FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS

MATTHEW ENIS

In many supermarkets, the floral department offers shoppers the option of convenient last-minute gifts. Earning only a tiny percentage of sales in most chains, the category has maintained a presence in most stores, but has wilted under relentless pressure to cut costs and trim overhead.

Retailers who have invested time and money into the category say that a few simple principles familiar to any perishables manager — freshness, consistency and a solid merchandising strategy that looks beyond special occasions — can turn a floral department into a very lucrative destination.

“It's all a matter of getting customers used to knowing that you have something there in the department,” said Judy Shaw, floral director for Rudy's Newport Market in Bend, Ore., where she has cultivated the store's reputation for orchids and other exotics. “It's getting your customers trained to buy things — you have to have 6-inch potted plants out there all of the time, 4-inch potted plants all the time. You have to have arrangements consistently available in various price groups. You can have that $50 price point, but you also have to have that $10 price point, especially in a grocery store.

“You can't have something special there one week and not the next,” she continued. “You have to bite the bullet and do it all the time.”

Biting the bullet, as Shaw puts it, to a large extent means being operationally honest with shrink and spoilage expectations while working to develop that consistency, particularly when an underperforming perishables program is engaged in a turnaround. Floral products that are shipped through a good cold chain operation and sold soon afterward should last in a customer's home for two weeks, not three or four days, noted Terry Johnson, president of the Horticultural Marketing Group, Mission Viejo, Calif.

That product longevity is something that customers should expect from a florist, Johnson argued, and since gift-giving is such a key component of floral sales, retailers should consider the fact that they are dealing with two consumers during many transactions — the buyer and the receiver of the gift.

“The appearance of freshness may affect the point of sale, but it's the product's longevity that gets people thinking that floral products are a value, and that they should buy them for themselves. If you don't do that, then people think ‘I love flowers, and I love getting flowers as a gift, but they're too expensive and they don't last.’”

Retailers attempting to reinvigorate floral sales will, of course, want to promote the category, and few ways are better than an aggressive, unique merchandising strategy to draw shoppers into the department.

At Lamb's Markets, for example, floral departments are positioned at the entrance of the company's stores, said Tanney Staffenson, a partner at the Wilsonville, Ore.-based Thriftway independent. “They're really the first thing that the customer sees when they come in. Our goal is to help the image of the store. And when the customer walks in and they see all of this color, it helps set the tone for the shopping experience.”

That positioning, along with a commitment to quality and consistency, has helped Lamb's increase sales not only of gift items, but also products that shoppers regularly purchase to decorate their own homes.

“We're seeing a lot more sales with people just wanting to decorate and freshen up their homes,” Staffenson said. “It certainly is good for your business if you can cultivate a customer base that will buy floral products for their home on a regular basis vs. just buying for special occasions.”

That loyalty has allowed Lamb's to begin pushing its floral departments a step further, fighting the perception of “grocery store floral,” as Staffenson described it.

“Customers don't usually think of a grocery store as having someone that can do weddings or funerals, and I think when they are going to send flowers to somebody, grocery stores are not the first place they're going to think about when they pick up the phone.”

“What you do is display in the store the things that you're capable of doing,” Staffenson continued. “Not necessarily putting up a wedding display, but when you've got some really nice upscale arrangements and design work on display, the customer that comes in on a regular basis is going to notice that. They'll notice that you have more than cut flowers in cellophane.”

Lamb's emphasizes in its circulars the years of experience that its florists have, works with the local chambers of commerce for business networking, and has programmed its registers to display images of flowers and inform shoppers of the floral services that the stores can provide.

“Customers really want to make a personal connection with the people that are providing these services,” Staffenson said.

For retailers and floral department managers who don't have the option of making the floral department such a centerpiece of the store's shopping experience, other simple merchandising techniques can help demystify the floral category for both gift buyers and shoppers interested in sprucing up their homes.

“The best merchandising principles that you can adopt in floral departments are the ones that you already see in the produce department,” said Tom Lavagetto, founder of Spokane, Wash.-based Floral Consulting Group, and former floral merchandising manager for Jewel Food Stores.

In produce, he noted, fruits and vegetables are separated by type, which makes their natural colors appear more vibrant and enticing, especially in large displays. By contrast, many supermarket floral departments have a tendency to focus too heavily on mixed arrangements throughout the display area, which can create a visual blur for shoppers where nothing in particular catches their eye.

“It all blends together,” he said. “If you try to be gifty before you establish a solid merchandising strategy, then you're wasting your time.”

The monochromatic displays he suggests — where large clusters of flowers and plants are grouped by color — have the added advantage of making special gift arrangements really stand out.

“You can create a separate area for upselling,” Lavagetto said. “Use vases or different wrappers that are more upscale. Packaging becomes more important at that point.”