Flora-Stats Annual Report 1998
Consumer Study Market Briefing
Consumer floral product purchases show downward trend
Consumer purchasing of and spending for floral products for the period September 1997-August 1998 slipped slightly over the prior year.
- all floral product categories indicated the loss except fresh cut flowers
- fresh cut flowers transactions and expenditures edged up moderately compared to a year ago.
- consumers report that they purchase fresh cut flowers for a calendar occasion 19% of the time compared 14% for the other product segments combined.
- overall, fewer consumers purchased a floral product during this annual period as in 1997
- specifically, consumers making purchases bought fewer:
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•flowering or green plants
•outdoor / bedding plants
•artificial dried product
Holidays Floral Purchase Profiles - Top Five Holidays
Retailers know all too well the opportunities calendar holidays offer for floral sales. As expected, consumers clearly continue to favor flowering houseplants (traditional poinsettias) for Christmas / Chanukah. However, recent trends indicate outdoor / bedding garden plants have gained importance for consumer floral purchases at Mother’s Day. Fresh cut flowers remain the mainstay for Valentine’s Day. Consumer demand waned at Easter/Passover.
For many occasions the major trends remain constant showing little change from the traditional purchasing characteristics associated with the holiday. However, a look within the consumer purchases for each holiday from September 1997 to August 1998 may prompt an idea or two about new or different opportunities to feature and promote floral products.
Christmas/Chanukah
Christmas/Chanukah and Mother’s Day, when combined, captured almost 6 out of 10 consumer floral purchases bought for a calendar occasion in 1998. This represents an increase in importance over the same 1997 period where these two holidays accounted for just over half of the transactions. Specifically, Christmas / Chanukah accounted for one-third of all calendar occasion purchases and consumer spending for the annual period ending August 1998.
- consumers bought for themselves and as gifts at the same proportion for the holiday season.
- no surprises, over 50% of purchases were flowering houseplants - poinsettias remaining the mainstay
- just over 10% of consumer transactions were fresh cut flowers.
Mother’s Day
Buying for Mother’s Day contributed to one-quarter of all calendar purchase occasions and expenditures. Almost 90% of these floral purchases were gifts. The importance of Outdoor / Bedding plants purchased for Mother’s Day increased this year from last. The growth of Outdoor / Bedding plant buying for Mother’s Day in 1998 may have been assisted or influenced by the mild spring weather and gardener’s planting earlier than they did in 1997.
- flowering houseplants, a product showing an upward trend in the past couple of years, lost share in 1998
- consumer fresh cut flower purchases held at the same level in 1998 compared to 1997
- however, fresh cut purchases were still below that noted for both the 1995 and 1996 floral years.
Easter/Passover
Consumer demand for floral products during the Easter / Passover holiday declined in 1998. Although three-fourths of these purchases were intended as a gift, the importance of gift giving for Easter / Passover slipped somewhat this year when compared to 1997. The weakness traced particularly to consumers buying fewer Flowering Plants (especially Lilies) this year than did the year prior. In addition:
- flowering houseplants accounted for over one-third of the purchases for Easter / Passover
- fresh cut flowers accounted for 25% of the purchases for Easter / Passover
- outdoor / bedding plants accounted for another quarter
Valentine’s Day
When considering dollars spent, Valentine’s Day moved ahead of Easter / Passover. However, in 1998 Valentine’s Day did not hold the level of importance to calendar occasion expenditures it had in 1997. Valentine’s Day landed on a Saturday during 1998, which may have contributed to the decline.
Other trends remained essentially unchanged.
- Valentine’s continues to capture the greatest percentage of calendar occasion spending per purchase
- not surprisingly, more than 95% of purchases made by consumers were intended as a gift
- three-quarters of consumer purchases were for fresh cut flowers.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was the fifth most important holiday for floral product purchases.
- consumer trends indicate floral purchases are balanced for gift and self.
- fresh cut flowers accounted for over half the transactions and for two-thirds of the dollars spent
