Monday Morning Flower & Balloon Co. in Princeton, New Jersey, launched a new, separate website in May specifically for its nonfloral offerings.
Springtime is usually a robust period at Monday Morning Flower & Balloon Co. in Princeton, New Jersey. This year, of course, much of the shop’s planned spring revenue disappeared. Because owners Georgianne and Kevin Vinicombe had been focused for years on diversifying their income, however, they were able to adapt. This month in Floral Management, they join a chorus of other industry professionals sharing their stories.
“I’ve always thought that I did not want any one area of my business to be the bulk of my sales and that has really saved me this time,” said Georgianne Vinicombe. “If I was doing mostly weddings or events now — or if all my orders came from hotels and corporate entities — I’d really be hurting.”
Georgianne Vinicombe
Instead, the Vinicombes, who applied for and received a PPP loan earlier this year, had other established product lines to promote, including balloon bouquets and food baskets that proved to be high-demand purchases during months of physical distancing among consumers, when customers were looking for safe ways to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and more.
“If I only sold flowers, I would have seen a much larger decrease in sales and would have missed out on all those balloon bouquets, food baskets and gift item sales,” added Vinicombe. “Diversity in products and services helped me survive the recession, and it’s helping me again.”
In fact, the shop launched a new, separate website in May specifically for its nonfloral offerings.
“It’s a good way for people to see everything we have available in the shop, without actually coming into the store,” said Vinicombe, adding that they’ve also started to experiment with shipping select items (food, gift items) via FedEx to customers, a service she sees growing. “I believe that will pick up in the future, especially with the new website,” she said. “I think concentrating on online sales is even more necessary than ever and will remain so.”
Read much more about the shop’s approach and how other retailers are refining their approach to the new sales environment in the July/August issue of Floral Management.
Mary Westbrook is the editor in chief of Floral Management.