• by Ray Schultz , May 15, 2019

Mother’s Day is over, and email marketers and others are taking a hard-headed look at what sold. 

The answer is old favorites like flowers and jewelry -- but those items have been joined by beauty products and luxury apparel, according to a study of online purchasing by Bluecore.

Bluecore analyzed data from the 35 clients in four retail categories that showed high spikes in pre-holiday purchasing compared with normal days: high-end apparel, jewelry and specialty gifts. The data is based on 5.10M orders and $527.7 million in total sales.

This analysis found the following:

Retailers began seeing big increases in buying activity 12 days before Mother’s Day, compared with average days. 

Specialty gift retailers, like those sellingflowers and wine, saw the biggest leaps in last-minute buying, including a 100% increasein an average day’s purchase activity two and three days beforethe holiday.

High-end apparel retailers, thosewith average order values of over $85, saw a 34% increase in sales our days prior to the holiday.

Jewelry retailers enjoyed a 63% upturn six days before Mother’s Day. 

Beauty retailerssawpurchases peakwith a 59% increase in orders six days before the holiday and a 27% increase three days in advance. 

High-end apparel purchases were the most carefully considered, with 12.7 viewings before purchase. In contrast, jewelry was viewed 9.1 times. 

In addition, shoppers scrutinized beauty products 6.9 times and specialty gift items 4.3 times. 

As to the number of products viewed, apparel buyers looked at products 7.1 times, jewelry buyers 4.2 times , beauty purchasers 3.4 times and special gift shoppers 2 times.

Bluecore saw “spikes in shopper activity and purchases that rival major buying holidays like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day,” states Rob Holland, COO of Bluecore.

He adds that firms marketing to Mother’s Day shoppers “are seeing more sales, more repeat purchases and more opportunities for consumer engagement leading up to end-of-year shopping.”