Show moms extra love this year. With Mother’s Day coming up fast, savvy beauty and fashion brands will use this special occasion to inspire pampering and gift giving to fuel their e-commerce sales growth.

This year, beauty and fashion are poised to boom, as 40% of consumers plan to buy beauty products and 37% will buy new outfits for going out. ¹ According to eMarketer, apparel and accessories e-commerce sales will grow nearly 19% this year due to pent-up demand for clothing, while health and beauty sales will rise 16%. ²

“People will be happy to go out again …
there will be a fiesta in makeup and in fragrances.”

~L’Oréal CEO and Chairman Jean-Paul Agon

After beauty and apparel sales declined last year, brands now seize every opportunity to capitalize on the categories’ resurgence in 2021. To differentiate their goods, brands can use e-commerce marketing best practices to position their fashion and beauty items as spectacular gifts that moms will love.

Aligning with the latest trends can help brands boost online growth.

Hot trends dominating beauty and fashion

This Mother’s Day, shoppers can delight moms with beauty bestsellers like:

• Mask-friendly makeup: As we continue to wear masks over the short-term, cosmetics like false lashes, smudge-proof mascara and ultra-hypoallergenic eyeshadow will remain popular. ³
• Fragrances: Online fragrance sales rose 45% year-over-year in 2020. Clean and organic beauty categories grew 56% with fragrance brands growing the most. ⁴
• Purpose-led brands: Consumers crave companies that care. More online searches contain keywords like “ethical beauty” and “sustainable makeup” for products that help consumers look good and feel good. ⁵

Online fashion is in vogue

Before the pandemic, consumers bought less than one-third of their apparel or footwear online; last year, the proportion surged to an astounding 51%. In 2021, consumers will invest even more in their wardrobes, including trends like:

• Comfort: Athleisure will remain in demand as many consumers still prefer comfortable clothing when they work from home. ⁷
• Beloved staples: Classic pieces like jeans, dresses and simple yet elegant tops are making a comeback as consumers start to go out more. ⁸
• Retro ‘80s: Ladies are ready to party like it’s 1984. Bright and metallic colors and sequins for occasionwear (and even NFL linebacker-inspired shoulderpads) are recreating a fun, indulgent ’80s vibe. ⁹

Brands’ secret weapon for a competitive advantage

For successful Mother’s Day campaigns, more fashion and beauty brands will use digital shelf analytics for marketing decisions that maximize their ROI and e-commerce sales.

To ensure online shoppers discover Mother’s Day products with ease, brands are using Share of Search insights to measure their share of digital shelf. These DataWeave analytics tell brands which keywords perform best. Brands can also benchmark their search and navigation visibility against rivals’ rankings across e-commerce categories, websites and geographic regions.

Using Content Audit insights tells brands how their content is performing. They can discover and fill content gaps so their products show up more prominently. Optimizing content (like keywords, product page titles, descriptions, ads and sponsored space) and images to align with the retailers’ search algorithms ensures a consistent brand experience across all online channels. Improving content helps brands connect to consumers with marketing that resonates and inspires them to buy.
Brands also use

Pricing and Promotions insights to measure the effectiveness of their online promotions and secure sales. Brands can stay competitive by ensuring their pricing and promotions are in line with rivals’ offers, such as identifying first movers and rivals with the deepest discounts across retailers and SKUs. Brands can even determine how imitating rivals’ pricing and promotional moves could impact revenue and sales volume.

Help shoppers make Mom’s day

Since Mother’s Day is almost here, beauty and fashion brands can apply these data insights to connect consumers with a variety of products moms will love. Digital shelf analytics from DataWeave can help brands deliver timely campaigns, improve their return on digital marketing spend and make effective marketing decisions to drive e-commerce sales.

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^{1 Howland, Daphne. Wells Fargo sees permanent behavior shifts from the pandemic. Retail Dive. March 29, 2021.
2 Droesch, Blake. US Ecommerce by Category 2021. eMarketer. April 27, 2021.
3 Wood, Dana. Is Makeup Dead? The Robin Report. April 18, 2021.
4 Larson, Kristin. Fragrance Sales Pick Up As Consumers Reengage With The Outside World. Forbes. April 27, 2021.
5 What Can Brands Learn About Sustainability From Green Beauty Consumers? Beauty Business Journal. June 15, 2020.
6 Howland, Daphne. Wells Fargo sees permanent behavior shifts from the pandemic. Retail Dive. March 29, 2021.
7 Ibid.
8 Bhattarai, Abha. Americans are starting to buy real clothes again. The Washington Post. March 18, 2021.
9 Warren, Liz. Loose Denim and Bold Occasionwear on Full Display for Fall 2021. Sourcing Journal. April 2, 2021.}