How was Mother’s Day 2021 for florists?  Floranext surveyed 252  flower shops to get a sense of how the holiday went for their business. Here are the top 4 things that you need to know.

• Mother’s Day Sales 2021 were way better than expected – over 95% of the shops report the sales beat or matched their expectation! 

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• The hiccups with flower supply chains did not stop the floral industry energy this year, but had a significant impact on prices – nearly 90% were able to get the flowers they needed, but 31% said wholesale prices were a lot higher than usual for the holiday.

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• Website continue to be the major driver for Mother’s Day sales – most of orders come from florist websites, followed by phone calls with minimal walk-ins

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• Artistic expression still the key to success for flower shops – arranged flowers were still best sellers for over 80% of shops. 

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For more detailed answers to each question see the charts below: 

Were you open for Mother’s Day Sunday?

Was Mother’s Day …. (better, same, worse) than expected?

Were you able to get the flowers you needed?

Did Mother’s Day flower prices increase more than usual?

What was your top-selling product this Mother’s Day?

What was your most popular Mother’s Day gift item?

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Thank you for reading the Floranext Mother’s Day Floral Industry Survey for 2021. We are committed to bringing flower shops the best information and tips to run their floral business. Click here to learn more about our florist software and how you can upgrade your florist website or floral point of sale. 

Survey based on data from 252 florists (86% in the United States, 8.1% in Canada, 5.4% International). 

Eco-friendly, sustainable, and going green seem to be just buzz words but they are also ideas that seem to have some staying power. With Millennials and Gen-Z concerns over the environment, there is a lot of selling power in “going green”. So how can you be a more conscious floral shop that not only increases sales but also helps the environment?

Shop Local

All small businesses need a little boost nowadays and supporting local businesses helps you build critical relationships within your community. If you have a local candy or coffee store, consider using their products for your box of chocolates. If you have a local craft shop it may be the best place to get ribbon, tulle, and other wrappings. Does a local farmer produce flowers that you could use in your designs? While social media and online marketing are important the old-fashioned ‘word of mouth’ can still be just as important. If you send business their way, they are likely to send it yours.

Mindful Sourcing

It may be hard to be critical of sourcing your materials since it feels like you don’t have many options especially if you live in a smaller area. Knowing your supplier and your options is a major hit or miss when it comes to creating an eco-conscious and sustainable store. Does your provider gather your product in a fair-trade manner? Is there a potential for unsafe working conditions on the farms where your flowers come from? Are the growers protecting the land and not damaging it? There are many ethical questions and concerns that you as a shopper should be aware of.

Recycle When Possible

There is a lot of waste in the floral world from the plastic the flowers come in, to the cardboard they are shipped in. There are also any plastic containers you send your product out in and the glass containers you build in! If you want a more eco-friendly shop it may be time to put some procedures into place like being mindful of how much wire or paper you use, returning the boxes your flowers are shipped in to be reused or offering return discounts for vases that come back to your shop.

Turn Off Non-Essentials

As florists, we often get into a routine of flipping on various tools as soon as we enter the store but find ourselves rarely using the item we turned on. Consider whether these tools are essential and whether or not you can replace them with something else. Try opening windows instead of using your A/C or rely on natural daylight rather than overhead lights. These may seem like smaller steps, but they can make a big difference.

Sustainable and green floristry is just like everyday floristry but is more experienced with the wellbeing of the environment, growers, and flower recipients. Sustainable florists provide their customers with products that don’t leave a destructive carbon footprint in their wake. Is this the type of florist you want to be?

Florists, are there certain things you do at your shop that make your business eco Conscious.

A big thank you to everyone who participated in Floranext’s annual florist Valentine’s Day survey, which underlines some clearly positive trends.  It looks like this was a very healthy holiday for the retail floral industry. The ongoing social distancing rules along with the visibility of floral on reality TV shows on Netflix and HBO have been positive for the industry. 

This year’s holiday sales were very strong, despite Valentine’s Day falling on a Sunday. It may be that a more socially distanced year has made people more likely to send flowers to their loved ones. With customers less likely to spend on floral substitutes like dinners and trips, flowers are the obvious gift item. 

Web orders were way up this year. Customers are getting even more used to the ease of buying online. Not surprisingly, walk-ins fell dramatically – we are definitely not out of the woods with the pandemic yet. It will be interesting to see whether the walk-ins recover next year. 

Dozen Rose’s price range was very wide, but most were between $70 and $100 USD. The highest reported were $175 and $225 (they didn’t fit on our chart)! 

After red roses, arranged flowers were the next most popular item this year – allowing florists to showcase their skills. Candy and chocolates beat out the traditional teddy bear for the top spot. 

A somewhat large number of shops (16%) were closed on Sunday. Customers may have bought early this year to avoid missing out or maybe because they weren’t sure if shops would be open. 

Temporary staffing remains a common custom for flower shops for the busiest days of the year. About 75% of shops added new staff, with widely varying numbers, likely depending on their size. Most shops did not rent vans for the holiday specifically, likely choosing to use driver vehicles.  

Valentine’s Day started early for many shops, with 40% getting holiday orders in January – underlining the value of updating websites and getting marketing emails out early in the season. 

Did you do something different with Walk-Ins or Pickups due to COVID-19? If so, what did you do? 

There were a lot of curbside pickups stations, many mentions of masks required, quite a few limited the number of staff inside the shop, and/or limiting the number of customers inside the shop. 

What (if anything) would you do differently next Valentine’s Day?

There was a lot of focus on the weather including “praying for no snow” and “pray for temps above 0 degrees!”, and a unique new word, “Snovid!”.

Some strategic recommendations that might stay post-pandemic: “Keep door closed to walk-in; more efficient” and “have a pickup location”, “We really liked the parking lot pick up spots.”

Some practical advice on preparation: “More ready to go bouquets”, “have more premade gift baskets”and “More arrangements made earlier for early walk ins.”

Many want to simplify customer choices: “Pregreen more the week ahead. Limit the number of items available on website.” Also “less choices for flower arrangements” and “Definitely less balloons, less other rose colors and more red roses. Less variety on catalog to choose from.”

Some shops felt they could have taken more orders with appropriate supplies and staff.  “Order more red roses”, and “Increase design staff” and “Turn off my website sooner” and “We were a little too conservative on accepting orders.”

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Thank you for participating in our annual floral Valentine’s Survey – we see some very positive signs for the floral industry. Wishing you well for 2021 from Floranext – where we continue to help independent florists succeed!

Results were based on the 260 retail florists surveyed by Floranext between February 15th through February 19th. Florists were based in the US (82%), Canada (8.3%), and international (9.5%).

We are all aware that add-on sales boost our sales at the end of the day. This is especially the case when it comes to holidays and celebrations like Valentine’s Day. While Valentine’s Day may just be a single day it sure doesn’t feel like it. Valentine’s sales can come early and late so remember your add-ons to boost your profit even if it’s not the day of!

All About the Product

Your typical in-house add-ons usually include butterfly, bees, and other special picks, mylar balloons, plush animals, novelty accessories, upgraded card options, and more. These products shouldn’t just be lying at the side of your register, use them! Depending on your customers’ reason for purchase offering an additional gift is always a good option. Make sure you pick up some additional Valentine-themed gifts for the season. The best thing about these add-on items is they never expire!

Floral Arrangement Tiers
Add-ons are not just about additional gifts but can be additional flowers as well! Most florists have a tiered system on their website with words like “standards, deluxe, and premium” where customers can pick up more luxurious arrangements at a higher cost. Unfortunately, however, most florists don’t offer this same service in-house. Whether it be on the phone or over the counter try to sell your deluxe and premiums off the website.

Train your staff
One of the best ways to keep your sales high is to take the time to train your staff. There is no point in having add-on options if your staff isn’t selling them! The last thing you want to do in the hectic time before holidays like Valentine’s Day is extra training, but it may be what is needed. Make sure your staff knows all you can offer and how to engage with customers in a manner that supports not only the business but the client as well.

Valentine’s Sweet Treats
You should make your shop the one-stop-spot, especially for holidays. If you can try to develop a relationship with a local candy shop and see if you can sell some of their products in your shop. Usually, most stores will have sales for bulk wholesale similar to what you are used to with flowers. Not only does this up your sales it also creates a relationship that can help the local community which is much needed at this time.

Build a Connection
There is a strong chance a big portion of your sales for Valentine’s day or any holiday are previous customers which are great, return sales are paramount but this also means you may have gotten the chance to know them. By getting to know your clientele you will get to know their tastes and preferences. Do they prefer kitschy accessories, or do they prefer home decor? Maybe they are shopping for children and would like more plush options. Knowing what your customers like will help you make better purchasing decisions that will fly out the door.

There is a universal rule that your add-ons should not increase the final total by more than 25 percent, so this is a good place to start when it comes to making your upgrade and add-ons for the season and going forward!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, it is the way websites like Google, Bing, and others find your website when someone searches content. This is important to you as a florist because your website can only produce sales if people can find it! SEO can seem daunting but if you follow these simple suggestions you can improve your SEO in no time.

Make Your Website Relevant

What keeps your website relevant? Quality content created specifically for your demographic. Yes! Your website just like your business, branding, and marketing should all be aimed towards a specific demographic! Are your potential customers looking for “budget-friendly flowers” or is “flowers with longevity” more important to them? Even simple phrases like “Delivery to the ‘your towns’ area” will help pull in traffic to your page. Make sure these phrases are used through your site as they will be what your customer is looking for when they search online.

Update Your Website Regularly

Another part of staying relevant for SEO is making sure your website is updated regularly. In the vastly growing world of digital marketing staying at the top of your game is critical. Make sure anything that involves a date on your website is constantly updated including copyright, date reminders, blog posts, and more! Regularly updated web-based content is one of the best pointers of a site’s relevancy in search engines.

Behind the Veil Metadata

This can be where SEO gets a little trickier and is the part where many become frightened. There are a lot of SEO opportunities tucked away in what looks like never-ending walls of coding. If you have a website design tool such as FloraNext doing this behind the scenes work can become a lot easier. When designing your website, each page contains a space between the tags to insert metadata or information about your page. These words that your webpage viewers can’t see are critical for your website to grab the attention of search engines.

Link Appropriately

Links leading to other locations on your website are a great way to add SEO value to your page as they may potentially pull in customers searching another website like your own. Try creating relevant, similar, and useful links within your text. These links could be additional information in your blogging text to other knowledgeable sources or a shout-out to a local business or artist that has helped provide additional products for your store like candy. Instead of adding “click here” links, try writing out the name of the destination instead.

Use Your Alt Tags

Alt tags are sort of like Metadata as they are behind the scene text. This text however is associated with visual imagery. Make sure you always label your visuals including imagery and video. Both of which are major selling points in the floral world. Alt text allows search engines to find your page just like the above techniques.

Hopefully, these 5 tips can help you at a little extra boost to your online sales. Regardless of what tips you take make sure to always watch your online traffic to see any increases or decreases in traffic so it can go towards a more effective marketing plan in the future.

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Reels start off just like taking a regular video or photo for your Instagram account. However, before finishing your award-winning shot, select Reels in the lower portion of your Instagram camera. This will bring up a variety of features and tools you can choose from to make your videos uniquely yours.

The “Reel” Features

Instagram Reels come with plenty of features that add different elements to your video creation. These features include Audio, AR Effects, Timers and Countdowns, Alignment Tools, and Speed Editing. You can use each of these options as you go, so play around with them before posting!

There are also two options to create a reel: press and hold the record button to capture footage, or upload video footage from your camera roll. 

Follow these steps for creating your first Instagram Reel:

• Log into your Instagram account and scroll to REELS at the bottom of the screen and tap it.
• Use the tools to prepare for your recording.
  • Tap Audio to select audio from the library and add it to your video.
  • Tap Speed to change the speed of your video.
  • Tap Effects to apply special effects.
  • Tap Timer to determine the duration of the video. 
• When you’re ready to begin, tap, and hold the record button to record a clip.
  • If you set a timer, there’s a countdown before the recording starts.
• During the recording, you can tap the record button to end a clip, and then tap it again to start a new clip.
  • The Align button will appear, allowing you to line up objects from the previous clip before recording your next.
• If you want to watch, trim, or delete the previous clip you recorded, you can tap the clip icon.
• Once you’re done with recording, you can add stickers, drawings, and text to edit your reel.

Sharing Your Instagram Reels

Share your reel to a dedicated space in Explore or post it to the Reels tab on your Feed. When you share reels using certain songs, hashtags, or effects, your reel may also appear on dedicated pages when someone clicks on that song, hashtag, or effect.

Instagram Reels is a great opportunity to show off your brand’s style and appear in florist related hashtags for an increased presence on Instagram. 

Personal Brand Replication

Still don’t know how to use Reels or don’t know what to post? As artists, inspiration can come from everywhere, think of this when it comes to you creating your own reels and any part of social media. Giving them your brand’s personal twist is great and a way of keeping relevant in a quickly changing digital world.

Instagram Reels can be a great tool for marketing if you use them in an effective way. Make sure to include them in your marketing plan! 

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

For florists Valentine’s Day is more than a single day! Between online orders, deliveries, walk-ins and more the whole experience can become overwhelming. However, with a little preparation, you can set yourself up for success. 

@lewismillerdesign

3 Weeks Prior 

Three weeks before Valentine’s Day is all about marketing and getting the word out. Preferably, you should have your eCommerce ready for Valentine’s Day before February.  

Consider Décor: Does your shop say Valentine’s Day? Customers respond to seasonal and holiday décor so add those reds, hearts, and cupids for a reminder of the season!

Website Work: Invest in high-quality images of arrangements you produce to give your website a new life. Be sure to use holiday keywords to generate better SEO for your website as well.

Prep marketing: Marketing comes in two forms; digital and physical. Schedule your social media campaigns ahead. Also start reaching out for local advertising in newspapers, radio, and more!

2 Weeks Prior 

The bulk of your work two weeks prior will be ordering. To make sure you don’t over-order check your previous year’s sales.

Order Supplies and Add-Ons: Check your tools and hard goods and order what you need to be replaced or refilled. Consider; plushies, candy, balloons, candles, and cards, these add-ons will increase your sales!

Order Flowers: Similarly to supplies, florists will be ordering early so jump on board to make sure to get what you need in advance.

Scheduling: Talk to your employees about what is required as far as their scheduling. You also may need to hire help for the weekend.

1 Week Prior 

The week before Valentine’s Day should be all about prepping and confirmations to make your Valentine’s weekend run smoothly.

Prep Non-Perishable: Bows, hand-tied strings, folded tissue paper, printed care, and price cards, this is all work that can be done early.

Prep Flowers: As your flowers arrive, be sure to prep them in advance and keep them separate from daily work supplies.

Confirm Deliveries: If you are part of a floral wire service, be sure to check all your delivery orders for the weekend.

Day Before 

With Valentine’s day falling Sunday this year, keeping in mind your non-Valentine’s orders for that Saturday.

Greening: Greenery is long-lasting so make sure you have as many vases prepped with greenery as your refrigerated space will allow! 

Order Lunch: Your staff is critical to the ‘big day’ so treating them well is just as important. Ordering lunch for the staff is always a good idea and a good way to say thanks.

Brief Everyone: Valentine’s work becomes a lot more assembly line than usual so touch base with each employee on how the next day needs to go and what each of their jobs is.

As the holiday ends you will have a few orders to complete and some cleaning to do to pull your shop together. But remember to take the time to pour yourself a drink and relax knowing you made it through another Valentine’s Day! 

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

If you’ve created a florist eCommerce website, then paying attention to metrics can help you grow and improve.

In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know when starting your own florist eCommerce website from setting up your dashboard to measuring your growth.

Setting up your dashboard

You can’t have a florist eCommerce website without having the proper analytics software. This software will give you the tools to measure all of the metrics. Here are some tools that you may consider downloading and using.

• Google’s tools – Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console
• Social media analytics tools – Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, Pinterest Analytics

How to understand eCommerce metrics to measure growth

The above analytics tools will help you track thousands of eCommerce metrics. But what do you actually do with them? Here are the ones you should spend your time looking at.

1. Conversion rate

Your conversion rate is important because it tells you how many people are clicking on your product pages and making a purchase. Depending on the tracking tools you select, you’ll be able to set up conversion tracking so you can see this information and deduce the best way to increase your conversion rate.

2. Traffic

In general, traffic is important because the more people you have on your website the more conversions you’ll see. If you measure your traffic month over month and year over year, you’ll be able to get an idea of how your florist eCommerce website is growing (or not growing). Both are equally valuable pieces of information!

3. Repeat orders

Repeat orders increase your CLV (see #6) and show you that your customers are satisfied with your products and services. Because it’s less expensive (by 4 to 10 times!) to retain a current customer than it is to acquire a new one, increase your repeat customers will lead to more growth. You can obtain more repeat orders by…

• Focusing on high-quality products
• Having great customer service
• Providing a customer loyalty program
• Creating a solid user experience on your website

4. Average order value

The AOV, or average order value, tells you how much your customers spend in a single purchase on your florist eCommerce website. Often, eCommerce websites will improve this number by adding popups that display related products once consumers add something to their cart or after they click the checkout button. It relies on the idea that it’s less expensive to get current customers to buy more than it is to acquire entirely new customers.

5. Engagement

Engagement tells you how invested your customers and visitors are in your brand. you see engagement through social media likes and comments. You see it in email open and click-through rates. You see it in blog comments. You see it in social shares, shoutouts, and mentions. Because you can’t see these metrics measure on a single platform, you’ll want to look at your social media analytics frequently.

6. Customer lifetime value

Also known as CLV, customer lifetime value may be the most important metric you can track in on your florist eCommerce website. CLV is the amount of profit a customer is worth to your business over the course of their/your lifetime. This is important because it’s expensive to acquire new customers, so looking at ways to increase the spending of your current customers if often the way to go. The value will tell you how much to spend to acquire and retain a customer.

Tracking important metrics on your florist eCommerce website can help you grow and expand your business. While you may see a lot of numbers behind the scenes, focus on the above components. They’ll help you cut through the chaos and figure out what really matters.

As florists, we understand that floral trends can change year to year and some may stick around for a while. With 2021 just around the corner,  just three weeks away, let’s take a look at a few florist trends expected during 2021.

photo by sageninesevents – Instagram

Accessories

For true flower lovers, it takes more than just nice flowers, the container should be great as well! The latest trend that will continue into 2021 is wood and leather containers with designs influenced by Indian and African cultures. Florists, keep in mind that interior designers are using a lot of wicker and rattan for added charm.

Micro Weddings

Instead of customers canceling their wedding plans, they decided to go smaller this year with micro weddings. Micro weddings are a trend that will continue into 2021. Wedding floral arrangements on a smaller scale for ceremony and reception. Florist have you considered offering floral designs that are smaller or for intimate spaces?  

This beautiful Micro Wedding by Floressence Flowers

Biophilic Designs 

As many people now working and learning from home, spaces that are multifunctional have really come into focus.  Many consumers are creating biophilic designs that include natural elements such as fresh flowers, light, and plants in their home. Studies show having live plants around makes you more productive during work and can make you happier. 

photo by BIOPHILIC INTERIOR DESIGN on Instagram

Sustainability

Sustainability has been showing up more with floral designers and will continue into 2021. Florists are using eco-friendly packaging and using eco-friendly floral foam substitutions in arrangements. Not only are florist being sustainable with their supplies but also flowers as well. Trends show that Dried flowers continue being a trend with dried flowers being incorporated with fresh flowers or full dried arrangments. What another great way for a florist to reduce flower waste and costs by drying your own flowers. 

Sustainable Flowers by Blossom and Branch

Color and Style

Some of the most Important florist trends are about color and style for 2021. The color of the year according to Pantone is Illuminating!  Illuminating represents strength and positivity.  This Bright color encapsulates deeper feelings of thoughtfulness with the promise of something that is sunny and friendly.

photo by jacksondurhamevents on Instagram

Greenery and Foliage

Greenery and foliage are always a popular choice among florists. Designers have been shown using dyed/bleached flowers, painted greens, and pampas grass that will continue in the new year. The trend really suits the Pantone color of the year!

Florists, what Florist Trends are you planning to follow in 2021? Share with us in the comments! 

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.