Seven Ideas to Maximise Your Valentine Sales

VALENTINE'S DAY – That illustrious date in every floral designer's calendar that beholds the humble red rose!

You might be in love with love, or perhaps you are already panicking about keeping up with the demand.  Whatever your feelings on the holiday, there's no denying that this day, dedicated to love, can be a lucrative time as a florist.  

You might get away with sitting back and letting the natural desire and demand for flowers on February 14th do all the work for you ... or you can put on your boss pants and with a few simple actions, super charge your Valentines sales this year.

• 1. Get Creative. You know there is more to offer than a red rose, so show your customers your take on Valentines!  Be inspired by the abundance of delicate and romantic Spring flowers and create your own seasonal collection especially for the holiday.  You can take this opportunity to promote locally grown, or more seasonal options with a reduced carbon footprint - blooms which also are less heavily inflated in price as the valentine's rose and think about how you can help someone offer sweet gestures and romance.  Offerings like Spring flowers in jars tied up with beautiful bows or posies of locally grown flowers are thoughtful, more sustainable alternatives to the traditional.  

Spring in a Jar tutorial featured from the Flower Class membership.

• 2. Use Your Voice.  Don't sit back and wait for the orders to come in.  Flowers are naturally beautiful and so lend themselves to great visual content.  You can share your holiday collection and offerings for free on your social media.  Be sure to highlight your best points and the benefits of what you are offering.  You might want to highlight sustainability, local growers, limited edition designs or talk about the flowers you have available, what makes them special AND why someone's partner is going to just love them!  If you have an advertising budget you can supercharge your social media promotion with paid ads too.

• 3. Share The Love.  Valentines day isn't just busy for florists, it's a lucrative time for businesses like restaurants and hotels too.  By partnering with other local businesses you have the opportunity to reach a wider audience and to offer a service that is next level.  You could speak to them about providing extra florals for their premises and about up-selling bouquets or floral gifts with bookings.  Get creative, make it personal and share the love.

• 4. Plan As Best You Can.  Anticipating increased sales isn't all about extra income.  You want to make sure you have enough stock to meet the demand - running out of flowers and missing out on the sale is its own kind of valentines heartbreak.  But you also don't want to over order and be left with buckets of excess stock.  Instead of waiting to see what happens on the day, encourage pre-orders to guarantee availability. This can help you to manage your inventory and ensure that you have the right level of stock for demand.

• 5. Read All About It. Don't have an email list of people obsessed with your services?  Start one now!  Email marketing is a great way to actively promote your offers, secure pre-orders and highlight the offers that are the most lucrative for you.  You can highlight a specific design, offer your subscribers a special deal or simply update your community with all the wonderful services you have to offer for the holiday.

• 6. UP UP UP. Up-sell your way to extra profits.  Once a customer has already decided to purchase from you, there is a great opportunity to offer them even more.  These can be add-ons such as chocolates, or up-sells such is a larger bouquet size, bespoke luxury packaging, personalisation or a premium delivery service.  Think about how you can make the order EVEN MORE SPECIAL and tell your customer about it!  

• 7. Final Call.  There's nothing like a sense of urgency to seal the sale deal.  You could use time limits for special offers, final order cut offs, and limited stock.  Communicate on your socials and via your mailing list to let people know the deadlines.  This is a great strategy for highlighting specific offers and flowers and can help you manage your stock too.

We hope this Valentines is an abundant one for you. It can be all too easy to sit back and let what happens be, but with a little forethought and proactive actions you can be in control this Valentines and revel in the warm and fuzzy feelings of a beloved job well done.

Good luck!

Team Joseph Massie