6%.

Bing estimates the average shopper spent $173 on mom last year. Some 80% bought greeting cards; 67%, flowers; 54%, special outing; 44%, gift card; 36%, clothing; and 34%, jewelry.,

An estimated three in 10 shoppers bought mom a gift online. Some 23% researched or compared prices, 15% looked up retail information, 14% purchased a gift, and 7% used a mobile app to research or purchase a gift.

While Mother's Day searches begin in April, users are most active seven days before the holiday. Hiwise sees the same trend.

There has been a steady stream of Mother’s Day-related searches since mid-April, but Hitwise estimates about 70% of Mother’s Day-focused searches and purchases across its parent company's -- Connexity -- network of sites activity will occur during the last week before the big day.

Hitwise has gift ideas for mom based on data running across its network. Have you heard of a ClassPass for fitness gyms? It's a pass for a fitness club that allows users to take classes at various area gyms. It turns out that millennial moms are five times more likely than the average woman to search for “ClassPass” online.

Boomer moms have Jazzercise, Xer moms had Tai Bo and Millennial moms have CrossFit — the high-octane fitness program taking the nation by storm. And “CrossFit” searches are 2.5 times greater among Millennial moms than average.  

There's a time to exercise and time to kickback and listen to music — maybe both. Millennial moms are 79% more likely to search for Spotify Premium and twice as likely to search for Pandora One when looking for a site to stream music.

Millennial moms also are 50% more likely than average to search for the original Amazon Echo and are even more likely to be comparison shopping between the new Dot and Tap.

Another trend among millennial moms, subscription boxes that promise to save time. Blue Apron's Web site gets 25% more visits than average around Mother's Day. Letote.com gets a 39% greater share of visits from Millennial moms than average. And Mistobox receives 2.3-times more visits from millennial moms than average.

Whether you are receiving a kiss and a hug or something else, enjoy your day, moms.