Good Mother’s Day sales make up for losing an hour’s sleep
Mums may have lost an hour’s sleep at the weekend, but the cards and gifts for Mother’s Day look to have more than made up for it if the response from indie greeting card retailers is anything to go by.
As the UK’s big day falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent, it’s a moveable feast so this year was the latest it can be, landing on the same day as the clocks went forward an hour to British summer time.
Love for mums won out though as the majority of indies reported good sales, with 1,500 cards being sold on the big day itself on Sunday, 30 March, at Postmark’s 15 stores in London and Glasgow where director Leona Janson-Smith said Mother’s Day was “really good” for the independent group.
And Greg Rose, of Maybugs in Bexhill, Eastbourne, Hailsham and Tunbridge Wells, explained: “Once again, the public proved that, when it comes to spoiling your mum the cost-of-living crisis doesn’t come into it – Mother’s Day was a huge success at Maybugs.
“Sales were up 15% for the week across all four of our stores, with greetings cards accounting for 8% of this increase. This year we went all out with our ranges increasing the selection by 50%, including brands such as Hammond Gower, Stop The Clock and Five Dollar Shake. The standout ranges for us were Serendipity from Janie Wilson and Elle from Belly Button Designs.
“Despite putting in captions for other relations such as step-mum, sales on these were slow, and 99% of our sales were Mum caption, with Mothering Sunday still as popular as ever. We were asked for more contemporary cards and less floral/sentimental which was the first time we’ve seen this change, humour remained at around 15% of sales, the same as last year.
Gifts is also a large part of our business with Inis Fragrance, The Chilli range from Candlelight Products and Aromatherapy Stones from Corincraft all performing excellently.”
At UOE Stores’ nine branches in London, Herts, and Surrey, CEO and postmaster Elliot Jacobs saw an incredible doubling of sales, commenting: “A longer lead-up to Mother’s Day this year, combined with a broader product range in store, saw our sales on a like-for-like basis rise by more than 100%!
“There was a strong mix of popular card styles, with themes of love and appreciation leading the way – plus a few well-chosen humorous options adding variety.
“Our top seller was Madame Treacle’s Butterfly Mother’s Day card. Its success came down to a bold, heartfelt message that stands out clearly in the display, stunning encapsulated glitter, and gorgeous, whimsical artwork. A real showstopper that customers loved.”
Rob and Pete Sampson celebrated winning the Nottinghamshire’s Best Independent Shop title for A Stone’s Throw in Sherwood with an “entirely bonkers” Mother’s Day season.
“Sales of cards were up almost 50% compared to last year,” said Rob, “a massive thank you to The Art File who sorted out a very speedy delivery of cards for us a week before the big day.
“Sales of gifting in the two weeks prior were also up almost 40%, with candles by The Yorkshire Candle Company and crochet flowers by Dora’s Garden among the favourites for our customers.
“We sold out of nearly everything from our initial orders, including Laura Darrington, Alljoy Design, and Rosie Made A Thing and, indeed, sold most of the late order from The Art File too – the shelves were looking rather empty by the end of the Saturday!
“The majority of cards we sell are various Mum captions, followed by a simple Happy Mother’s Day, and, despite ordering twice as many as last year, we still sold out of Mothering Sunday cards several days beforehand. It’s always worth having a few step-mum, grandmother and like-a-mum cards. Sales of these aren’t spectacular but when they’re right, they’re perfect.
“Some of the most warmly-received cards by our Black customers this year were those from AfroTouch Design. Having a Mother’s Day card celebrating Black people are rare, so our customers were really happy to have the option available.
“Sales were already tracking ahead of target before the fantastic news on 22 March that we’d won Nottinghamshire’s Best Independent Shop in a poll by Nottinghamshire Live, but this certainly gave us an extra boost!”
At Mantons in Port Erin, Isle Of Man, co-owner Chris Beards reported: “We had excellent Mother’s Day sales with sales of all captions going well. As usual Debbie’s window display was really well received and our reputation for quality cards and gifts helped to keep us busy.
“The only downside was the terrible weather we had on the Saturday before the big day, that meant the last-minute rush wasn’t as much as usual.”
Unfortunately, there was a bit of a downer in Cudworth where Wishes’ owner Julia Keeling admitted: “This year’s Mother’s Day has been a big bust for us. We’re down £1,700 on last year which is crazy, but we didn’t order as many cards to make sure we didn’t have lots to return.
“Card sales have been OK over the last those weeks but, as for this week’s sales, we’ve been down every day on customer and spend per head. We stocked up on gifts for any time of year and only a few with Mum or Mother’s Day.
“Gifts just haven’t sold this year which is why I think we’re down in sales. Not many gifts which also means not many add-on sales like wrap tags bows and bags are down too.”
Further south in Tettenhall, it was back to good news for Hugs & Kisses where owner Caroline Ranwell’s customers embraced the glorious sunshine to get out and spending all week in the lead-up.
“Saturday as always was absolutely crazy,” Caroline cheered. “We were 22% up on the Saturday the previous year!
“Stand-out card publishers for us this year were Five Dollar Shake with their stunning new range Ribbons & Roses, Wendy Jones-Blackett‘s gorgeous new range Up Up & Away, Belly Button’s Elle and Apple & Clover with their super cute Bow Tie Dog and Cat cards.
“We did especially well on our large cards this year. Our customers love a beautiful hand-finished card, which rarely have words inside, and they do like a bit of humour – Rosie Made A Thing is the winner there.
“We sell a huge amount of Nan, Grandma, Nanny and Nanna cards and every year we do seem to sell more and more of these – this year we actually sold out of Nanny. Other captions that we sell are Wife, Mummy, Like A Mum, Great Grandma, Godmother and From The Dog – we sold out of From The Dog too! The ratio of Mum cards to the others is still high, about 90%, but Mothering Sunday we don’t sell anywhere near as well as Mother’s Day.
“Winners for gifts for us, as always, is our delicious Belgian chocolates but we also sold lots of candles and diffusers, particularly from Inis. We had our own bespoke Best Mum In Tettenhall mugs made and these sold out!”
In Berkhamsted, &Quirky saw a 20% increase on specific Mother’s Day cards, and Mother designs were up 10%, as partner Paul Cheshire commented: Sales exceeded our expectations, as always there was a last-minute rush on Saturday and even until late Sunday afternoon for cards.
“New suppliers Oh Squirrel, Running With Scissors and Old English Company proved to have a popular range of cards in different styles. Ohh Deer and Lagom provided the staple cards and the mini cards from Lagom were popular – Dean Morris and Buddy Fernandez provided the more cheekier side of our offering.
“Our main cards were for either Mum, Grandma or Nanny, Mama has also proved to be a popular term for Mum. The more traditional customers do like the Happy Mother’s Day captions. We’re looking at expending our range for next year for stepmums and godmothers, and we did have cards with messaging like ‘always like a mum to me’ which proved popular.
“We got asked for cards from the dog and cat so there’s potential to look at expanding these for next year, and also to try and find a mix of Granny, Nanny and Grandma cards.
“We had a mix of cute and traditional, the floral ones were the popular sellers. Although our customers know we have a big range of the cheekier cards, so these sold just as well. With gifts vases proved to be very popular – guess it’s from all the flowers mums get at this time of year!”
