In Bloom Florist is pitching care packages with plants and other luxury goodies for college students.
by Katie Hendrick Vincent
Back-to-school season presents BIG business opportunities. According to a recent survey by Deloitte, there are 29 million households across the United States expected to spend a total of $27.6 billion. To get its share of the pie, In Bloom Florist in Orlando, Florida has been promoting a variety of school-themed gifts on social media, including some targeted for the big kids — college care packages.
“We have such a variety of new and seasoned parents at the flower shop,” reads a recent Instagram post. “Some of our kids are starting Pre-K and some of them are heading off to college. For those older ones, we know this transition will be hard for you both! Let them know you’re thinking of them and help them feel less homesick with our ‘Piece of Paradise’ gift box. We hope they show their love by calling every day.”
Priced at $125, the care package includes a snake plant — a product scientifically proven to increase productivity and feelings of wellness that is also tremendously popular with young people — a tropical stationary set, an orange blossom scented candle, a body scrub and pineapple-flavored gummy bears.
In Bloom Florist tagged the purveyors who created the non-floral goodies (@idlewildco, @anandaluxcandles, @janesbodyscrub and @sugarfina) — a move that prompted them repost, increasing the promotion’s reach.
The college care packages are but one of a dozen gift suggestions for students, teachers and even parents listed in a new “back to school” category on the shop’s website. In addition to drumming up extra sales with customers eager to show appreciation for a teacher or love for a child or spouse, the website addition helps improve the shop’s ranking in online search results. “Google and other search engines want to see regular changes made to websites,” explained BloomNet’s Renato Sogueco, AAF, PFCI, in a recent Floral Management feature on search engine optimization. Click here to review the story.
Katie Hendrick Vincent is the senior contributing editor for the Society of American Florists.
