2022-08-16

Garden Centers in the US – Thinking outside the box

Garden Centers in the US – Thinking outside the box
 
Author:
Sales and Marketing

The presentation of plants at the point of sale plays a major role for successful sales. How do you ensure that not only the sales increase, but also that the end consumers are also satisfied with the plants they buy in the long term?

Plant labels offer the opportunity to provide the consumer with information in form of images and text – which location does the plant need, lightning conditions, water demand, is it a vegetable which you can cook certain recipes with, etc. But how can you guide the potential buyers to the specific plants in which they could be interested? Obviously, a garden center is not a small place, as such signposts such as large ceiling hangers, posters, banners, table wrappers or table displays can help with navigation.

Garden centers in the USA found an interesting approach for orientation. For example: at a "Bright Lights" plant display area you will find indoor plants that prefer a lot of light and should therefore be placed on the windowsill. If you don't have space on the windowsill, it's better to proceed to the "Low Light" display area, because you will find plants that need less light, or alternatively less-confident gardeners can look to the "Easy breezy" plants which don’t need a lot of care. This sales floor concept helps to guide the customer to navigate the store and then ‘zoom in’ on the best options for them. Furthermore, you can often find clearly visible information about the preferred location of the variety directly on the front of the label. This helps the customers to ‘zoom in’ even further to support the purchase decision.

Further sales incentives are provided by creating ‘recipes of possible plant combinations. These recipes help to show which plants go well together, for example which can be planted together in terms of size, care requirements and appearance. The plants can be arranged accordingly on the plant tables in the garden centre so that the consumer knows exactly which plant can play which role in the planting combination. Here in the US market you can find the concept of "Thriller, Filler and Spiller" - the "Thriller" plant in this context is a plant that can attract the most attention in the planting combination, often large, colourful and gorgeous. The "filler" can be seen as a filling plant that closes gaps and covers the soil and in addition you combine the "spiller", a more ground-covering plant that can protrude over the edge of the pot when planted in pots to round off the overall picture.

Spiller / Filler

How can a visit to the garden centre go even further to create an extraordinary and multisensory experience? A great concept example was the “beer garden” in one of the American garden centres we visited. Here you could find live music, food and drinks beign prepared on-site and a great atmosphere among the magnificent plants which provided a memorable stage and set for the band. You can end the day with friends here every day in summer, enjoy the time and discover great plants at the same time, and it is common knowledge that the more senses that are engaged, then the more the experience is likely to be effective and memorable (depending on beer consumption of course!)

With a "thinking outside the box" we are always looking for new ideas for you and your successful plant marketing! Contact us!

 

Author:
Luisa Gregg
Sales and Marketing
After graduating from International Business & Management, Luisa Gregg has deepened her knowledge of marketing activities and has been responsible for brand management in the green industry since then. Since March 2016 she has worked at Gregg Marketing as sales and marketing manager and writes regular contributions to this blog.

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