Passover and Palm Sunday are less than two weeks away, with Easter, Administrative Professionals’ Week and Mother’s Day close on their heels. The string of holidays presents significant sales opportunities — with a little prep work, according to florists who saw an uptick in spring holiday sales in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Among the florists whose 2024 Easter and Administrative Professionals’ Week sales increased (51% and 12% of florists, respectively), creative promotions and merchandising helped drive sales. For Easter: Marketing how flowers can enhance religious celebrations — from centerpieces that set the mood for the family meal to wreaths for festive décor, proved effective. (Check out SAF’s library of social media and web banner images to streamline your marketing.) For Administrative Professionals’ Week: Florists attached flyers to corporate deliveries reminding clients about the importance of recognizing employees’ hard work and the mental health benefits that accompany a gift of flowers.
In Honolulu, Watanabe Floral has a sales and marketing plan in place to promote both occasions. On the day before Easter the shop is holding an in-store pop up with an up-and-coming local snack company to attract shoppers. Both businesses are promoting the event on social media, says Monty Pereira, sales and marketing director.
For Administrative Professionals’ Week, the shop is offering free delivery on April 23 for any product on its Administrative Professionals Day webpage, Pereira says.
Mother’s Day
For Mother’s Day orders, increasing the units sold is the objective this year for many florists, a third of whom saw a dip in units sold at Mother’s Day in 2024 compared to the previous year’s holiday.
Try these digital strategies to drive more buyers to your store:
- Tweak your Google Business Profile to improve your ranking in search results. Even a small change such as updating store hours catches Google’s attention because it shows you are active. Kelsey Thompson, AIFD, of Bloom Floral in Algona, Iowa, makes sure to carve out 10 minutes every few weeks to refresh her profile with product photos and descriptions that lead back to her website, knowing it boosts her traffic. “Your website is like a bonus employee,” she says. “Every person that orders on it means less time your employees are on the phone.”
- Optimize your SEO. Dan McManus, founder and CEO of the marketing consultancy TeamFloral, breaks down the basics of search engine optimization so customers can find you in a one-hour course, available on the Society of American Florists’ Floral Education Hub.
- Avoid ‘choice fatigue’. Vonda LaFever, AIFD, PFCI, and Kami Martin, of The Flower Clique, a floral consulting firm, recommend creating a limited Mother’s Day menu, ensuring that it has no more than five rows of products, with some plants, add-ons and “designer’s choice” options sprinkled in. “Too many choices fatigue customers,” LaFever says. “This helps them feel confident making a decision.”
The majority of florists (68%) saw average order values for Mother’s Day increase in 2024. If you weren’t among those, consider these tips:
- Nonchalantly draw customers to higher price points. “Without fail, the homepage is responsible for the vast majority of sales,” Martin says. Make sure it features the designs you most want to sell (i.e. don’t populate it with $30 designs) and that photos appear prominently “above the fold” (near the top of the page), so customers don’t have to scroll.
- Make sure everything’s up to date. Do your prices reflect your current costs? If tariffs and inflation have impacted your business, adjust prices accordingly. Additionally, if you sell out of a particular option, don’t simply remove it from your site. “Mark it as ‘sold out,’ because that phrase shows you have high demand and creates a sense of urgency,” Martin says.
It’s also a good time to give your sales team additional training. The 2024 survey revealed that while more than a third of orders (35%) are made via the website, more than two-thirds originate via phone or walk-in (39% and 22%, respectively), so knowing how to navigate the sales conversation efficiently and effectively is key. Remind your sales team of the importance of taking the card message first, so you don’t miss out on big sales opportunities. You can also direct them to SAF’s Floral Education Hub, where they can listen and learn from several recorded sales calls with Tim Huckabee of The Profitable Florist.
Looking for more help prepping for Mother’s Day? Check out SAF’s 2025 Mother’s Day Prep package, your one-stop resource for smarter planning, marketing, staffing, delivery and more.
Katie Vincent is the senior contributing editor for the Society of American Florists.
