Attracting millennial consumers to local florists

The increased purchasing power of the millennial generation makes them a key player in the floral industry's future.

By understanding millennials' preferences and shopping behavior, floral stakeholders can be better informed about where millennial consumers prefer to purchase floral products and how to attract them to local florists.

A study from AFE and the Floral Marketing Research Fund (FMRF), called "Marketing Tactics to Increase Millennial Floral Purchases," investigated millennial consumers' preferred retail outlets, their barriers to purchase from local florists and how to overcome these barriers.

This study was conducted by Dr. Chengyan Yue of the University of Minnesota and sponsored by Asocolflores. More than 3,000 U.S. millennials between the ages of 18 and 40 years old were surveyed. This article details the results of the study.

Preferred retail outlets
Most millennials preferred purchasing floral products:

in person at the local florists (69%)
at a grocery store/mass merchandiser (63%)
at a farmers’ market (57%), or
at a nursery/garden center (50%).

Consumers often prefer to purchase floral products in person because they can easily use visual cues to assess flower quality. Additionally, the variability in terms of floral products' appearances (i.e. color, number of blossoms, foliage color, decorative add-ons, etc.) may lead to consumers wanting to select the product that best matches his/her needs and preferences.

When purchasing online, 35% of respondents preferred local florist websites, followed by 34% preferring national online floral retailers, and 17% who preferred Groupon or LivingSocial.

Approximately 30% preferred shopping in person at floral street vendors and 14% preferred convenience stores or gas stations. Very few (2%) preferred toll-free telephone options.

Barriers to purchase from local florists
Recognizing the barriers to purchasing at local florists can give the opportunity for retailers to counter negative perceptions and take corrective actions to attract more millennial customers.

Convenience was one of the primary barriers, since consumers visit grocery stores/mass merchandisers for other products and these stores are often more conveniently located.

Another major barrier was millennial consumers' frequent perception that local florists are more expensive than non-specialized retailers. Grocery stores/mass merchandisers also facilitate impulse purchases of floral products since consumers are already visiting the store for other products.

Other potential barriers included feeling pressure to purchase products, inconvenient hours of operation and lack of awareness of the florist's location.

Millennials considered flower/bloom quality and flower type as important, and they were satisfied with these two attributes. However, millennial consumers were less satisfied with:

product origin information
longevity
availability of locally grown products
contact with/the personal touch of store staff
price
packaging/container designs/materials, and
symbolic meaning descriptions.

The most important traits to millennial consumers are product quality, variety, price and longevity (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Most important attributes and millennial consumers' satisfaction rating

Unfortunately, results indicated that there were significant discrepancies between these important traits and millennials' satisfaction. Specifically, millennial consumers were unsatisfied with floral products' price and longevity.

Ways to improve
The best way to improve the likelihood that millennials will purchase from local florists is to provide financial incentives, including more affordable prices, in-store deals, affordable delivery, and Groupon/LivingSocial deals.

Services also improve millennial consumers' purchase likelihood, including friendly and knowledgeable staff, online ordering with in-store pickup, clean products, return/replacement policies, longer hours, expert designers and warranties.

Additionally:

Having a variety of unique flowers and/or edible plants is important to millennial consumers.
Regarding ease of use, they prefer clear care instructions for optimal growth and longevity, a well-designed website, an attractive store/environment, no hard sell and more entertainment when shopping.
There is an opportunity to partner with other businesses to sell flowers at different locations where millennials congregate (e.g. coffee shops), offer workshops or have in-store Wi-Fi/coffee/water.
Consider engaging with millennial consumers by reaching out to them using social media.
Additional options include appointment scheduling, casual in-store relaxation area and selling essential groceries.

In addition to the general practices, 37% of respondents indicated they would be more likely to purchase floral products from a company with sustainable practices. With respect to the floriculture industry, the two attributes that were ranked the highest were good work ethics/fair treatment of workers and less pesticides/chemicals used.

Other sustainable practices with high rankings included organically grown and supporting the local economy. Charitable donations, fair trade and research funding were ranked relatively lower.

In conclusion, florists can attract more millennials by offering them increased convenience and improved affordability through in-store deals, delivery service, Groupon/LivingSocial promotions and online incentives.

It's also important to keep staff up-to-date on the latest offerings and how to care for the products. Having a professional, visually appealing online presence and keeping the store atmosphere attractive and inviting will encourage millennials to browse a florist’s website and visit the brick-and-mortar store.

To learn more and download the free report, visit FMRF.org.

For more information
American Floral Endowment
T: +1 (703) 838-5211
www.endowment.org