Having taken a step back from hardcore floral designing, I now feel like I'm slightly looking at the floral industry from the outside in. Though still very connected, I see the industry in a different way. Sometimes, I wish it were as simple as falling in love with different varieties of flowers each season, but it's not. I feel very lucky to have worked for one of my passions in life. A lot of people never get to experience that. Having taken the rose-colored glasses off, I see even more of the cut-throat, bottom line business tactics visible in other lines of work. It's all the same. There are politics in everything we live and breathe. It's hard to not get lost in the negativity and decades-old way of thinking.
On social media, I see a lot of damaging behaviors. Turf wars within sustainability conversations, false promises, favoritism in the number of followers rather than the years of experience and dedication to an eco-friendly craft, and not giving credit to those who are due are a few examples. I'm human. I have my opinions too. Yet, focusing on this negativity will get a person nowhere. We need to look forward.
What does the floral industry really need now?
I ask myself this question regularly.
My first taste of the floral industry came all the way back in the late 1990's. I worked part-time in college at a local flower shop on the Fairchild Airforce Base in Spokane, WA. Cindy and Susan, both the wives of active-duty servicemen, taught me the basics. The floral cooler always had to have an assortment of floral arrangements on display. Susan taught me how to wire my first boutonniere and corsage, and Cindy showed me how to blow up helium balloons. This was an awesome job for a college student. Rarely busy, there were always people bustling in and out of the commissary. Once my to-do list was done, I studied at a desk and periodically answered the telephone. When someone needed to send flowers, I pulled out the mattress-thick, Teleflora book to find a local florist. I still remember the sound of that book thumping down on the counter or hearing customers turn pages in the binder to make their floral selection.
Years later, I worked at a local florist in Bellevue, WA. A family-owned business, Lawrence the Florist, was a full service, bustling flower shop. When I joined the team, I was definitely the newbie. The other senior florists made sure I knew it too. Working there for about 6 months, I learned hard florist skills. My hands were green every night. I cleaned a lot of buckets, dusted many shelves, and cut and hydrated countless bricks of floral foam. When a customer called to place a phone order, I had a headset and entered the order into the computer on an old DOS program. Still pulling out the book to reference the arrangement number and calling the local florist before sending the wire order over, I got pretty good at this. I enjoyed working with customers and taking phone orders.
Having not worked in a physical shop for probably two decades, I'm guessing this process is still utilized today. The internet has likely automated a great deal of this work, but customers predominantly still refer to the wire service today. Someone please tell me this process has improved!!
Honestly, I think the invention of the wire service was genius. It's much like how airlines and hotels operate. The motherboard of their operations run on something called the Global Distribution System (GDS). It's a computerized network system managed by a company that passes transactions back and forth. It existed before the internet and still operates today.
Do we need another Teleflora or FTD? My answer is, YES!
We need one to offer the kind of products and services the next generation of shoppers want and how they prefer to shop. It would be wonderful to see an online retailer lead by sustainability and domestically grown flowers. Consumers are seeking out sustainable products every day. Consumers deserve to know all their floral options. When only seeing the same 10-12 varieties of flowers, consumers don't realize there is an entire garden of options to choose from! I believe it's this repetitive, capitalized shopping experience that emphasizes the expression, it's just flowers.
According to Businessnewsdaily.com, research discovered by Accenture indicated that 72% of respondents were actively purchasing more environmentally responsible products within the past 5 years. Furthermore, over the next 5 years, that percentage would increase to 81%. Additionally, respondents were willing to pay more for these types of products.
Take time to think about the future.
I think much of the floral industry is slow to change.
I see the most advancements within the larger corporations, but the bulk of the industry is made up of small floral companies, like me. According to the Society of American Florists, there are 11,593 retail florist shops in the US (Floriculture Crops Summary Report of May 2021), an estimated 500 floral wholesalers, and 8,951 floriculture growers (2022).
Perhaps it's my curious nature, but much of the time I'm not reading or listening to "floral" related podcasts or blogs at all. I'm actually learning about what other industries are doing. I love to hear how other businesses made it big or the painful lessons they learned. The stories they tell and the risks they took contain powerful information for a small business owner to consider. Over the years, I've also begun to see flowers as more of a product than a novelty. This has really helped to differentiate profit and loss. While flowers are intoxicating and give "that flower feeling," we are all in the business of selling this product to make a profit. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to stay in the flower business.
Going back to why so many of us are slow to change, I don't think it's because we don't want to evolve. I think it's because we are so busy trying to run our businesses, scraping by on thin margins and crazy high expenses, we just don't have time to think about the future. This is where I want to help.
This industry needs to be more innovative and strategic. I get the impression many industry people think, "Well, that's not how we do things." The markup on flowers is a particularly hot topic. What other industry do you know has a 300% markup or higher on COGS? While it might be the standard, what lessons can be learned from how other industries price products and profit. When I stopped listening to what the standard was and started doing what brought more customers in, I started profiting. (I say this relatively speaking. A lot of regional market research was conducted on all my retail pricing.)
Opportunity for Customer Reach through Delivery
I would love to see florists lean into more delivery options, like DoorDash. Not only do the floral companies reach a whole new kind of customer, but they utilize a service for delivery that is taxed differently than hiring a delivery driver, which can be quite costly for the business.
Did you know the creation of DoorDash was partially inspired by the floral industry? It's true! Founder, Tony Xu, saw the struggles of delivery in flower shops. To hear the full story, listen to the podcast, DoorDash: Tony Xu : NPR.
There's a lot of bad press about DoorDash. While there might be some truth to these experiences, DoorDash has connected a great deal of business owners and customers! In fact, DoorDash has over 37 million users across the United States and delivered over 900 million orders since its debut (BusinessApps.com). This could be an excellent option for a local flower shop. I absolutely would have tapped into DoorDash, had it been available in my business location.
Wrapping Up!
My advice is to think outside the box. There are some really incredible platforms, online tools, sales channels, and downright creative ways of generating business. I would love to see businesses tap into streamlining operations and push through their fears of trying something new. Take a moment to look up and out! I know that's easier said than done, but when I took a couple steps back and looked at my business from the outside in, I started to see the weaknesses and inefficiencies. Little by little, I saw where to invest and when to say, "No thank you."
Stay tuned for Part 2: Shipping!
