Real Talk: Direct to Consumer Sales Outlets
Here we are on our next leg of the flower farming blog journey that we have been going through these last couple of months. We have laid out our budget, mapped out our products and have flowers actively growing. Now it’s time to really begin figuring out where you want to sell those blooms. If you did the worksheet we provided in our blog: Importance of deciding a product before crop planning, then you have an idea of where and how your ideal customer is purchasing your gorgeous flowers.
Today, I am going to map out some of the sales outlets that we have experienced selling direct to consumer. But first I want to go a little bit into the potential cons of selling wholesale and some benefits to selling direct to consumer your first season (or two) of flower farming.
Benefits of selling direct to consumer
What I mean by selling direct to consumer is not having a middle man. No florist, event planner, shop owner, etc… no one between you and the customer who is purchasing your blooms.
Wow, that sounds like a lot of work. I know, but hear me out.
Here are some basic rules of business you should have in the back of your mind:
No one is going to care more about your business than you.
No one will care more about your product (flowers) than you.
No one will be able to speak more authentically for your brand than you.
Small business shop owners that you may sell to on consignment are not going to take care of your flowers the way you will, to make them look their best… better than you. There is nothing worse than having flowers wilted without water with your name on them. Trust me… I’ve been there many times.
In your first year of flower farming, no matter if you are a seasoned grower or a hardened business person, this endeavor is new. There is going to be hiccups and a steep learning curve to say the least.
You have one shot to sell and brand yourself as the quality that you envision.
Do you imagine this is something you want to leave in someone else’s hands?
You have a reputation to build, this is a big step in your flower farming business.
Let’s quickly go into reasons to hold off on selling wholesale.
Selling wholesale is on a totally different level than selling direct to consumer, let’s chat a little about selling to florists. I think a more common outlet a lot of new growers see is to go hit the pavement and start getting flowers into florists hands. I get it, steady income and less work in some regards in that you can skip any kind of design work and have less customers to deal with. But… will you have the steady flowers to sell?
I have a lot of respect for florists which is why I am going to take a dive into this topic. There is a large demand for locally grown flowers from florists (the more local the better!). This is amazing and something us small scale flower farmers have been working towards! At the same time we need to be giving our florists the best product and experience we can offer, which as a new farmer that is a little shaky.
Florists have a reputation to uphold and you want to work with the florists that have an amazing reputation. That is a lot of pressure for you as a new flower farmer. Most florists don’t have time to really hold our hands as new flower farmers and I don’t think it’s fair to expect that of them. They want to have a similar experience of professionalism, with a more friendly-personable twist, that they receive from their wholesalers. Plus, they want to play with unusual flower varieties too! Just like we depend on our wholesalers to guide and direct us when it comes to choosing dahlia or tulip varieties, florists depend on their wholesalers in choosing and ordering their cut flower varieties. You will be essentially stepping into the role of that wholesaler for them. You should be approaching florists when you are knowledgeable on your product, know your price (never ask!), and have consistent quality product. This is a big list of to-dos and it is a lot for a new flower farmer.
Let’s be real, a lot of us have barely even held or smelled or dealt with a good chunk of the varieties that we have sown until we at last have them blooming in our fields. Even varieties we grow that we have snagged at good ‘ol Trader Joes in the past is very different than how your fresh locally grown blooms will smell, look and act. Reading up on proper harvesting and post harvesting is a lot different than putting it into actual practice. You need to be able to experience these flowers you grow. You need to know how your post harvest treatment is doing: are they having a good vase life or are there some hiccups with flowers prematurely dying? Are you harvesting your crops at the optimal time? Or too early? Too late? These factors are going to be a representation of your end product and ultimately your brand. Selling to florists can be a wonderful outlet and it is great to have relationship with other flower lovers but you really should have some experience under your belt and your ducks in a row. Selling direct to consumers will begin giving you that experience. It will also help you gain in knowledge on how to use the flowers in designs (even in simple mixed bouquets!) The more you have your hands in the process with your product the more you will learn about your product which will allow you better step into the shoes of being a wholesaler for your florists when the time is right.
On a similar note, this goes for selling wholesale to grocery stores or other small shops. You need to know your product is solid and you need to be able to have enough consistency to keep it going. Most likely, if you are looking at selling, especially to a large grocery chains, there’s contracts involved… Or you should have contracts involved but you will also need to guarantee being able to uphold your end of the bargain. In the beginning of your flower farming journey you have a lot to learn (such as crop bloom times) and infrastructure to work towards. Selling wholesale is for when you have a lot of product to move on a fairly consistent basis. Don’t take on selling wholesale until you know you will be able to provide that.
Selling direct to consumer on this note is a lot more forgivable and flexible with good communication. Have a crop gap? I have always found my subscription members to rally around us, be understanding and patient for the next round of crops to come into bloom. Crop failure happens, bizarre weather patterns happen, sometimes crop gaps occur. Especially for micro growers. Honestly, as a micro grower on less than a quarter acre you may find you don’t have enough volume to really sell wholesale in general. You do get a great price per stem selling direct to consumers (especially event work) at the same time it takes more hustle.
Without further ado…Let’s talk about our first sales outlet to sell direct to consumer and it’s a pretty common one!
Farmer’s Market
Farmer’s Market is the fast track to learning how to market and sell your products. The customers are incredible people who love watching new businesses bloom and they love to share feedback and knowledge. You will be asked bizarre questions and will get really good at answering on the fly. I can’t tell you how many people thought we could sell them pot or help them with their own growing endeavors…
For us personally, working the farmer’s market for those three seasons taught us vast amounts about ourselves, our business, our product, our competition and our customers. I think experiencing a handful of Farmer’s Markets is almost a must and a right of passage. Keep your eyes peeled because we have a blog post where I really dive into everything about Farmer’s Market. I credit a lot of our success and reputation on being a vendor at a quality Farmer’s Market.
Every year I get the first whiff of sweet peas, it reminds me of the early years spending our Saturdays in June at Farmer’s Market. The energy at the market was always amazing and if the sales were good that day we were on cloud nine. I can say, the best things to come out of our time at the market were the amazing friendships we made with the other vendors and gaining amazing loyal customers. Don’t let this fool you though, market requires a ton of work from you and is incredibly tiring; market hangover is a thing! Nonetheless, it is a great way to begin to get your brand known in your local community.
Our next outlet you can tackle in your pjs…
Online
Our biggest outlet by far is our online shop. We are in the digital era where people like to shove their face in their phone and make purchases. Easy and convenient… Unless your phone thinks your face is looking a little rough that day… thanks phone, I’ll be sure to wipe off yesterday’s mascara if you’re going to be picky about it!
This sales outlet does take time. Until your website is more established the Google master won’t show it much. Joining other organizations (examples: ASCFG, we joined a local organization called Nevada Grown, Floret Collective which is free) along with updating your website regularly (about once a week at least) all makes the Google happy as it thinks you are legit (which you are!). Be sure to link all your social media accounts, this helps as well. The more google can track, trace and associate you online presence the more likely it is to suggest your website or name in search results.
On our online shop we mainly sell bouquet subscriptions but before those really took off for us we sold our version of a 1800flowers arrangement (but better!) which we called our Signature Arrangement and eventually an a la carte bouquet. Those little sales made a difference in those early days and were a quick $50.
Our website is also where we begin the process of booking weddings, other small events and custom orders. We have all our minimums, season availability, etc laid out. By the time the potential client fills out their inquiry and hits that submit button they know what they’re in for with wanting us as their farmer-florist!
Our next outlet isn’t much different than Farmer’s Market, but it doesn’t have to be as consistent!
Pop-Ups
Okay… pop-ups are just a more yuppity version of Farmer’s Market. A lot of the same ideas but this will allow you to hit a different group of shoppers that may not be hanging out at the farmer’s market.
In those early years… we rarely turned down a pop-up event. We were also core vendors for three seasons at a cute little vintage pop-up shop… think Magnolia but more quaint.
When it comes to doing pop-ups at local businesses I will say that being selective on which business is key. Does the business represent your brand? Does it make sense selling flowers there? Do they have a high amount of foot traffic? I will be honest, we stumbled into being core vendors at the vintage shop and it worked out! We found our tribe of incredible people there, other creatives and customers. Those three years were a blast to be there and we are forever grateful for the experience. We definitely saw that our flowers sold better if we were set up outside and I was there putting flowers together. The shop was small and full, which didn’t leave much room or time for customers to even notice our flowers. It also gave me the opportunity to really talk and get to know the customers. I have made lifetime customers there who are still our biggest cheerleaders.
Now, we were committed for about three to four consecutive days a month at that particular pop up (sometimes also squeezing in Farmer’s Market) but it is more common to be asked to be a vendor, or you yourself do a pop up, on a more sporadic basis for a day or two. Last summer, we did pop ups at our local coffee shop which was perfect to be able to move extra flowers in a low key manner. Plus… we kind of live at the coffee shop anyways, so a win-win!
Our biggest pop-up success to date actually wasn’t at any business… it was in our field!
Farmstand
We live on the main street that goes into our housing development. For months, we had neighbors slowly roll by to look at their crazy neighbors with thousands of flowers in their yard. When the frost just wouldn’t come, and we had already ended our subscription for the season (and sold for a few extra weeks as well!) we still had so many beautiful dahlias in the field. So… we decided to throw a canopy up and sent out an email campaign and did a field pop up. Super casual, figured sell a bouquet here and there while out in the field working…I very much underestimated the power of a field pop up. We had it scheduled to go from about ten in the morning to two or three in the afternoon. Come eight o’clock at night Graham and I had to hurry and get the canopy down because it just wouldn’t stop! I said we would end it at three… five hours later people were still pulling up! I was blown away and it was a lot of fun meeting all our different neighbors. They were definitely excited to finally learn what those crazy people were doing!
Now… other than the field pop up we have not actually done a farm stand type setup. This is something we are looking forward to doing this season. I have had farmer friends who have had a lot of success with this approach. I think for families with small children that live in a visible area this could be a great outlet and it comes without paying additional fees! Before investing a lot of time and energy into creating a system for a farm stand or road side stand set up on your property, do your research on the regulations in your county, neighborhood and state to make sure that is something that is permitted (or the hoops you need to jump through to be able to host one).
You will be able to keep a watchful eye on your product and be home to tend to the family and the flowers. I would recommend perhaps not doing this every day of the week unless you have a set up where you don’t need to stop and chat with customers every few minutes. We still have farming to do after all!
There you have it, a breakdown of some of the more common direct to consumer sales outlets that we have experienced.
Bonus tip: any physical sales outlet you are working you must have two things on hand at all times. Are you ready? Business cards with your website listed. An email signup list.
These are huge. This is how you are going to get people to come to your website, especially during those early years where your site is going to be buried. Our email list that we had been working on building for four seasons really saved us in 2020 when everything was shut down. It is an incredibly valuable way to communicate to your customers.
These are just a few of the more common sales outlets to sell direct to consumer that we have personal experience in. Selling directly to customers will give you a bigger price per stem but it will also allow you to begin building your reputation and sharing your flower farm’s story. I have found that the customers we gained in the early years have turn into some of our most loyal ones. They have seen us grow over the years and they love that they are part of Sierra Flower Farm’s story (a bigger part than they realize!). Farmer’s Market is a right of passage for any grower and really teaches you how to be able to talk to customers as well as being a wonderful experience. Selling online is a must in this digital era, even though it may take time always have it as an option for your customers. There’s nothing better than waking up in the morning to find out you made sales while drooling on your pillow! Pop-ups are nice for moving extra product last minute and to potentially hit a different market base. A farm stand can be an informal way to sell blooms in a more casual setting, your home!
I hope this post helps you in deciding which sales outlet (or all the outlets) you would like to sell your blooms through this coming season.
Until next time… we are looking forward to helping you hand blooms soon.
Jessica & Graham