We hear a lot about the impact of Mother’s day but less about Father’s Day, perhaps understandable given that the latter is a smaller spend event. But two releases this week show that it remains key for early summer gifting.
And UK and global e-commerce order volumes increased in the lead-up to Father’s Day 2025, with year-on-year (YOY) growth reaching 18% ahead of Sunday 15 June, according to data from delivery management platform and post-purchase experience provider Scurri.
It said that in the week of Father’s Day (9-14 June) the highest order volumes occurred on Wednesday when they were up 22% YOY and Saturday (+20%) “as shoppers were split between mid-week planned purchases and last-minute present buys”. Order volume dipped by 14% on Friday YOY, “reflecting earlier purchasing or in anticipation of delivery deadlines”.
Fast delivery options ahead of the day were in high demand with 45% of all online orders processed in the week preceding Father’s Day fulfilled by an ‘Express Parcel with Signature’ delivery service, “highlighting shoppers’ need for speed and certainty that their parcel would arrive in time”. And 16% of online orders placed in the week of Father’s Day were delivered via Next Day, while 6% of shoppers cut it fine and opted for Sunday deliveries. Faster delivery services saw “significant growth” overall during the week compared to 2024.
Research by GlobalData had shown that 45% of UK consumers intended to participate in the occasion this year, a decrease of 2% on 2024 but with UK spending around the event predicted to rise by 1.8% to £1.12 billion.
Meanwhile, fragrance remains a key gift option and The Perfume Shop, the UK’s largest specialist perfume retailer, reported “an outstanding sales period with a record 248,142 bottles sold over the two weeks in the run up to the big day, a 10% increase in sales” YOY.
This equals around 12 sold every minute “as perfume continues to prove itself to be an extremely popular gift choice at this time of year”.
The retailer said people “embraced both in-store and online shopping, with 69% of sales happening in physical stores (+9% YoY) and 31% online (+13% YoY)”.
Shoppers were also willing to spend more, with the average customer spend rising to £66.99, up +2% compared to last year, a little ahead of that GlobalData estimate.
And what were they buying? Boss Bottled, Rabanne Invictus Victory, YSL Myslf, and Dior Sauvage “led the way. However, new fragrance launches also made their mark, with Boss Bottled Citrus and Montblanc Explorer Extreme standing out as top performers”.
Regionally, Northern Ireland saw the highest uplift in sales at 12.6%, closely followed by Scotland with an 11.2% rise.
Shoppers also “embraced personalised gifting, looking for unique and thoughtful presents, with The Perfume Shop reporting over 1,488 bottles engraved and 18,214 personalised ribbons sold during the two-week run-up to Father’s Day”.
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