Market Report-12

A Prince & Prince Market Report

Historical Consumer Floral Purchasing Trends for Mother’s Day:

An Age Group Perspective

Insight from the Prince & Prince U.S. Consumer Floral Tracking Survey

RELEASE DATE: May 4th, 2022

Over the years, Prince & Prince (P&P) has periodically released a projection for the retail value of U.S. consumer floral purchasing for Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 8^th, 2022). For 2022, that floral spending projection is $5.1 billion dollars at retail, including all fresh floral products (fresh cut flower arrangements, bouquets, roses, single stems, and corsages, and indoor potted flowering and foliage plants & planters) and any associated delivery/ service fees. This aggregate floral spending estimate is up from the last P&P reporting in 2019, prior to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic (Prince & Prince, 2019). Mother’s Day is the largest "floral holiday" for the U.S. floral industry, as P&P projects that in 2022, more than 57 million households in the U.S. will purchase fresh cut flowers and/or potted plants for a well-deserving mom on this special day.

In this reporting on consumer fresh floral purchasing for Mother’s Day, P&P delve into their consumer floral databases, and examine the historical trends in floral purchasing for Mother’s Day over the past 20 years, and the purchasing trends for specific age groups of consumers. While the overall consumer floral purchasing trend for Mother’s Day has been relatively “stable” over the past two decades, the floral purchasing trends for specific consumer age groups have been quite volatile.

P&P has been tracking U.S. consumer floral purchasing behavior for Mother’s Day, and for 20 other holidays, events, and occasions over the past two decades with their periodic surveys of U.S. floral-buying households (Prince & Prince, 2020). These surveys are completed by randomly-selected floral-buying households throughout the U.S. and returned to P&P for statistical analysis, using a “mixed-mode” survey methodology (both printed mailed surveys, and on-line surveys) now deemed essential to obtain valid and reliable survey information from consumers (Dillman, et al., 2014).

Over the years, P&P has compiled consumer floral-purchasing information from over seven national surveys and from more than 7,000 randomly selected floral-buying households throughout the U.S. Thus, P&P is able to reliably identify and project salient floral-purchasing trends over time for the floral industry.

Consumer Floral Purchasing Trends for Mother’s Day

Chart 1 shows the historical trend in the percentage of U.S. floral-buying households that make floral purchases for Mother’s Day across the P&P survey years. In 2000, a hefty 60% of floral-buying households nationwide had made at least one floral purchase for Mother’s Day (termed the incidence of floral purchase), and while that percentage climbed higher to 63% in 2007 (prior to the recession of 2008), the trend has declined since 2007, down to 61% in 2013, and even lower to 59% in 2019.

Statistical analysis of the purchasing data for Mother’s Day revealed a significant quadratic trend over the nearly 20-year period (a rise, then a fall). P&P’s survey update planned for 2023 will identify if the declining floral purchasing trend for Mother’s Day continues, or if the declining trend has abated since 2019. The slight decline in the household incidence of floral purchasing for Mother’s Day over the past decade is likely NOT noticeable by members of the floral industry, as the number of households in the U.S. (about 130 million in 2021) continues to increase, at about one percent gain per year (Chart 2). Thus, the slight decline in the incidence of floral purchasing for the holiday is largely offset each year by the increasing number of floral-buying households within the U.S.

Consumer Floral Purchasing Trends for Mother’s Day By Age Group

While the overall trend in consumer floral purchasing for Mother’s Day has been largely “stable” over the years, when one decomposes that overall trend by consumer age groups, quite different patterns emerge. Chart 3 shows the historical trends in consumer floral purchasing for Mother’s Day for five consumer age groups: ages under 35, 35 to 44, 45 to 54, 55 to 64, and 65 and older. Note that in year 2000, while the average floral purchasing percentage for Mother’s Day was about 60%, purchasing was being led higher by those aged 35 to 44, at nearly 70%, and purchasing was being pulled lower by those aged 65 and older, at about 45%. Thus in 2000, there was a 25-percentage point “spread” in Mother’s Day floral purchasing between the highest-purchasing age group (ages 35 to 44) and the lowest-purchasing age group (ages 65 and older). Nearly twenty years later, in 2019, while the average purchasing incidence for Mother’s Day was about the same (58%), purchasing was being led higher by a different age group, those aged under 35, at nearly 75%, and being pulled lower, again, by those aged 65 and older, at about 55%, but this purchasing incidence for the eldest group was about 10 percentage points higher than in year 2000. In fact, from year 2000 to 2019, four of the five consumer age groups gained in floral purchasing for Mother’s Day over the nearly 20-year

period. However, the group aged 35 to 44, while attaining about 75% purchasing incidence in 2013, dropped a whopping 15 percentage points to about 60% purchasing by 2019, largely pulling down the overall purchasing average for 2019. Note also that for 2019, the “spread” in the Mother’s Day floral purchasing among consumer age groups (e.g. highest vs. lowest) was smaller than in 2000 (about 20% vs. 25%). If this trend continues into the future, it would suggest that “consumer age” is becoming less of a discriminating factor to consumer floral purchasing for Mother’s Day, as the individual age-group averages converge on the overall average score.

One of the largest gains in Mother’s Day floral purchasing between P&P survey periods was with those aged 65 and older, from survey year 2013 to 2019, a nearly 10 percentage-point gain. At P&P, we ascribe much of this “elder gain” in Mother’s Day floral purchasing to the aging “baby boomer” generation, traditionally strong floral buyers, that have already, and continue to enter into this older consumer age group. It is also noteworthy that the youngest age group (age under 35) made strong gains in Mother’s Day floral purchasing between 2007 and 2013, and this younger group largely maintained those purchasing gains through 2019. P&P’s planned consumer survey update in 2023 will reveal how these age-related trends in Mother’s Day floral purchasing are changing, and it will assist P&P in making more reliable floral-market predictions for the entire U.S. floral industry.

The 2023 Prince & Prince U.S. Consumer Floral Tracking Survey

Prince & Prince funds its floral marketing research programs thru collaboration and support from various floral companies and associations that become “P&P Research Co-sponsors”. P&P is currently seeking research co-sponsors for a 2023 update of the P&P U.S. Consumer Floral Tracking Survey (please contact P&P for specific survey content). This updated market research will track U.S. consumer floral purchasing trends and floral-outlet evaluations across eight national surveys conducted over the past 25+ years (initial P&P consumer survey conducted in 1996). The 2023 P&P Research Co-sponsors will receive the floral market research presentation first thru a one-day, on-site seminar with Q&A session, the complete 800+ slide presentation on flash drive, and sponsors receive exclusivity of the floral market information for a one-year period. Interested parties should contact P&P for research sponsorship opportunities.

Literature Cited

Dillman, D.A., Smyth, J.D. and Christian, L.M. (2014). Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys (Fourth Edition). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Prince, T.L. and Prince, T.A. (2020). The 2019 Prince & Prince U.S. Consumer Floral Tracking Survey (One or Two-Day On-Site Seminar with Q&A, or Seminar on Flash Drive). Columbus, OH: Prince & Prince, Inc.

Prince, T.L. and Prince, T.A. (2019). Prince & Prince Project a $4.5 Billion Dollar U.S. Consumer Floral Market for Mother’s Day 2019. (P&P Market Report). Columbus, OH: Prince & Prince, Inc.