• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 11, 2018

Mother’s Day arrives this Sunday, but trending queries on Google for the past week still question “When is Mother’s Day,” “What day is Mother’s Day 2018,” “What to get mom for Mother’s Day,” “When is Mother’s Day in Mexico,” and “How many days until Mother’s Day.”

Consumers searching across the Bing Network showed the most interest in Hobbies & Leisure gifts at 22%, Home & Garden at 17%, and Gifts in the Apparel and Computers & Consumer Electronics categories at 16%. Gardening and yard, garden and patio gifts followed at 19% year-over-year (YoY) click growth, and cooking and home furniture gifts grew 12% YoY.

Compared with Google, 55% of shoppers across the Bing Network are more likely to spend on jewelry and accessories, 35% are more likely to spend between $100 and $199 on skin care products, and 40% more likely to spend between $100 and $199 on flowers.

Mother’s Day shoppers who buy flowers two days or less before the holiday spend 18% more than who plan ahead. This isn’t necessarily because prices go up, but rather because they are less likely to check 10 sites to compare price and availability, according to data published Friday.

Bluecore, which works with more than 400 retailers to understand shopper interactions and possible future interests, analyzed 2016 and 2017 Mother’s Day flower-buying data and trends from floral service firm Teleflora, which creates a network for flower shops, to reveal insights about 2018 trends.

Those who wait to buy mom flowers the week of Mother’s Day tend to consider 17.8% fewer products than shoppers who purchased the previous week. 

“We see the same buying pattern this year as we did last year, where most of the orders are placed about two weeks prior to the holiday,” said Jared Blank, senior vice president of Marketing and Insights at Bluecore, an email retail marketing platform. “We expect about three-quarters of the orders for flowers to be placed this week.”

Bluecore data found consumers who buy flowers for Mother’s Day are far more likely to make subsequent flower purchases for birthdays and Christmas than they are for Valentine's Day.

Blank said it’s important for marketers to determine what makes that second purchase. Too many resources are spent on search, email and other online campaigns trying acquire new customers close to the holiday. “It’s important, but marketers are not putting enough focus on driving second purchases,” he said, adding that creating awareness through digital, television and radio play an important part in a campaign.

Only 7% of shoppers who purchased flowers two weeks ahead of Mother’s Day are likely to make multiple flower purchases, suggesting that they are buying not only for one mom, but several.

Consumers who plan ahead tend to place flower orders for multiple mothers spaced out an average of 30 hours from one another.

Consumers who bought flowers last year for mom are 13% more likely to purchase flowers from the exact same place this year than someone who has not purchased from them before. And 25% of shoppers who bought Mother’s Day flowers from the same place twice are likely to do it a third time. 

In 2017, while purchases dropped on Mother’s Day, the Bluecore data also shows the largest spike for consumers who viewed a possible purchase on a mobile device -- as compared to all views -- the day before. So, last-minute shoppers are viewing possible options for flowers at a higher rate on mobile devices