Mother's Day 2026 Rakuten stack: FTD 22%, Ulta 15%, and more (verified May 2026, updated August 2026). Here's the playbook plus what's still elevated today.
TL;DR: Mother's Day was Sunday, May 10, 2026. Rakuten paid 22% on FTD Flowers, 15% on Ulta Beauty, 10% on Kay Outlet and Zales, and 8% on Sephora that week (rates verified May 5, 2026 from rewardsguru.club's rakuten_offers source-of-truth table). Update, verified August 12, 2026: FTD Flowers still shows an elevated 15% Cash Back on Rakuten; Ulta Beauty, Kay Outlet, Zales, and Zales Outlet have reverted to their 2% baseline. Stack a 2-3% flat-rate card on top and you're at 22-26% effective return. Your card choice barely matters here — Rakuten does the heavy lifting. Whatever you do, start at rakuten.com first, then click through to the merchant. No click-through = no cash back.
Mother's Day is the third-largest U.S. retail spending event of the year (~$31B in 2025, per the National Retail Federation). The categories are predictable — flowers, jewelry, beauty, dining, gift cards — and Rakuten knows it. So the cashback rates jump 5-10x on those merchants for the week leading into the holiday, then quietly revert to 2% baseline by the following Tuesday.
Here's the playbook for capturing that ~24% return without overthinking it. For the full picture of what else is elevated on Rakuten today, see our May 5 Rakuten deals roundup.
These are LIVE rates pulled from the rakuten_offers data table on the morning of May 5. This week also overlaps with Rakuten's Big Give Week catalog-wide boost, so check our guide to stacking cards with Big Give Week for categories outside this list. Categories most relevant to Mother's Day:
| Merchant | Rakuten rate | Normal rate | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTD Flowers | 22% | 1-2% | Flowers, gift baskets |
| Ulta Beauty | 15% | 2% | Skincare, makeup, perfume |
| 1-800 CONTACTS | 15% | 4% | Contact lenses (yes, this counts) |
| kate spade outlet | 15% | 2% | Handbags, accessories |
| Spartina 449 | 15% | 2% | Handbags |
| Kay Outlet | 10% | 1-2% | Jewelry (outlet pricing) |
| Zales / Zales Outlet | 10% | 1-2% | Jewelry |
| SPANX | 10% | 2% | Apparel |
| Sephora | up to 8% | 1-2% | Beauty |
| Kay Jewelers | 4% | 1-2% | Mainline jewelry |
| Macy's | 2% | 1-2% | Department store / multi-category |
| Nordstrom | 2% | 1-2% | Department store / multi-category |
The standouts: FTD Flowers at 22% is genuinely exceptional — flowers are a low-margin category and 22% is the highest publicly advertised rate FTD has paid through Rakuten in the past year. Ulta at 15% is also notable; their normal Rakuten rate is 2%, so this is a 7.5x boost.
Skip Macy's and Nordstrom for primary purchases — at 2%, you might as well shop direct unless you specifically want their loyalty points to stack.
Once you've clicked through Rakuten, the card you use for the actual purchase contributes 1-5% on top. For the general mechanics of pairing any card with Rakuten, see our Rakuten and credit card stacking guide. The math is unambiguous:
The single best move: if dining/restaurant gift cards are your Mother's Day strategy, make sure your monthly Custom Cash usage hasn't already exceeded the $500 cap on the 5% rate. Otherwise the second-best option (Amex Gold's 4x dining) wins on raw value.
Citi Custom Cash earns 5% cash back on your top spend category each billing cycle, up to $500 per cycle (then 1%). Eligible categories include: restaurants, gas, groceries, drug stores, home improvement, fitness clubs, live entertainment, select streaming, select transit, select travel.
For Mother's Day specifically:
The night before you shop:
At checkout:
24-72 hours later:
Say you're spending $120 on flowers from FTD and $80 on a Sephora gift set. Total: $200.
That's the floor. If you have Robinhood Gold (3% flat) instead of Double Cash, you're at $39 even on the same purchases. If you concentrate spend on FTD only ($200 of flowers): 22% × $200 = $44 from Rakuten + $4 from your card = 24% effective return. For the broader logic behind why stacking multiplies instead of just adding, see our explainer on how stacking credit card rewards actually works.
The boosted rate is part of Rakuten's Mother's Day promotional cycle, which historically reverts within 2-3 days after the holiday (for 2026 that meant by May 12-13, and that cycle has since ended). Rates are set by FTD and Rakuten, not us — verify the current rate at rakuten.com before purchase.
Usually yes, but check FTD's Rakuten cash-back terms. Some sites mark coupon-discounted orders as "ineligible" for cashback. Test by completing a small order first if you're concerned.
Most. The terms typically exclude "shipping, taxes, and fees" — so on a $100 product with $15 shipping, the 22% applies to the $100, not the $115 total.
FTD doesn't currently advertise a per-order cap. Larger orders (e.g., $500 corporate gift baskets) usually still earn the full rate, though Rakuten reserves the right to flag unusually high cashback events for review.
File a "missing cashback" claim through your Rakuten account within 30 days, with the order confirmation as proof. Rakuten resolves these manually within 2-4 weeks. Don't wait — file as soon as 7 days post-purchase if it hasn't shown as "pending."
Sources verified May 5, 2026: Rakuten FTD Flowers store page, Rakuten Ulta Beauty store page, Citi Custom Cash card page, NRF — Mother's Day spending statistics, internal rakuten_offers source-of-truth (last_scraped_at 2026-05-05).