Moms know best: What retailers can learn from the ultimate experience orchestrators

Fast Company

09-06-2025

With Mother's Day recently passed, it's a good time to remember the thoughtful orchestration mothers provide all year long. There are certainly lessons that retailers can learn from mothers: creating experiences that make life special, adapting to unexpected changes, handling details invisibly, and bringing everyone together seamlessly. They do all this so family members can simply show up and enjoy moments together.
Retail excellence can draw inspiration from the heart of what mothers do best: creating space for genuine connection.
A mother doesn't need to be reminded that her daughter prefers silver jewelry while her daughter-in-law loves gold. She tracks preferences, sizes, allergies, and history across family members without missing a beat. She maintains this knowledge across contexts; whether shopping online, in stores, or through catalogs—and family members don't have to repeat themselves unnecessarily.
Retailers should strive for the same deep connection with their customers. When a customer shops, they shouldn't need to explain their different preferences repeatedly—the retailer should remember each relationship's context across every touchpoint. Whether checking wishlists from the phone or visiting a physical store, the store associate should already know their customers' preferences, past purchases, style preference, and even preferred payment methods.
This maternal-like connection remains surprisingly rare in retail. As per the 2025 Unified Commerce Benchmark, only 26% of retailers rate their unified customer profiles and mobile capabilities as mature, which limits their ability to recall preferences across touchpoints. Meanwhile, 73% of unified commerce leaders excel in this area and equip their store teams with clienteling tools that extend their influence across channels, compared to just 23% of others.
By eliminating the burden of re-explanation, these retailers create space for more meaningful connections. Like a good mother, they remember the details so no one else has to, allowing everyone to focus on the relationship instead of the transaction.
ADAPTING ON THE FLY (BECAUSE PLANS ALWAYS CHANGE)
Ask any mother about her day, and you'll likely hear about at least one unexpected pivot. The sudden fever that canceled dinner plans. The forgotten permission slip that required a mid-morning delivery to school. The last-minute ingredient swap when the store was out of what she needed for dinner. Mothers don't just anticipate these changes—they seamlessly adapt to them, often without anyone noticing the behind-the-scenes adjustments.
Retailers need to develop this level of adaptability. When a customer changes their gift from store pickup to home delivery because they unexpectedly can't leave the house, they should not have to start the purchase journey over. When a gift is running late, proactive communication provides options before the recipient ever knows there was an issue. When a customer realizes they picked the wrong size or color, exchanges should happen without friction.
An astonishing 93% of retailers lack mature order modification capabilities—like changing delivery location or timing after purchase. Even among retail leaders, only about half have developed these capabilities to maturity, underscoring a major opportunity to offer greater flexibility.
This flexibility isn't just convenient—it's respectful of the reality of a consumer. When commerce bends to life's realities rather than forcing rigid processes, celebrations can unfold naturally.
Behind every seemingly effortless family gathering is a mother who handled countless details invisible to everyone else. She did this not because of her love for logistics, but because handling these details creates space for what actually matters: genuine connection.
Retailers who truly honor their customer relationships understand this principle. They recognize that the gift is the experience, not the transaction. Consider the beauty retailer that transforms shopping into an in-store event where consumers can experience products, with digital records that make future replenishment effortless.
This experiential approach represents retail's future, with 57% of retailers acknowledging that interactive digital elements are essential for creating compelling in-store experiences. Yet most haven't bridged this gap—only 16% of retailers have fully developed digital touchpoints that encourage exploration and engagement or offer personalized experiences based on customer behavior and preferences.
The gap between knowing what should be done and actually doing it remains substantial.
ORCHESTRATING MULTIPLE PLAYERS (WHILE MAKING IT LOOK EFFORTLESS)
Perhaps a mother's most impressive skill is coordinating multiple people's efforts, often without them realizing the complexity involved. Family members with different schedules, budgets, and ideas coming together in harmony. Somehow, moms make this complex choreography appear effortless.
Retailers need to bring this same invisible orchestration to shopping. Imagine a shared cart that family members can contribute to from different devices, with synchronized updates and no duplicate items, or a gift registry that works seamlessly whether accessed in-store, online, or through a mobile app.
This coordination pays dividends: Retailers who master this orchestration achieve 14% higher average order values, in part by enabling cross-device, cross-channel coordination and frictionless discovery.
Like a mother's careful planning that makes family gatherings appear effortless, these sophisticated systems create value precisely because their complexity remains invisible to shoppers enjoying the experience.
THE BEST TRIBUTE TO A MOM? BECOMING MORE LIKE HER
Retailers have a chance to reflect on the qualities that make mothers extraordinary—empathy, connection, adaptability—and apply them to the way they serve their customers. These very traits are the foundation of successful unified commerce: knowing what customers need before they ask, meeting them wherever they are, and delivering with care and consistency. In a fast-moving, omnichannel world, the retailers who win will be those who think—and act—with a mother's instinct.