Mother’s Day Study: The United States’ Most Frugal Mother’s Day Gifters

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and many are on the hunt for the perfect gift to give to their mom to show appreciation. 

However, long gone are the days that the holiday is celebrated purely out of sentiment, as it has grown increasingly commercialized, with U.S. shoppers spending over $35.7 billion on gifts in 2023. 

Although previous reports revealed consumers spent close to $275 per person for Mother’s Day – with numbers only set to increase in 2024 – some shoppers are looking for cheaper gifts for their moms.  

So, we decided to conduct a study to find the cheapest gift-givers in the USA. 

To find this, we looked at Google search data for any searches that included phrases like “cheap” or “inexpensive” Mother’s Day gifts. We recorded the total number of these searches from each state and compared the results. We also reviewed Amazon search terms to check out shopping trends for Mother’s Day gifts. 

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1. Wyoming 

In first place, and home to the cheapest gifters, is Wyoming, with 128 searches per 100,000 people in the last year. 

While Wyoming has been crowned one of the cheapest states to live in the U.S. in a recent study, another dubbed it the state with the most expensive food prices, costing citizens $4,780 annually.   

If it’s between spending those hard-earned dollars on mom or groceries, it looks like any moms living here are set to lose out! 

2. Vermont 

In second place is Vermont, where there are 103 searches from people looking to save a few dollars per 100,000.  

Unlike Wyoming, Vermont is a relatively wealthy state; however, growing income inequality could mean some residents are forced to bargain hunt when gift shopping. 

3. Delaware 

And Delaware is the third cheapest state, with 102 searches per 100,000 people. 

But with recent reports revealing that Delawarians struggling with rising inflation are having to engage in stricter budgeting, it’s hardly a surprise that spending on Mother’s Day gifts is lower down on the list of priorities, too. 

4. North Dakota 

Fourth is North Dakota – not surprising maybe, as the latest data shows the state’s economic growth is lower than the U.S. average.  

5. Rhode Island 

Also in the top five is Rhode Island with 87 searches for cheap Mother’s Day gifts per 100,000 people. The state ranks 45th in economic size among states in the USA, which could be why some shopping are looking to save on Mother’s Day this year. 

6. South Dakota 

South Dakota has historically had a rich agricultural economy with many of its residents embracing rural living. Maybe that is why many South Dakota citizens are seemingly placing less value on material things this Mother’s Day, at least according to their online gift-searching patterns. There were 84 searches per 100,000 people for cheap Mother’s Day gifts.  

7. West Virginia 

Life in West Virginia includes cheaper housing, lower crime rates, and community-focused towns. Given the lower living costs in this state, it might be a surprise to see them among the top ten states searching for Mother’s Day bargains, with 83 searches per 100,000 for cheap Mother’s Day gifts.    

8. Alaska 

Alaska – vast, beautiful, diverse. But living in such a vast landmass comes with a price (the cost of living in Alaska is 30% higher than the national average). You certainly can’t blame any Alaskans looking for cheaper gift choices this Mother’s Day – there are 79 searches per 100,000 people.  

9. Montana 

In ninth is Montana, with 73 searches per 100,000 people for cheap Mother’s Day gifts. According to the latest data from The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average annual salary in Montana is $52,200 – 18% below the national average. This might be why some gifters are looking to spend less on their moms this Mother’s Day.     

10. Hawaii 

Completing the top ten is Hawaii. According to the latest studies, the cost of living in Hawaii is the highest in the nation, so no wonder there are 72 searches per 100,000 for cheap Mother’s Day gifts. 

Next, we reviewed keyword search phrases for Mother’s Day gifts between April and May 2023 to discover key shopping dates as well as buyer intent on Amazon for the upcoming holiday.  

The historical data revealed that the majority of gifters visit Amazon just one week before the annual event, with over 18 million searches from people looking to the online marketplace for inspiration.  

Search phrases varied from vague phrases, such as: 

• “mothers day” 

“‘mothers day gift ideas”  

to more specific searches for things like: 

• “mothers day gift basket” 
• “mothers day card” 
• “cool mothers day gifts” 
• “flowers for mothers day”  

Vaguer phrases suggest shoppers are using Amazon as a kind of search engine and for inspiration, while slightly more specific searches show a general idea yet rely on sellers to guide them to purchase. 

Plus, there were several Amazon searches that showed how gifters wanted to find products depending on their relationship with the receiver.  

For example, “mothers day gifts for wife” had 1.5 million searches, “first mothers day gifts” had over 150K, and “mother’s day gifts from kids” had just shy of 300K. This suggests that the shopper is looking for a gift for their partner, potentially someone who is yet to become a mom, or who has a baby or child who is unable to shop for the gift themselves.     

Meanwhile, other search phrases suggest the gifter wants their purchase to accurately represent their relationship to their mother figure. “Mother’s day gifts for mom from daughter,” “mother’s day gifts from daughter” and “mother’s day card from daughter” had over three million searches collectively, while only around 400K people searched for gifts specifically “from son” or “for grandma.”  

Interestingly, Amazon sellers seem to capitalize on this late-buying trend and lack of awareness from buyers.   

Out of all the products with “Mother’s Day gift” in the title in 2023, 60 percent were new products or new variations of existing products, while the other 40 percent consisted of existing products that updated product titles in the ten weeks before the annual holiday (and those that added it in even earlier) to keep the phrase present for organized shoppers. Breaking down the 20 percent of products that added a Mother’s Day phrase to their title shortly before the holiday – a quarter waited until the two weeks before, while three-quarters did it in the month before.  

Methodology

First, we did initial research to find the most popular/common search terms around “Mother’s Day gifts” to give ourselves a seed list of keywords. We took keywords containing phrases like “cheap” and “bargains” to compile a list of keywords with money-saving intent.  

We then put this list of keywords into Keyword Planner on Google Ads, filtering by U.S. State, to find the total number of searches in the last 12 months for “cheap Mother’s Day gifts” queries.  

In examining searches related to Mother’s Day, we reviewed Amazon search terms with the words “mother” and “day” in some combined order, except for a few specific instances, such as when “day” is “birthday.” The analysis included all search terms between March 1, 2023, and July 1, 2023, which covers the actual period of Mother’s Day plus the periods directly preceding and following Mother’s Day. This analysis provided insights into what combinations of words customers are searching for regarding the holiday.  

We also reviewed Amazon product titles with Mother’s Day in the title to see how many products are specifically being marketed to shoppers for these holidays. Finally, we looked at the dates when the titles changed from not including those keywords to including those keywords to understand when sellers are expecting customers to search for gifts.