No one knows for sure what will happen with Christmas sales this year but we talked to the thousands of retail florists we work with, as well as wholesalers, growers, suppliers and manufacturers for their predictions. We hope this information will help you make more informed choices for your business!
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Here are the key areas to consider for your holiday plan...
PRODUCT
Expect fewer choices and shortages as more wholesalers close and growers struggle to keep up with demand. My wholesale connections advise to order as much fresh product as early as possible. It may be difficult to get the containers and ribbons you need because many factories shut down temporarily, leading to less product on the open market. Consider stores like Hobby Lobby, JoAnn and Dollar Tree as supplemental sources. Remember the lessons learned this year at Mother’s Day: customers will happily buy your recommendation of an open order. FloralStrategies customers: see page 10 in your CORE TRAINING handbook for the two simple steps to selling more open orders.
WEB SELECTION
Less is more! While some shops have moved to ALL designer’s choice on their site, we believe that customers want to choose from finished products. Keep your choices limited based on what you know you can get from your wholesaler. Since many shops have been dropping out of the wire services, you may want to consider limiting those container-based arrangements on your site to local delivery. You may have a hard time finding a shop out of your area to fill those orders. As always, we STRONGLY advise placing at least a few ‘luxury’ choices on your site (25% higher than your highest current item) so customers can splurge on the recipient they may not get to visit. FloralStrategies customers: see page 19 in your CORE TRAINING handbook for an easy tip for dealing with web shoppers and converting them to an open order.
STAFFING
Many shops struggle to find qualified designers. Maybe you simply need to train your own! We’ll discuss this in more detail in our Valentine Boot Camp webinar on Jan 12th. Consider hiring ‘arrangers’: artistic people who like working with flowers and their hands and are willing to start at the bottom and learn a skill. You can pay them less, train them the way you want your orders filled and task them with the basics: greening containers and/or filling the simple orders like plant baskets or rose arrangements. You can nurture them to become full-fledged designers. FloralStrategies customers: upon request we will send a free copy of our FIND, INTERVIEW and HIRE the Best Staff for your Shop webinar workshop.
PRICING
Your costs are rising. You need to pass that onto your customers. It’s a simple case of supply and demand. You are paying more for product so you need to adjust your retail prices accordingly. FloralStrategies customers: see page 5 in your CORE TRAINING handbook for the comfortable, easy way to explain higher prices to customers without losing the sale.
HOURS
Some shops are extending hours for phone orders but not walk-in traffic. That’s an easy way to optimize sales with minimum staffing. Be sure to share any modified hours on your website and to update your google listing.
WIRE SERVICES
We see our customers leaving the traditional wire services quicker than ever before. We recommend joining FlowerShopNetwork.com, a great source for sending shop-to-shop orders which are predicted to leap by double-digits this Christmas.
FloralStrategies customers: upon request we will send a free copy of our Wealth from Wire Outs webinar workshop which includes powerful sales scripts for selling out of town orders.
SALES
Expect customers to spend more as many of the floral gifts they will be ordering are not just a gesture but a replacement for a visit. Make sure to offer customers HIGHER PRICE points and they will buy them. FloralStrategies customers report that customer spending, on average, is 25% per more vs. the same time last year. This is the perfect time to sell more add-ons. Beyond your traditional offerings, consider a ‘luxury gift wrap’ on holiday plants (branches/ornaments/velvet ribbon) and the option of a ‘hand-written’ greeting card to accompany any purchase. FloralStrategies customers: see page 11 in your CORE TRAINING handbook for the easy language to double your add-on sales.
TECHNOLOGY
If you are going to bring in extra help, you will need additional workstations. Reach out to your POS provider NOW to set up those temporary spots. Also, if you need to have staff work from home, ask your POS provider about setting them up to log into your system from their computer.
If you have a message printed on your receipt for walk-in customers remember to update it, maybe reminding shoppers to order their Valentine flowers early!
