Where the Floral Industry is Headed

You talk to anybody in the floral industry and you receive many different responses as to where they think the industry is going next. Half of the flower shops owners believe retail shops will continue to be viable well into the foreseeable future. And the other half of shop owners believe that yes, retail shops will stay relevant, but only to those owners who can keep up with the changing technologies and have the ability to cater to the new wave of flower buyers (millennials). More and more have decided to become studio florists and cut out the retail location completely, focusing on loyal customers to maintain their business. Both of these routes are workable and profitable. What is undeniable, is the industry is undergoing a rapid change. By riding this new wave, florists can maintain relevance and reach a whole new level of profitability.

New Floral Technology Developments

Will mobile apps, mobile POS systems and a heavier reliance on e-commerce be the way of the future for the floral industry? Looking around at other sectors, the answer is undeniably yes. There is always resistance to change, but looking objectively, one can conclude there are many benefits to the changing technologies:

Speed and Efficiency

Arrangement/Delivery Accountability

Inventory Management Control (including wholesale)

Lower Operational Cost

Larger Overall Margin

Affordable Pricing Models

The bottom line is there will always be a portion of the population that will want to do things the “old school” way -- walk-ins, taking orders on carbon copies etc, but the new generation of customer is more tech-savvy and unfortunately, less socially inclined to walk into a store and engage with a shop owner. Not all change is progress, but in this industry, it just might be.

Larger Picture

The floral industry is one of those industries that is greatly affected by booms and busts in the economy. It’s no mystery that when consumers have less disposable income they tend to only focus on necessities rather than additional expenditures. Since the industry lives and dies by special occasions, events and major holidays, florists rely on consumers buying during specific times to keep themselves afloat for when the summer hits and the downturn inevitably begins. Since 2007, the landscape of the industry has changed. Florists in every city remark that there used to be double the amount of shops in town and everybody was getting a piece of the pie. Many shops have closed and, subsequently, here’s what has happened:

1) Wire services lost considerable revenue and had to concoct a way to generate more

2) Fees and penalties increased on wire service members

3) Surviving florists were squeezed out of any chance of a decent profit

Conclusion

It’s encouraging to see many florists dropping the wire services and taking their business into their own hands. Many new startups are trying to fill the void that is left when dropping the wire services, but most have missed the mark. What florists need, both new school and old, is a low cost platform in which to run their business effectively without the high costs and low morale that exists now. The way things operate now are simply unsustainable, unprofitable, and disincentivizing for anyone trying to make a decent living going forward. Big change and improvement to an industry we all love is coming soon.

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