Summer is one of the busiest florist seasons because summer is the time for a huge number of beautiful cut flowers to bloom. Naturally, customers’ tendencies of buying flowers also increase significantly during the summer season. To make the most out of this season, you should prepare your business in advance through some systemic planning.

List of things to do in order to prepare your florist shop for the summer season:

1. Revamp your website

To start with your preparation for the summer season, give your flower shop website a sunny makeover. Use bright and vivid colors like yellow, orange, green, and bright pink- colors that people associate with summer. Highlight all your summer special deals through flashy posters and put them right on the homepage. 

1.1 Create a targeted page for summer flowers

Creating a special, dedicated page for an upcoming event or occasion is a great way to attract Target Audience in an organic way. This is true even when you are preparing for the upcoming summer season. Create a fresh new page with all things summer and optimize them with targeted keywords. Include all information on this page, including links to summer-special products, blogs and articles, galleries and catalogs, deals and discounts, upcoming offers, contests and giveaways, and more. Make sure that a customer can find all information related to summer flowers in here only.

1.2 Bundle up products for different occasions

Product bundling is when you combine 2 or more products together and offer a collective discount on the bundle so that the customers can get them at a cheaper price than when they buy those products individually. Bundling up products for different occasions surely helps you boost your sales. However, you need to be very careful on which products you are combining, their pricing, etc. If you end up combining products that people don’t even need together, then none will be interested. For example, you can combine a birthday flower bouquet along with a dessert basket and a stuffed toy. 

Also Read: Florist Guide for Planning Season and Holidays

2. Create special florist marketing campaigns in advance

Organic marketing campaigns take longer time to get effective and start showing results. This is why you should start your summer-special marketing campaigns at least a few weeks in advance.

The summer months also bring weddings and other social events that drive many floral shop sales. Florists should invest in marketing and search engine optimization now to build website traffic for the coming months. Taking the time now to optimize websites and social media platforms will help maximize profits next year.

A floral POS software like Hana Florist POS can help you build highly targeted and result-oriented marketing strategies for your online business. Social media, blogs, marketing emails- all of them should be covered. Introduce a series of blogs to talk about summer flowers, floral occasions, summer flower décor, and more. For social media, use more pictures and videos focusing on summer flowers and their usages. 

2.1 Update Google My Business profile

Updating your profile on Google My Business is of supreme importance for any local and small businesses, as it allows you to appear on local search results and google maps. It not only enhances your online visibility, but also improves your credibility and trustworthiness. Plus, you get to enjoy all the benefits of local organic Florist SEO with it. It contributes a lot towards your overall website traffic. So, make sure that your profile is always up to date with current information about your business.

Also Read: Google My Business For Local Florists

2.2 Collaboration with Influencers

Influencer marketing offers a number of benefits to a business. Working in collaboration with influencers make you look more credible and authentic. A good word put out by influencers works in your favor as a genuine review does. Plus, it allows you to reach out to thousands of audience, thanks to the influencer’s follower base.

2.3 Ads on social media platforms

Advertising on social media platforms is the biggest trend right now, and to be honest, it does deserve all the hype it is receiving. Social media marketing can narrow down and target the right set of audience to an accuracy that is unimaginable by any other mode of marketing. Plus, you get to heat about the likes and dislikes of your customers directly from them. So, it helps improves customer satisfaction too.

Read More: Florists Reach New Customers Through Social Media

2.4 Google Ads campaign

Paid advertisements have its merits too. Start with Google ads campaigns right before the busy season and it will drive a lot of audience to your website. Not only that, Google ads help increase sales by a huge margin. It is a very cost-effective way of paid campaigning.

Read More: Florists Maximize ROI with Google Ads

3. Introduce a summer-special newsletter

A summer special newsletter also helps you prepare for the summer season. Plan in advance and fill the newsletter with helpful and interesting content that customers find useful as well as entertaining. You can offer a glimpse of the newly added product lines exclusive for the summer. Also, give a brief about all the upcoming summer-themed content that you’re going to add to your blogs. Furthermore, add informative ideas about how they can give their home and surroundings a summer floral makeover as well.

3.1 Weekly or monthly email campaign

Newsletters are great tools for marketing and they offer a number of benefits. Through newsletter, you can tell your story to your audience and capture their attention. As newsletters come out periodically, you can create a lasting relationship with your clients through them. It is also a great way to promote your products and announce special offers, coupons, discounts etc. sending newsletters through email marketing campaigns will surely work in your favor.

3.2 Reach out to potential clients across nearby areas

Similarly, through email campaigns, you can reach out to several potential customers such as individuals, funeral homes, local businesses, educational institutes, resorts and wedding venues, party halls, and more. Cold emailing is a time-tasted way of winning over a healthy number of clients in the long run.

4. Introduce a new limited-time, summer-special product line

This is another great idea to boost your sales in the summer season. Introduce some special flowers that you don’t stock regularly, and create special and unique flower arrangements with them. Make it a limited-time deal so that customers feel an urgency to purchase them. Also, make the product descriptions very attractive and focus on the summer season theme. Let the customers know how these flowers can be used for seasonal décor and other related purposes.

4.1 Add seasonal Designer Choice products

Summer-special campaigns call for summer special product lines as well. So, don’t forget to engage your designers in creating new designs of floral products especially for the summer season. Also, add the ‘Designer’s Choice’ feature on your product page that leaves you room for creativity. When customers order this, they get a unique design every time. And as a florist, you get to use up all those extra materials from your inventory.

Also Read: Beginner’s Guide to Designer’s Choice Flowers

4.2 Offer free local flower delivery

Offering free local delivery is another good way to increase your sales. It gives you a competitive edge over other local florists and increases customer satisfaction. It also reduces cart abandonment and increases the overall conversion rates. It also allows you marketing opportunities by highlighting this offer. So, overall, free delivery is actually a profitable deal for both the business and the customers.

5. Offer a summer sale

Sales and discounts also cause great enthusiasm among customers. A summer flower sale can be a great idea for boosting up your sales during the season. You can also try different strategies regarding the summer sale. Bundling up a few products and offering a collective discount will make it a profitable deal for you as well as the customers. Also, you can offer Buy More Pay Less strategy and offer a greater percentage of discounts for higher amount of the total money spent.

5.1 Loyalty program

Special sale offers always attract lots of customers. One special way of doing so is starting a loyalty program. Let your customers earn points for every dollar spent on your store, and they can use those points for a flat discount on their future purchases. Loyalty programs not only increases sales at the moment, but also increases customer retention rate to a great extent.

5.2 Summer flower sale

Offer various other types of sale offers such as flat discounts, free products, bundling of products, successive discounts, etc. In case of successive discounts, the more one buys, the more they save. For Example, when a customer spends upto $100, he can get a 10% discount, but when he spends $200, he will get a 15% discount. Similarly, in case of bundling of products, when they purchase two or more products as a bundle, they get a better value than the products’ individual prices.

6. Offer outdoor summer florals/décor

One of the ways in which you can attract a lot of customers and also increase your sales is by adding outdoor florals or decor items to your product lists. Use those very products to decorate the outside of your store.

6.1 Create an outdoor display

Decorating the premises of your store with beautiful floral display helps in attracting more and more clients. So, use beautiful outdoor décor to spruce up the area. Apart from fresh flowers, you can also use plastic and paper flowers, and all other kinds of décor that matches the floral theme of your store. Also, don’t forget to put up fliers and posters announcing all those exciting offers on summer flowers.

6.2 High-End porch/patio floral planters

Use floral planters for your porch or patio to impress the passer-by. Floral planters are beautiful ways to nurture and display flowery or showy plants. Sell them along with other outdoor décor items to maximize profit.

7. Try a workshop/floral party

One of the most successful ways to engage with your local audience and improve your branding as well as sales is by hosting various offline events and offering various offline services to your local customers.

7.1 Host a floral party

Getting offline works like decorating a party like a birthday, engagement party, weddings, or charity events is a great way to attract attention. When you host a floral party successfully, it certainly improves your reputation in the nearby area. 

7.2 Floral workshop

Conducting floral workshops with local children or teenagers is another great idea of educating and informing your local target audience about your shop. These events allow you to not only establish your identity as a floral business, but also lets you interact with your customers directly, hear about their preferences and pain points, and provide better options for them.

8. Summer flower season costs cutting 

Effective cost-cutting techniques can be immensely fruitful for your business. In order to implement this, you need to find out pockets where your money is either being wasted or can be saved by applying very few modifications. 

8.1 Consider summer hours

Having summer hours will cut down on the operational costs for your offline store. During summer months when the business is slow, open one or two hours later than usual and/or close a few hours earlier. It will reduce your electricity bills, cut down on labor cost, and so on.

8.2 Order what you need

As flowers are highly perishable items, be extra careful while ordering from your suppliers. Be precise with your requirements and order exactly what you need. Studies show that about 50% of all flowers in flower shops never get sold, and end up in the trash can. A little bit of smart planning will help you avoid these mindless wastages.

8.3 Don’t be wasteful

Not just flowers, make sure that you reduce wastage as much as possible. This includes wrapping papers, foliage, and all other kinds of supplies that you need on daily basis.

8.4 Review your bills

Take regular accounts of your recurring bills and check if there’s any unnecessary cost that you can avoid. For example, if you’re paying for wi-fi but not using it as much, it’s time to think about something alternative and cut down on the wi-fi cost.

8.5 Employee management

Employee management is another essential area where you can be smart with the cost. If you are either understaffed or overstaffed, in both cases, it will cost you money. So, make sure that you are hiring the right workforce.

8.6 Build Operational Efficiencies

Summer is a hectic time for florists, so now is the time to reduce inefficiencies and expenses. Florists should automate repetitive tasks wherever possible to save time and labor costs. From automated marketing to inventory management software, florists can typically save 30-50K annually by cutting down payroll hours and optimizing operations. Counting your own work hours and valuing that time will show you where the biggest opportunities lie.

Preparing for the summer season involves a lot of planning. Hana Florist POS can help you perform all these tasks easily and very fast. From reconstructing your website to creating marketing campaigns, a POS system is helpful in every step. Discover the power of a dedicated POS system, get in touch now with Hana Florist POS Experts!