Spring gifting rush sees GBP £6.9bn spend rival Christmas

Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter are concentrating almost £7 billion of consumer spending into a 10-week period, creating a spring sales peak that rivals Christmas for many UK retailers.

Data from gifting marketplace Flowwow puts combined spending across the three events at about £6.9 billion. It also reports a 26% year-on-year rise in gifting orders and forecasts that same-day deliveries will exceed 40% of total orders for the first time in 2026.

Demand builds in overlapping waves. The estimates put Valentine's Day spending at about £2.2 billion, Mother's Day at about £2.4 billion and Easter at about £2.3 billion. This pattern keeps pressure on supply and delivery capacity through the first quarter for florists, restaurants, supermarkets and gift sellers.

Overlapping demand

Many of the same categories repeat across the season, increasing the cumulative effect on shopping baskets. Flowers and eating out feature strongly around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. Chocolate, food and family activities rise around Easter, while confectionery remains prominent earlier in the period as well.

Chocolate is one of the clearest examples of repeat purchasing across the three holidays. The estimates suggest Valentine's Day generated about £85 million in confectionery sales, while boxed chocolate sales rose 13% for Mother's Day. Easter then drove another uplift, with about £109 million spent on confectionery in the final week before the holiday.

Flowers follow a similar trajectory. Cut flower sales reached £100 million for Valentine's Day. Mother's Day then surpassed that level, with florist transactions 14.5% higher than the Valentine's peak, making it the largest flower occasion of the year in the dataset.

Restaurant demand also clusters. Bookings rose 27% year-on-year on Valentine's Day. Mother's Day stood out again as the UK's most popular dining occasion in the dataset, with 78% participation and restaurant spending 37.9% above normal levels.

The close timing of the holidays can strain operations, but it can also support sellers that can serve multiple peaks with similar inventory and fulfilment needs.

"This overlap creates both pressure and opportunity. When Valentine's Day falls close to Mother's Day, shoppers often spend on the same categories within a short period of time. At the same time, the pattern benefits gifting platforms because the same sellers serve demand across each holiday. Florists, chocolatiers and independent bakeries supply all three occasions," Slava Bogdan, CEO and co-founder of Flowwow, said.

Platform signals

Flowwow's order mix shows how a single shopping list can stretch across the season. Flowers account for 86% of Mother's Day orders on the platform and are also a major category around Valentine's Day. Custom bento cakes are the fastest-growing product line, with orders up 79% year-on-year. Flowwow describes them as both confectionery gifts and personalised celebration items across the spring period.

Flowwow argues that the 10 weeks between mid-February and Easter now operate as an extended gifting season. For merchants, that framing affects how they plan labour, stock and delivery slots-treating the period as a connected cycle rather than three isolated events.

Spending shifts

Flowwow's figures also point to changing consumer preferences. It describes the UK's Mother's Day gifting market, valued at £1.67 billion, as stable, even as basket sizes fall. Average basket value declined 30% to £83, alongside a shift towards personalised and locally sourced presents.

The dataset links this to more selective spending. It contrasts the trend with weaker signals in traditional luxury, citing a global decline of roughly 50 million luxury customers since 2022 and a near 25% fall in UK luxury brand consideration last year.

Within Mother's Day orders on the platform, flowers lead the mix, including carnations, daffodils, tulips and gerberas. Chocolates and sweets account for 12% of orders, while custom bento cakes remain the fastest-growing category.

Some demographic breakdowns present a more complex picture. Among consumers aged 35 to 44, the share cited for flowers reaches 42%.

Local advantage

Flowwow points to signs that local merchants are benefiting from demand for personalisation. Survey-style figures indicate that more than 50% of citizens choose small businesses for unique personalised products unavailable at chains, while 51% shop local to support their community. For gifting, 47% prefer small businesses over larger retailers.

Flowwow links those preferences to order growth for independent sellers. UK Mother's Day orders rose 26% in 2025 while average basket values declined, suggesting higher volumes alongside tighter per-order budgets.

Fulfilment speed is also becoming a bigger factor. Same-day and next-day deliveries surge in the final days before Mother's Day, and Flowwow expects same-day delivery to exceed 40% of orders for the first time in 2026. That raises the stakes for retailers managing last-minute demand across all three spring peaks.