Americans don’t plan to hold back on holiday shopping for the 2024 season — and a majority of them plan to do it online.
Consumers are predicted to spend a record $902 per person on holiday gifts, food, decoration and other seasonal items, according to the National Retail Federation. That’s about $25 per person more than last year and $16 higher than the record set in 2019.
Of that $902, consumers have designated about $261 for seasonal items, such as decorations — which include flowers. What’s more, 57% of respondents to the NRF survey said they’d shop online for gifts.
Florists can get a share of that spending with smart tactics that help shoppers find them online and convert browsers into buyers.
Improve SEO
It’s not too late (or too hard) to give your SEO a boost.
- Get on Google Regularly update your Google Business Profile throughout the holiday season with store hours, photos, and more to keep your shop ranking high in search engine results.
- Appeal to Apple Users Don’t forget to create an create an Apple Business Connect account, which will help your business show up on the iPhone’s Apple Maps. Like Google, Apple generates information on its maps based on your business’s Apple profile.
For more help with SEO, check out the Society of American Florists’ “Digital Power Up” series of articles and the course, “SEO: The Basics” by Dan McManus of TeamFloral.
Optimize Your Site
Your website reflects your brand and customer service, so it must be user friendly.
- Speed it Up Get rid of unnecessarily high-resolution images, excessive plugins, and pop-up windows that can slow site load speeds.
- Spotlight Offerings Be selective about the arrangements on the homepage and categorize offerings by color, occasion and price to help shoppers move through the site with ease. Poor navigation and overloading customers with options can also be a turnoff.
- Seal the Deal Offer all forms of online payment including international credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Venmo. If a customer wants to use it, a florist should support it, and if they don’t the customer will find another retailer that does.
For more tips on how to optimize your website, read this article.
Increase Conversions
Once you get shoppers to your site, how can you nudge them to close the sale?
- Push the “Extras” Add ons can generate a nice bump in revenue, so it’s important to make sure you have extras, and that your site is featuring them at checkout.
- Create A Sense of Urgency Some florists have successfully increased sales by creating a sense of urgency in marketing or on their sites. For instance, one florist featured three arrangements in email campaigns, and marked one “sold out” to signal that product was selling fast.
- Offer Incentives for Ordering Online Would you rather pay employees to staff the phone to answer questions and manually input orders, or have them on the sales floor or in the design room? Encourage customers to shop online by offering then a small discount.
- Go After Abandoned Carts Abandoned cart email campaigns can pay off, and many sites can send those emails automatically.
Find more tips to increase conversions in this article.
Develop a Social Plan
It’s easy to let social media slip through the cracks, only to post last-minute when the opportunity strikes. By crafting a social media plan, you’ll have built in strategies to increase engagement, brand awareness, and even sales with contests, giveaways, and more.
Here some ideas to help you build an engaging social media plan:
- Encourage Sharing Encourage customers to share their floral creations using a branded hashtag; then repost their photos.
- Showcase Your Staff Introduce a fun and engaging series that highlights an employee, which makes your business more relatable and personal.
- Tell Stories Share the stories behind your holiday arrangements. Talk about what inspired a particular design, how you source your flowers, or provide a behind-the-scenes of your shop.
- Provide Value Offer tips, tutorials, and inspiration. Make a video on how to make a beautiful holiday arrangement or a guide on the best flowers for the holidays.
- Engage with Your Audience Ask questions, run polls, and encourage comments. This creates a dialogue. Make sure to respond to comments and messages promptly
For more tips on creating engaging social posts, read this Floral Management article.
Complement your custom social plan with SAF’s library of social media graphics and web banners for Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas and New Year’s. SAF also has a collection of Instagram and Facebook Story templates.
For more resources to help your holiday operations and boost sales, check out SAF’s 2024 Holiday Planning package on the Floral Education Hub.
Amanda Jedlinsky is the senior director of content and communications for the Society of American Florists.
