How the Floriculture Industry Rose From the Ashes in 2021
2021 was a year of challenges in many shapes, sizes, and forms. Several industries experienced unprecedented uncertainty concerning the future state of their businesses.
The floral industry was no exception — taking an immense hit as many companies were forced to close their doors and others, the ones that survived announced massive layoffs.
With weddings delayed, proms canceled, and social gatherings drastically restricted, local florists’ regular orders were canceled back to back, resulting in massive product dumps and overall loss. Issues flooded retailers and spread across the whole supply chain, from farms in the Netherlands, Ecuador, and Colombia to importers in Miami and warehouses all over the U.S.
However, in a recent piece on Entrepreneur.com, Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor Murali K. Nethi (the founder and CEO of SnapBlooms, a flower-delivery marketplace) outlines how the floral industry was able to rise from the ashes.
When lockdowns first arrived, many consumers worldwide frantically flocked supermarkets to stockpile essential household items such as toilet paper, water, and food. However, key floral players noticed a pattern with consumers and how importers and wholesalers responded to this massive wave of frantic spending. The pandemic turned the focus back to humanity, and for the flower industry, this was good news.
“As product scarcity started to decrease with the reactivation of floral supply chain logistics, we knew that many local shops had to find a way to quickly adapt to the new digitization era to remain competitive against giant supermarket chains,” Nethi said. “This meant changing their approach and allocating marketing efforts to an online presence to better suit the needs and comforts of their customers since many were social distancing.”
Having an online presence also represented an extended channel to traditional brick-and-mortar stores and the introduction of modern-day technology to error-prone manual tasks. The optimization and, in some cases, automation of taking orders and handling shipping information created the opportunity for businesses to reach higher sales, even in pre-COVID times. Just like in the general retail industry, ecommerce was the lifeline that many companies needed to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
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