• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 24, 2018

I did part of my online shopping online at Williams-Sonoma. This year their "Dear Mom, I love you" mug pretty much says it all. I began with researching my options online and then purchased part of the gift online and the remainder in physical stores, using Google My Business to find the directions and hours of operation.

It seems I am not alone, according to the National Retail Federation's Mother's Day numbers out Tuesday. Data from the NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics numbers suggest that when searching for gifts, 35% of consumers will head to department stores this year, while 31% will shop online. About 29% plan to shop at specialty stores such as florists, jewelers or electronics stores.

Some 23% plan to shop at a local small business, while 22% will shop at discount stores and 10% will shop at specialty clothing stores. 

Consumers between the ages of 35 and 44 will spend the most on Mother's Day -- an average of $224 per person -- but 62% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 24 are most likely to use smartphones to research their purchases and compare prices.

Products like Google Accelerated Mobile Pages continue to reduce latency and improve consumers' experience on mobile devices. On Monday, during the company’s first-quarter earnings call, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai mentioned that J.Crew has adopted AMP -- increasing the speed of its mobile page loading times by more than 90%. “They are integrating the Google payment request API,” which reduces checkout times from 2 minutes to 30 seconds.

Overall, Mother’s Day spending should reach $23.1 billion in 2018 -- up from $23.6 billion in 2017, according to the annual survey. About 86% of Americans will celebrate Mother’s Day and will spend an average of $180 per person, down slightly from an average of $186 per person spent in 2017. 

The survey, conducted by NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics between April 4 and April 12, 2018, surveyed 7,520 consumers to reveal their plans for Mother’s Day spending.

Consumers plan to spend $4.6 billion on jewelry, at 34%. About 55% will collectively spend $4.4 billion on special outings such as dinner or brunch. Some 69% will collectively spend $2.6 billion on flowers.

Cards are still a must on Mother’s Day, with about 45% spending in aggregate of $2.5 billion on gift cards.

Some 36% will spend $2.1 billion on clothing, collectively, and 14% will spend collectively $2.1 billion on electronics.

Spa days are popular, with 24% spending $1.8 billion on personal services. Another $956 million will be spent on housewares or gardening tools by 19%, $813 million on greeting cards, about 77%, and $494 million on books or music at 19%.

The survey found that 29% will purchase “gift of experience” for Mom, such as a spa day, tickets to a concert or gym membership. This type of gift is most often given by consumers between the ages of 18 and 34, according to the survey.