E-Commerce for Plant Sales Is Here to Stay, So You Better Be Ready
July 4, 2020 
Mason Day is the Head of Community and Supply at JR Peters, Inc., a greenhouse fertilizer manufacturer. But throughout his young career in horticulture, he’s had an eye on e-commerce in the garden retail industry, and was even the Co-Founder (along with Seth Reed) of GrowIt!, a mobile app that helps consumers connect with local plant retailers.
“We’ve been talking for years about the digital consumer, and this year has expedited that revolution,” Day says. “COVID-19 was a catalyst for every consumer to become a digital consumer.”
The problem, however, is that while many retailers have a website and a social media following, they aren’t always active with it, and even fewer have a true e-commerce platform. When the coronavirus hit, some of these retailers were understandably occupied with maintaining inventories. Even if they were virtually communicating with their customers, they weren’t able to actively keep them informed on which plants were available in real time.
There were some businesses that stepped up quickly to either add or update their e-commerce platforms, and Day says he expects the short-term adjustments COVID-19 forced on the industry to lead to long-term growth in online sales.
“If you’re not set up for online sales, do so now,” he advises. “It may be expensive, but it will be extremely helpful for the future.”
Inventory management remains the biggest stumbling block in setting yourself up for e-commerce. While Day says the technology for this continues to evolve, the challenge is to meet the somewhat lofty goal of an almost instantaneous connection between growers and retailers.
“I think we will see a heavy interest this fall in updating point-of-sale (POS) systems and how they operate at a garden retail level,” Day says. “You hate to see this as the reason for it happening, but with so many consumers now wanting to pre-pay for orders, it’s critical for these advancements to take place.”
This digital connection is important not just for the grower-retailer relationship, but also for the breeder-grower relationship.
“It would be great for breeders to have a better understanding of what’s taking off this spring, and what is lagging, so they can update their own inventory,” Day says. “A lot of people think e commerce means they have to be able to ship product across the country, but the reality is that e=commerce is as simple as your local customers being able to buy what you have available.”
One final note from Day:
“I’m optimistic about the job opportunities that may soon be available. How many garden centers and growers out there are soon going to be hiring people that know something about web development and inventory management?”
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