Tending to plants on the sales floor

It has been a tough winter for many, and spring sprung late for folks in the Midwest and on the East Coast. As you’re reading this, your loyal customers are likely flooding your store, hungry for color and life.

That’s why Karlie Graf, public relations and marketing manager for Graf Growers Garden Center in Akron, Ohio, puts the garden center’s brightest blooms up front.

“We have two point people who we go to, and they help identify what plants are looking great in the greenhouse and what we should be showcasing. We take that information and we come up with displays,” Graf says. “It’s important to us that there’s a lot of color showing, so if there’s a plant that we know is in demand but it’s not showing color, we’ll pick another plant because people really respond to color, especially with flowers.”

Allisonville Nursery in Fishers, Indiana, adopts a similar strategy.

“We constantly strive to rotate our green goods, whether it be annuals, perennials, trees or shrubs so that when you walk into those areas, something is blooming,” says Jacques Schindler, horticulturist and plant buyer at Allisonville.

The tricky part is keeping those displays stocked, full and beautiful as customers pluck plants from shelves. Graf and Schindler shared some strategies that have worked at their stores.
 

Change it up

Customers at Graf Growers like to see something new each week, so Graf generally swaps out plants or changes the display each Thursday. That enables them to rotate through plants and sell more varieties. They also rotate the merchandising — if they showcase dahlias at varying heights one week, they’ll feature flat displays of geraniums the next.

Allisonville displays many of its plants on “nice, meandering paths” to mix up colors, textures and foliage, Schindler says. The set-up also gives gardeners inspiration and allows them to see what plants complement others.

“Newer varieties and anything that’s coming into bloom, we’ll pull forward so it shows well in the garden areas,” he says. “The rotating, the merchandising and the displaying of our garden areas never ends.”
 

Designate “stockers”

Depending on the traffic, Graf Growers designates two to six people to refresh displays of plants as customers transfer them to their carts.

“Growing and selling areas are on two different places on our property, so the stockers are in charge of making sure that all of the plants keep getting replenished as they sell,” Graf says. “They are assigned to key areas and are responsible for filling those areas.”
 

“The three Ps”

Managing the “Three Ps,” people, plants and products, is always “a balancing act,” says Schindler.

“Our customers come first. So if there is a customer wandering somewhere on the grounds, we acknowledge and assist them,” he says. “If there is no one to help, then we tend to our plants and make sure their needs are met.”

That’s Allisonville’s philosophy, but plants don’t necessarily take a back seat.

“Rotating nursery stock or creating displays, weeding/trimming, these are necessary things that do need to happen,” he says. “We make sure people and plants are taken care of.”
 

Call attention to popular plants

Both Graf and Schindler emphasized the importance of good signage with specific plant information to help customers when staff members are busy. But they go a bit further to attract customers, too.

“We’ll run ribbon or flags to call attention to the area. Of course we want to be tasteful and not junky looking,” Graf says. “But if we have all hot pink dahlias, we’ll run a hot pink ribbon at the end of the bench to call attention to the display and put signage there. We’ll talk to sales staff about what’s going on and mention products that aren’t moving to hopefully encourage them to sell that product.”

Another angle Allisonville is trying this year is the “store within a store concept,” Schindler says.

“When you go to a department store, Levi Strauss jeans are together with other Levi products. Clothes lines are displayed together. We’re bringing that same concept to green goods,” he says. They are creating entry ways to mimic storefronts with signage and banners from Monrovia, HGTV HOME Plant Collection and Proven Winners to clearly designate areas with those specific plant brands. They are also creating a section for edibles.

“They are recognized brands, and we like what they’re doing with introducing new and improved varieties. We feel that’s going to resonate with our customers,” he says. “We’re constantly changing and moving with the way garden center customers are shopping.”