“Take advantage of every opportunity to sell your services for increased sales and clients.”
We come across many retail florists in all corners of the country that tell us “We don’t take weddings,”
and we are always truly puzzled as to why this is. Usually, it’s because they had a bad experience or an unreasonable bride and swore off weddings forever. Of course, we think every retail florist should take weddings and leverage them in many ways beyond just the initial sale, for many good reasons such as these.
Online Companies Can’t Compete with Local Wedding Providers
This is one of the key areas where you, the local florists, have a strategic competitive advantage over the major online players. You are on the ground, and they are not; use that to your advantage.
Acquire Long-term Loyal Customers
There is no doubt that a happy couple will always come back to you for all of life’s flower needs for the foreseeable future. This is valuable ongoing repeat recurring business, at 100 percent of the sale – much better than discounted incoming wire-service orders. Not to mention, the cost of customer acquisition is less because those clients are already your customers.
Referrals from the Bridal Party
The wedding itself is not just the bride and groom; it’s the whole bridal party and all the guests – several hundred guests, in many cases. You can maximize exposure to your brand in a positive way to capture as many new flower buyers as possible.
Social Media Value
Every wedding is a story. Tell it on social media, showing your flowers, your brand and talking about your services that you provided to the bridal party. That’s free valuable marketing for your shop.
Use the Right Wedding Management Software
If you are still using paper or Excel documents to manage weddings, you are stuck in the 1980s. There are so many good programs out there for wedding management – Curate, Details and Eventa are just three good ones that come to mind.
Profitable when Properly Priced
Every wedding should have a healthy profit margin that contributes to your bottom line. If you are not making money on weddings, you’re not pricing them correctly, paying too much for merchandise or not managing them budget-wise. Knowing your margins for all products/services used in wedding work is critical to profitable wedding sales.
Create Wedding Packages for Less Than $2,000
We hear many florists say “We don’t take weddings under X dollars.” We don’t disagree that every florist has a niche, but it’s easy to put together some turn-key packages with defined options that will allow you to service smaller weddings, less than $2,000, profitably.
Ship Wedding Kits Nationwide
If you have gone as far as creating defined wedding kits, then there is no reason not to box them up and ship/sell them much farther instate or even nationwide via overnight delivery.
Uber will even drive the order one hour to three hours away for a flat fee. We know a florist in Portland who shipped an order from Portland to a destination a three-hour drive away for $200 last year. There’s even no need to send your own truck anymore. These creative ideas are what separates you from the florist who says “We don’t do ….” Why turn down business just because your driver won’t go very far?
Alex Frost has founded and operated multiple technology and marketing companies in the floral industry for more than 25 years. He has also developed unique supply-chain software for the flower industry. Contact him via email at alex@quickflora.com.
