Over the past month we've been running a survey asking questions of floral professionals about the industry and their role in it. If you participated - thank you!
We've compiled the results and found some really interesting insights into the floral industry and the Details community. We learned a lot about who our customers are and how they operate, and it also gave us a look at how many of you have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Let's take a look!
Let's start by looking at the kinds of businesses we primarily work with; how big they are, how many employees, average events, etcetera!
We found that the vast majority of our community members specialize in weddings, with over 95% of those surveyed identifying that option as a primary focus of their business. Among those surveyed, there's a significant amount of crossover with retail floristry, so it appears many of our members are doing both!
Other average responses tell us that the majority of our members have been in business for over ten years, typically in suburban areas, working with one or two employees, doing about 30 or more $1k to $5k events each year.
We asked folks to let us know how they're interacting with the world and industry around them with a series of questions relating to association memberships, product purchasing relationships, marketing strategies, and educational preferences - the answers may surprise you!
While our members are spread out among many floral associations, the top association patronized is the Society of American Florists (SAF), followed closely by the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) and various state associations. It's great to see florists engaging with the community at large on a national and state level!
We found our florists spend their money in a variety of different ways!
The Knot and Wedding Wire are very popular marketing tools among our users, along with Google advertising and a large variety of floral publications.
Most survey responses showed that our members prefer to buy product from wholesalers and growers directly - which makes sense! Check out some of our great partners by clicking here: Partner Collections.
There are many floral educators out there, but the responses we received indicated that our community favors Holly Chapple and Hitomi Gilliam, followed closely by Sarah Campbell and Sue McCleary - there's some serious talent among those florists!
This year has been a tough one for businesses everywhere, and the floral industry has certainly been dealing with these unique circumstances and the challenges posed to our way of life. First and foremost, we want to say that we hope you and your families are well and staying safe. We also want to commend this industry and every florist out there for rising to the challenge and continuing to work hard to bring beauty into the world!
We heard many responses about postponements, cancellations, and loss of work, but we also heard that the majority of our community members have not closed their businesses during the ongoing pandemic, with over 55% remaining open!
The ability to remain open appears to have been largely influenced by the application for and receipt of funds through PPP loans or other various government programs.
For those that did close, we know that must've been a tough decision. We are glad to see that most of the closures did not last longer than six weeks!
We've also heard that many of you are adapting to the situation by providing retail services - particularly around Mother's Day and Easter, which was a much-needed win for the industry. Some of our florists said they offered curb-side pick-up, created pop-up shops, and some even said they had the most successful holiday sales in decades - awesome!
"We finally were able to open to the public but still offered curb-side pick up. We had an increase and sold out of all of our flowers.”
"I put together a pop-up flower shop in our local venue since I don't have a storefront.”
"We doubled our original $ goal for Mother's Day this year by selling designers choice deliveries.”
“3 times larger than last year!"
“I partnered with some local businesses to add bouquets to their deliveries. Sold over 200 with flowers from local farms. Not a huge moneymaker, but kept my name out there and I was able to support other friends' businesses.”
“Best Mothers Day in my 39-year history of being in business”
It's been a tough year, to be certain, but we are seeing and hearing good things. We know that the floral industry is strong and we're proud to be a part of it.
If you participated in our survey, you were automatically entered to win one of three $100 Visa Gift Cards - what participants didn't know is that we were ready to give an extra $100 Visa Gift Card away to someone who was on the webinar with us! A big congrats to all 4 winners:
Cassie Osterloth, Brianne Killingsworth, Rachael Brown, & Bonus Winner Justine Chapura!
You can watch our full webinar where Details Founder Corrine Heck goes over all of our findings and chooses the winners! Download our full report presentation slides to follow along with the interesting stats we collected below.
