Why Now Is the Time for Greenhouse Growers to Act on Retail Trends
October 19, 2020 COVID-19 has changed retailing, with an explosion of curbside pickup services, contactless payment options, and e-commerce pop-up stores. Some of these changes are likely to be permanent. An article (“COVID-19 Accelerated e-Commerce Growth ’4 to 6 years’”) on Forbes.com reported that total online spending in May hit around $82 billion, which is up 77% year over year. E-commerce is on the fast track. If you’re not looking into it, if you’re not doing it, it’s time to start taking some action.
Since April, Bazaarvoice, a technology company that provides software that allows brands and retailers to display several types of user-generated content on their e-commerce websites, has provided monthly statistics gleaned from its 6,200-customer network on consumer shopping habits.
Here are a few takeaways the company shared:
- Shoppers are still spending significant time online, even after regions have reopened for business.
- Shopping priorities have shifted. First shoppers bought masks and toilet paper, now they’re focused on home and garden improvements. Pageviews in the home and garden category have experienced 76% year-over-year growth for 2020 versus 2019, according to Bazaarvoice’s network data. Order counts for home and garden products are at 75% year-over-year growth for 2020 versus 2019.
If you think plant quality matters now, it’s going to be even more important for e-commerce items. Think about this interesting tidbit from Bazaarvoice: as shoppers have gotten used to ordering more things online, product reviews and questions about products have started to pick up.
Just like many of us peruse the consumer reviews before buying a new car, product reviews could influence sales as buying plants online becomes more mainstream. And, if you’re not prepared to back up the plants you sell with some consumer education, potential customers could look to other brands or companies that do.
You may think some of these things apply only to grower-retailers. But e-commerce could be a potential new opportunity that helps you diversify your business. A recent article I read in The Strategist shared how the editors ordered nine snake plants for their office to find the best places to buy houseplants online. When the plants came in, they judged them in three categories: shipping, plant quality and health, and care instructions.
One of the snake plants mentioned in the article was a Costa Farms plant purchased through Amazon’s Plant Store. The editors then followed up with a comparison of ordering the same plant directly from Costa Farms (which is the subject of an editorial for another time). The editors eventually concluded that the Amazon Plant Store was the best place to buy a cheap (but surprisingly nice) houseplant (also a topic for a future editorial). Afterward, they recommended and showed pictures of three more Costa Farms plants that could be purchased through Amazon. That kind of publicity sends business to your door. It could be your plants and your business they’re talking about one day.
Don’t wait for tomorrow to act, start making tomorrow happen today. Whether it’s e-commerce or some other idea that’s been rolling around in your head, despite all the uncertainty surrounding us, don’t put off trying something new to push your business forward — or at least explore the possibilities of trying something new. You’ll be ahead of the game when big changes like COVID-19 upset the status quo.
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