I was fascinated by this thread until I read everyone’s post.
Nothing new here at all.
Do any of you here really think about the number of flowers that you have to sell just to make the same amount of money?
If I sell three rose arrangements at $50 I get $150 in sales.
If I sell dozen loose roses for $9.99 I would have to sell at least 15 of those to make the same amount in sales.
Can any of you really say that you’re selling to 15 customers that magically started coming in your store because you offered cheap roses. Or are you selling to 15 of your own customers that where already coming into your store.
I can’t see this building my business at all. I have already spent the time and supplied a grocery store with flowers started out with 3 times mark up and ended up doing 2 times mark up with the same results.
I sold more flowers and had the same amount of sales.
Selling in volume may give you an edge but how much? Let say you get roses for $10 a bunch and then you get a break if you sell 50 bunches. What is the break? 10% 20% 50%. That would be some real news to share! What’s the expected break!
If anything that I have learned is when a customer comes into the store you have an obligation to sell them something. It’s up to you or your sales person to identify what the customer is looking for and provide them what they are looking for. If they spot the prearranged flowers in the color and that’s what they want great. But if they came in to wheel and deal then that would be the time to offer the deal.
I see shops all over the place that say $19.99 cash and carry roses painted on their window or on their signage outside. Is that really the image you want to sell to your customers and is that really what DRAWS IN THE CROWDS?
Besides Conroys was the flower bucket leader here and I don't see the deals keeping them in business longer.
I absolutely believe that the cash and carry bouquet customer is a different customer!! With cash and carry, I am looking for the customer who picks up flowers weekly to have in their home, or give as a little pick me up, etc. as opposed to someone who buys for a special occasion or holiday.
I'll use myself as an example. I may give a nice arrangement to my mom on her birthday and Mother's Day. Let's say I spend $50 each time. Twice a year. However, I will pick up little bouquets for her every few weeks. Next week maybe daffs, a couple weeks after that alstro (and then I won't have to get another one for 3 weeks 'cause they last that long!) I would never spend $50 every few weeks. (I would also never give her a $6 bouquet for her birthday!) I just wouldn't buy flowers that often if I didn't have some inexpensive options.
I could be the customer who spends $100 total a year. Or, I can be the customer who spends that $100 in addtion to the $5 or $6 every 3 weeks. Not to mention I will buy those bouquets for myself as well! I would never spend $50 on flowers for myself (unless I was entertaining or someting like that). That's probably an additional $300 per year I spend besides the $100.
I agree you have to find out what your customer is looking for and SELL them the right thing. It doesn't help anyone to undersell to a customer.
You said that you went from a 3x mark up to a 2x mark up and saw the same sales. That means you have have more in customer counts! That's a great thing! Did it affect your shrink at all?
I also think that with the economy, people are looking for lower priced options or they will just go without. My goodness, they didn't even have flowers at the presidential inaugaration this year. Yikes! That is very scary and sad!! What does that say about the importance of flowers in the average American's life? I think the reputation that flowes have for being a "luxury" item was one of the reasons they passed them up for the inaugaration. They didn't want to be seen as frivolous. What kind of message did that send to the American public? I'm afraid that a lot of corporate accounts are going to go the same way. If we can give flowers an "everyday" image, then they won't be so intimidating to buy.
I believe we held our numbers for Valentine's Day this year because we had lower priced options for our customers. We sold more cash and carry than ever and it was way easier. We had very little overtime which is going to help our bottom line a lot. If we had waited around for customers to order our premium vased roses, we would have had little to do.
All that said, everyone's situation is different. I agree that low prices are not the way to go for a very prestigious shop. Cash and carry is not the best option for a shop with little walk-in traffic. . For us, we have seen our numbers increase nicely for the last couple years.
Man, I just can't seem to write a short post.
