Planning for Mother’s Day has gotten easier for the gift-focused retailer Edible, as it continues to flesh out its fulfillment strategy.
Erica Randerson, chief digital officer of Edible Brands, told Digital Commerce 360 that the retailer has been focusing on last-mile delivery as it continues to expand fulfillment. She said Edible has been increasingly trying to accommodate last-minute purchases as a convenience for customers.
“Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are really our two big Super Bowl moments of the calendar year,” Randerson told Digital Commerce 360. “What we saw both in Q4 holidays and in Valentine’s Day was that the customer was coming through the figurative ecommerce store later than ever.”
She referred to gifting, especially at the last minute, as “highly emotional purchase decisions.” In 2018 and 2019 — and in general, before the COVID-19 pandemic, she said — Edible would see a week-long sales period for Valentine’s Day. And it could span up to 10 business days, she said.
Now, Edible sees demand for Valentine’s Day build up in early February. Edible will see a million customers a day on its website at any given time leading up to the holiday, Randerson told Digital Commerce 360. That amplifies the need for last-minute gifting, she explained.
Edible’s customers made more last-minute purchases for Valentine’s Day in 2026 than in 2025, Randerson said, without quantifying the growth. The retailer “saw quite the influx in orders” on Feb. 13 and 14, she said.
Edible Brands is No. 182 in the Top 2000 Database. That database ranks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.
Edible drives AOV growth on Valentine’s Day 2026
Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day inherently have key differences. An important factor, Randerson noted, is the day of the week. Valentine’s Day can fall on different days of the week, whereas Mother’s Day in the U.S. is always on a Sunday. (Some countries celebrate Mother’s Day on certain Sundays in May, while other countries celebrate on specific dates in March and May.)
Valentine’s Day 2025 fell on a Saturday, the first time since 2015.
“It was an interesting kind of anomaly for us to look ahead at in terms of forecasting perspective,” Randerson said. “But year over year, we had phenomenal wins when it came to AOV. That’s something that’s also been really interesting for us as we look at just economic times that we’re in currently where wallets, purse strings might be getting a little bit tighter.”
She said Edible has driven AOV growth through investments in personalization and customization on its website and app, as well as expanding its presence on third-party marketplaces. Personalization refers to catering offers to certain customers based on the data a retailer has on those customers. Customization refers to allowing consumers to, for example, create their own bundles or order modified products based on their specifications.
Edible has also partnered with third-party delivery services to expand its fulfillment offerings, Randerson said.
“First party today for Edible, our franchisees can deliver to about 90% of U.S. zip codes within the hour,” Randerson said. “So we have significant coverage through our franchise system, but what we really unlocked was longer-distance deliveries this Valentine’s Day by partnering with some third-party delivery services as well.”
Edible capitalizes on last-mile delivery expansion for Mother’s Day
The retailer uses predictive forecasting to help its franchisees understand the volume and type of product Edible will send each day of the week leading up to a holiday, Randerson said. That helps franchisees ensure they are prepared from an inventory standpoint.
It then optimizes its website and app experiences based on changes in inventory and customer needs, Randerson said. She gave an example that a promotion could perform “far better” than Edible anticipated, so it might try to extend or make tweaks to it to better serve the customer, franchisee or both.
Edible has to “stay nimble to ensure that we’re meeting whatever challenges may arise,” she said. “And when you’re delivering millions of gifts in a short amount of time, there certainly can come challenges.”
That desire to enable last-minute capabilities is part of why Edible is “very hands-on” with its franchises, she said, helping with staffing models that factor in how many drivers a location will need to appropriately handle the volume it receives on holidays.
More than 80% of Edible Brands’ business comes from ecommerce, Randerson told Digital Commerce 360.
“Because so much of our business is driven from digital, we’re really blessed to have that data to be able to arm them and prepare them to take on the volume that comes during these key holiday times,” she said.
Edible is constantly “equipping” its system with additional last-mile delivery options, Randerson said. By deploying Uber Direct, DoorDash Drive, Nash and Roadie, Randerson said, Edible is expanding its fulfillment reach.
“That’s not something new that we introduced just for the holidays, which I think is also why it runs so smoothly,” Randerson said. “This is not a twice-a-year lever that we pull. It’s an everyday lever that we’re just pulling a lot more frequently on these holidays.”
Mother’s Day ecommerce trends in 2026
Data from Adobe Analytics indicates areas where consumers have begun spending online leading up to Mother’s Day. It compared ecommerce sales trends in the last week of April to those from Jan. 1 through April 25.
Adobe found that online sales of fragrances increased 35% in the last week of April compared to the beginning of the year. That compares to 25% growth in the same period of 2025.
Similarly, online sales of purses and handbags increased 37% in late April, versus 30% in the same time frame last year.
However, online sales of jewelry increased 21% in late April 2026, compared to 29% growth in April 2025. Within the jewelry category, online sales for watches have increased 80%. For necklaces, that growth was 51%, and it was 44% for earrings.
Adobe said it expects “a major uptick” in flower sales online, spiking on May 9 and 10 — Mother’s Day and the day before. It anticipates a 550% to 6005 increase in online sales of flowers over the weekend.
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