keep a safe distance. “I did have to tell some customers to put on their masks — and to go stand in their square,” Ow said. “It’s new for me, being this enforcer, but if you want to remain open and safe, we all need to follow the guidelines.”
Get serious about driving (and managing) sales. The pandemic has shown how deter- mined members of the industry’s floral supply chain are — and also just how complex the system is. Ahead of Mother’s Day, a steep dropoff in demand challenged growers, wholesalers and suppliers to keep flowers moving through the chain. Then it was impos- sible for companies to keep up with the late surge of orders for the holiday. (According to the SAF member survey, 60 percent of retailers suspended incoming Mother’s Day orders by Thursday, May 7, with an additional
30 percent suspending orders that Friday. About 32 percent cut off orders completely by Friday, May 8. Those numbers are higher than in years past.) Tim Dewey of DVFlora in Sewell,
New Jersey, recently shared that the challenge for floral distributors isn’t a lack of product, but that ongoing drop in demand (outside of Mother’s Day). “As we see social restrictions ease, I would really encourage florists to be aggressive about those opportunities to serve their communities” and sell more flowers, he said. “It’s really about opening up the pipeline.” Drummond agrees, saying that
now is the time “to market like you’ve never marketed before,” since many of the seasonal events florists would have depended on (weddings, corporate events, memorial celebrations and funerals) are canceled, postponed or dramatically different this year. Your website should be a key area
IT’S NEW FOR
ME, BEING THIS ENFORCER, BUT IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN OPEN
“
AND SAFE, WE ALL NEED TO FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES.” –VALERIE OW
of focus as you work to drive sales. Radebaugh said the pandemic has emphasized the need to home in on best practices that might have previously been pushed down the to-do list. “On Mother’s Day, even though we streamlined products, we still had too many options turned on, too late in the week,” she said. A better approach: Highlight the products you want to sell and push customers toward designers’ choice or open-ended orders. Drummond said now is also the time
to experiment with website add-ons and special features you might have previ- ously ignored — or those that companies have added in response to the pandemic. (Read more on p. 32.) Doing so has helped him improve customer service and manage volume and workflow. “We utilized the custom pop-ups
[on the] backend,” he said. “This helped us communicate to customers that mothers deserve to be celebrated all week. Early shoppers were encouraged to choose delivery Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday — successfully spreading out the volume.” Another way to drive sales: Offer
new products. Radebaugh has success- fully created a series of themed crates for customers that have proven to be a hit. The series has allowed her to sell non-floral items such as bath bombs,
GO DEEPER
Get tips on reopening safely and advice and best practices on safety and sani- tation measures from your peers at saf-
now.org/moreonline. Plus, find a host of targeted SAF virtual events dedicated to helping you drive business throughout the summer — including a Mother’s Day debrief among industry leaders and a look ahead at how the pandemic will re- shape flower buying among consumers — available now at
safnow.org.
candles and lotions that would have otherwise gone unsold in her retail showroom. (One top seller is the Home School Hero package, which includes a floral design and bottle of wine. The business had its liquor license even be- fore the crisis began.) Florists also have been experimenting with virtual work- shops and events. (Read more on p. 42.) In Boise, Idaho, Liza Roeser of
FiftyFlowers said she and her team are using lessons learned from their chal- lenging spring to try and move forward and connect more deeply with custom- ers. One insight: Customers seem to be responding more positively than ever to emails. To capitalize on that shift, the company has been experimenting with A/B testing, to see which emails and content resonate the most with their target audience — so that they can be more strategic about the new initiatives they plan. “One thing this Mother’s Day taught
is that you can’t use only data to plan for the future — we have to listen and adapt,” said Roeser, who has been med- itating on a famous quote from Maya Angelou lately: “Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.” “We’re constantly shifting through
these murky waters right now,” she added. “But we’re focusing on hope.”
Amanda Long is a freelance writer and editor and former managing editor of Floral Management. Mary Westbrook is the editor in chief. Katie Hendrick Vincent also contributed to the writing and reporting of this story.
mwestbrook@safnow.org
The magazine of the Society of American Florists (SAF) 29
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