The Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN) has launched an all-new NurseryGuide.com — a plant, service, supply and vendor search engine built for the wholesale nursery industry. The improvements are aimed at helping nursery buyers find more and growers sell more.
NurseryGuide.com was initially launched in 2013. The new version of the site is a giant leap forward. It offers enhanced tools for finding plants as well as selling them, all in a new site that is much faster and easier to use. It's also built for the way people search today — desktop, mobile or tablet.
"We listened to input from our members and from retailers and others using the site to find plant material," said Curt Kipp, director of publications and communications for the OAN, who spearheaded the project. "The new site makes it much easier as a buyer to find exactly what you want, and much easier as a business to have people find your offerings."
Enhanced features
For growers and vendors, the new NurseryGuide.com offers enhanced profile tools. All OAN member businesses get a free profile for their company. Now they can add videos.
They can also list multiple physical locations for their business and multiple contacts (ideal for listing regional sales reps). It's also still possible, and easier than ever, to list availabilities and add photographs.
For buyers, the new NurseryGuide.com offers tools to help focus their search. They can instantly filter results by region, by state shipped to, and many other parameters — lightning fast.
And with a new Professional Account (registration required), industry professionals can save favorite plants, services, supplies, companies and searches and return to them later.
Better listings management
For members listing plants, products and services on NurseryGuide.com, it's now easier and faster to manage listings. They can search for what they might want to list in a fast-filtering interface, then add it to their account with one click. If there's something they don't offer right now, they can archive that listing with one click, then bring it back when they have it available again.
Priority Listings, available at an added cost, make it easy to stand out with a bolder listing that appears at the top of results and book listings. Simply click a listing to upgrade it.
Plant data upgrades
As part of the new product launch, NurseryGuide.com is upgrading its plant data to reflect any botanical, common or branded name that might apply for each plant. Use any of these in a search, and there's a great chance you'll find what you're looking for.
Growers are encouraged to submit new plants not found on the site, and to help enhance the information and photos already available there. The process is easy for anyone with a registered professional account — member or not.
"We will be showcasing new plant material for our site," Kipp said. "We will be reaching out to growers and breeders to make that happen. We will be sharing new plants with our site users so they know they can find or list them immediately."
Print book continues
NurseryGuide.com has a companion print book, the 300-page OAN Nursery Guide. It is published in late July and is available for free to industry members. It is a great, portable reference for industry pros that they can keep on their desk or in their vehicle. It has all of the same listings, and also serves as a handy OAN member directory. Any listings received by the Nursery Guide print deadline (May 1) will appear there as well.
A national resource
According to the most recent USDA statistics, Oregon is the #1 producer of woody nursery stock in the country. It tops several product segments, including conifers, deciduous shade trees, deciduous shrubs, flowering trees, and Christmas trees. This means people look to Oregon for product and know they will get quality as well as value.
While NurseryGuide.com has a concentration of Oregon growers, any company may join the OAN and list their plants, products and services. New members get 25 free listings the first calendar year, and they always get one free listing, as long as they remain a member. An OAN membership also provides access to discounted Farwest Show booths, as well as discounted advertising in OAN publications, including the Nursery Guide book and Digger magazine.
For more information:
Oregon Association of Nurseries
www.oan.org
