A Store’s Secret Weapon
By Jim Prevor, Editor-in-Chief, Produce Business
Consumer research on floral is a perilous endeavor, and we have to thank the PMA for being brave enough to jump right in and start generating some numbers.
The difficulty is that the word “floral” covers two distinct functional categories and rarely do the twain meet. It takes an attentive ear to be certain consumers are talking about the same thing the researcher is talking about.
By far the largest floral business in America is funerals — roughly half of all flowers sold in America are for funerals. Weddings follow next. Add in christenings, bar mitzvahs, hospital flowers — and few and far between are the mass-market outlets that get much of this “special occasion” business.
So when consumers say they are “just about as likely” to buy flowers from a supermarket as a florist, they actually mean “except for when we are buying flowers for funerals, weddings and other occasions, which is when we spend the bulk of the money we actually spend on flowers.”
Most mass marketers know special occasion flowers are not their game. There are exceptions, particularly in rural areas where a supermarket floral shop may be the only floral shop. In this case, it can behoove executives to invest money in hiring great designers, buying delivery vans and, in general, operating a full florist shop that happens to be inside a supermarket or other mass-market outlet.
The need for highly skilled employees, the liability issue of delivery vans, the possibility of alienating a family because the bridal bouquet wasn’t just right and thus losing the family as food customers — all this adds up to the decision that a full-service floral shop, capable of handling a lifetime of floral needs, just isn’t the business of a mass merchandiser.
On the other hand, heavy traffic already streaming through and frequent shoppers needing to replenish perishables make for the perfect opportunity to sell to impulse buyers and those who regularly buy flowers to beautify their homes.
Even here the exigencies of square footage and commitment mean mass marketers will offer consumers a varied face. Sometimes it is only pre-made bouquets, sometimes a display case with bouquets and arrangements, sometimes a design staff keeping things interesting and producing assortments.
There are, of course, plants, balloons, and ancillary items, and even a small floral department may get beefed up for Christmas and other key floral holidays.
Floral can be tough to manage, especially if a store is trying to offer a full-service shop. Bryan’s story about George is to the point. Note Bryan didn’t say George’s replacement was incompetent and rude, just lacking in “flair and personality.” How is a chain with a few thousand stores going to consistently have floral designers with pizzazz? How many produce managers have pizzazz? It could be said that the whole raison d’être of mass merchandisers is to enable non-specialists to offer acceptable products.
A retailer sometimes gets lucky and a George comes to work. Mostly, though, floral training is needed not to turn every floral employee into the “Floral Designer of the Month” but to teach care and handling basics. Some tips on boosting floral sales in mass-market stores:
1. Don’t hide the department. It is shocking how many retailers go into floral because they want the impulse sale and then find some out-of-the-way nook for the floral counter. Floral displays must be in the mainstream of the traffic flow. Typically, ethylene issues mean the produce department is not the best place for floral.
2. Cross-merchandise. Wine and flowers. Fine cheeses and flowers. Picking up prepared foods for dinner? Flowers are perfect. The hassled mom buying disposable diapers and baby food — she needs a bouquet as well.
3. Increase your shrink. Flowers hidden behind glass doors may keep better, but you don’t want to keep them — you want to sell them. Impulse purchases — remember Bryan’s 61 percent of spur-of-the-moment purchases — require flowers out and available.
4. Capitalize on late night and weekend hours. Even customers who might prefer to buy at a florist may turn to a mass-market outlet when florists are closed. What an opportunity! Pick up a sale now and, possibly, win a customer for life. Unfortunately, many a floral operation is allowed to “run down” at night, and its appearance can convince the late-night guy he was right to want a florist shop. We have to do better here.
5. It shouldn’t scream supermarket bouquet. It is too easy to identify a “supermarket bouquet” and, as such, it comes across as a last-minute purchase. We need to look at our wraps, hang tags, even where we put price tags to make sure our bouquets look like an improvisation by the buyer.
6. Variety and change make flowers sell. Research shows a display of roses will not sell as many roses as a display of roses and 10 different flowers. Change and variety keep interest up and attract consumers to a beautiful, fragrant display. This is not soup — you can’t offer the same variety every day.
7. Get in sync with the store. Does your store sell lots of organics? If a big chunk of those consumers are concerned with the environmental impact of synthetic chemicals, the justification for buying organically grown flowers is ready made. Add to this the “locally grown” issue and the fact that while most cut flowers sold in America are imported, most organically grown flowers sold are domestic — and you see the market has real potential.
Floral is really a store’s “secret weapon.” While it produces sales and profits, if properly merchandised, it also decorates the store and adds fragrance. That alone makes it a department worth growing and the floral consumer, a customer worth knowing.