Floral Miami Recap

For years as an industry, we have been talking about building sales in times when we have no major holiday. This Floral Conference showed that there are people that are doing this with the many micro holidays out there.  Sure, it can be a lot of fun, but it also helps to build awareness with consumers about some of these days and reminds them of all the ways to celebrate and honor these days with floral.  We hear all the time about a loneliness epidemic, and our challenges will mental health: floral is a great tool to turning people’s days around. It is an affordable luxury that can improve mood, outlook and personal well-being.   

I’ve heard that many of your are finding some success with the Hugs and Smiles campaign, or you’re planning to jump on the bandwagon with August 1st’s Girlfriend’s Day.  We shared a view of the boxes and we can make them available for next year if we have data to back up their effectiveness. The sleeves can be available this year from our Miami Sponsor, Decowraps.  

If any of you are working on getting sales for non- traditional holidays remember this:  success is a year over year effort.  We can’t totally change consumer behavior overnight but if we’re in this together (which we are), we can build floral demand for everyone. This means learning from each other!  I promise we’re not asking you to share your proprietary information but if you have an experience to share with other members about how you made something work or what your team is seeing on social media, for example,  that’s the kind of members helping members exchanges we’re talking about.  

It takes a village and our village is what I love most about this industry.  We can all help each other to just sell more plants and flowers.  That is THE one main point that can change everything.  Sales fixes all!   

We are also happy to share your experiences anonymously if you don’t want it attributed to your business.  

Two great examples of people sharing their insights include the great sharing of Rose promotions that people talked about.  Sharing these ideas created value for other members and we see this practice more and more across the industry.  Another example was when a supplier shared how he kept distributing stickers for consumers when he went to promote International Women’s Day.  He is like our very own Johnny Appleseed.  We can call Lane DeVries the Sun Valley Bloomer as this is now a very important way to get floral sales where there were none.  Thank you Lane, and others that kept learning and tweaking it until we started getting some pretty decent sales on March 8th.   

On July 23rd , IFPA and the Floral Sustainability Task Force, will host a free webinar on sustainable transportation logistics.  Joining us are experts from multiple points of the floral supply chain who have insights on sustainable and innovative solutions that can help you save money and transform flower transportation.  You must register to attend:  Petals on the move-Navigating routes to sustainable transportation (freshproduce.com).  Several industry experts on what they have done or are trying to do that will make a huge impact. 

 You will also hear about the consolidation project we’ve been talking about that the Floral Taskforce is working on! Thank you to that group of industry volunteers leading the way into creating a stronger industry.  Being a part of a Floral Task Force is about being a part of something bigger than yourself. Together we can take this industry new places with new perspectives and promises for a great future.  Start thinking about what you feel we should be working on for 2025 and become involved in the greater good .  There is lots of room for everyone.