5 Ways Flower Farmers Can Make Sales During the Holidays
We all know that the holiday season brings joy and cheer, but for flower farmers, it also poses a unique challenge—how can we take advantage of the holiday sales season when there’s not much growing on the flower farm?
But just because you may not have fresh flowers for sale in November and December, that doesn’t mean that you have to spend the holiday season on the sideline. There are tons of ways for you to take advantage of the holiday season (including Black Friday).
This not only helps you generate sales during a time when people are willing and able to spend, it also helps you generate consistent income year round.
Let’s get into it.
1. Wreaths and Garland
This is a super popular option for flower farms, greenhouses, and others in the ornamental plant business. Whether you get evergreen branches from a wholesaler or have access to somewhere where you can cut them yourself, creating wreaths and garland is a great way to cater to people in the holiday spirit. Maybe you even have some of your own dried flowers or foliage to incorporate.
2. Preserved Flowers and Dried Bouquets
Speaking of dried flowers—preserved flowers are an amazing way for people to enjoy your beautiful booms for much longer than a fresh bouquet. Plus it’s a way for you to stockpile extra stems during the growing season.
If you don’t already grow varieties that are great for drying, consider adding some to your rotation. Think statice, celosia, strawflower, and more.
Pressed flowers can also be an option, but that typically requires a lot of additional effort compared to drying and arranging flowers.
3. Pre-Sale Flower Subscriptions
If you know, you know. I love flower subscriptions as a way to make sales in the off-season and as a way to guarantee those sales for later. You can use the holiday season as an opportunity to open up your flower subscription for the spring or summer. Let your customers know that they can purchase subscriptions for themselves or as a gift for others.
If the holiday season feels a little too early to open up your subscription for purchase, you can always opt for gift certificates instead that people can use at a later date.
4. Gift Certificates
Let’s continue the gift certificate conversation, shall we? Maybe you have absolutely nothing to sell during the holiday season and you haven’t planned far enough ahead to know how many flower subscriptions you want to offer. That’s okay!
You can always fall back on a good, old-fashioned gift certificate that a customer can use for a future product or service.
If you have or will have an online store, consider adding a gift code to your certificate so they can use it online later.
5. Workshops or Farm Visits
People love interactive activities and they can be a great option for you too if you have the time and space.
Workshops and farm visits can stand alone or be a combination of some of the other ideas here. For example, you could:
Host a wreath- or garland-making workshop during the holiday season. Help people create their own items to take home with them.
Pre-sell gift certificates to a future seasonal workshop, like a bouquet-making class.
Open up your flower farm for a winter farm visit. This could take extra effort, but if you have the space to spruce up your farm and decorate for the holiday season, people may potentially love to visit for some holiday cheer. You could even partner with other small businesses and offer your farm to host a winter farmer’s market.
Pre-sell farm visits or u-picks. If you open up your flower farm for u-picks, open houses, or private events in the summer, you can still market ahead of time and make sales for the growing season. Consider marketing it as a holiday early-bird sale to help gain interest.
Wrap Up Those Holiday Sales
While the holiday season might seem like a missed opportunity for flower farmers and growers, it definitely isn’t! By diversifying what you offer and thinking about what you can pre-sell ahead of the busy spring and summer, you can turn the holidays into a flourishing success.
I encourage you to embrace this season with creativity, enthusiasm, and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Here’s to a blooming holiday season!