Sales of online flowers for the seven days ending May 12, Mothers's Day, totaled $76.6 million, an 18 percent increase over the same period last year, according to a study released yesterday by Web research firm comScore Networks.
The survey also found that the total number of visits to several leading online greeting sites increased more than 10 percent in the month-to-date versus last year — even with the addition of subscription fees at some sites. On Mother's Day americangreetings.com drew the largest overall audience, with 1.1 million unique U.S. visitors. Bluemountain.com was the growth leader, with an audience increase of 386 percent compared to an average Sunday.
“Since the 2001 holiday shopping season began, we've seen continued strength throughout e-commerce,” said Dan Hess, comScore vice president. ” The sales growth posted around Mother's Day offers yet another sign of this trend.”
ComScore also measured the relative share of category purchases by gender in the days leading up to Mother's Day. As the holiday grew closer, the share of online flower and gift purchases by men grew sharply, from a total of 32 percent in the week ending May 5 to an 11th-hour spike of 81 percent on Mother's Day.
ComScore's analysis is based on an opt-in, continuous measurement system, which measures the online browsing and buying behavior of 1.5 million participants worldwide.
