Alternative sales outlets

Most of the year I play attention to the demographics of my customers and I keep an eye on trying to appeal to their purchasing patterns and preferences. About 94% of my customers and social media followers are women. If you have a business Instagram account you can easily look up this information and learn even more about the people who are following you. Of course— some my just be following you. But you can also zero in on the viewers within your state and see what you can learn about your local followers.

But there are 2 days a year when I throw all of that our the window. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Every year, I see farmer and florists stress over customers who are slow to pre-order or who skip pre-ordering all together and come begging at the last minute for flowers. Generally…..it’s the dudes who are late/last to make flower arrangements.

A few years ago I started taking the flowers to them, instead. I reached out to our local family-owned hardware/lumber year and asked if I could bring some wholesale bunches for them to sell at the counter.

First: all the guys who worked there bought them. The store called back almost right after I dropped off to order more — their staff had taken all the flowers and they didn’t have any for their customers. So I brought over another big load. And then another the next day. And then another.

And now I offer my flowers at this store twice a year for those holidays so that customers who are busy trying to get through their day (many are small business owners themselves- carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc.) can grab flowers for their loved ones without having to drive to a florist (they are few and far away from here).

The arrangement is a sure thing for me now. I keep track of how many bunches they sell each year and when it comes time to order again, I reminded them of how many they sold the previous year and whether or not they sold out and how early they sold out. I try to recommend a quantity that I’m confident they will be successful selling.

The hardware store does not have any refrigeration, so I deliver a couple days before the holiday or I split the order and deliver some one day and the rest the next day.

The store has become my second largest wholesale buyer for these holidays. No joke. For Mother’s Day, especially, this demographic may be looking to buy multiple bunches of flowers - some for mom and maybe some for a spouse - whereas most women might only be buying for their moms.