Dress your Valentine’s Day Rose Sales for Success

Almost everyone has a Valentine - someone they’d love to surprise with a gift. That’s good news for florists making plans for their holiday rose sales.

While a hectic Valentine’s Day may not feel like a “bed of roses” for hardworking designers, shop holiday profits often come “dressed for success” in rose petals.

This ‘red-letter day’ for sweethearts is often the busiest day of the year for a floral business.

Why are flowers the most popular gift?  

Which flower remains Valentine's favorite? As the poem goes …

Roses are red

Flowers make a great Valentine gift because they can be adapted to any age or budget.

If your customer has their heart set on roses, they’re not alone.

Year-after-year roses are the most requested flower and red remains the most popular color.

According to holidayinsights.com in a three-day time period – 110 million roses, mostly red, will be sold and delivered for Valentine’s Day.

How can you inspire customers to fall in love with your rose designs?

Careful planning in advance is the insider’s secret for organizing cupid’s chaos into a successful week of sales and customer satisfaction. Begin planning your rose sales now.

Celebrate all week!

This year Valentine’s Day is on Friday. Start in early January promoting the holiday as “Valentine’s Week”.

People love receiving flowers in front of their co-workers. Flowers speak without words. Their arrival ‘says’ the recipient is “special” and “loved”.

Colorful glass vases can add to the bold flower statement of love.

Send your first morning deliveries to the largest office buildings, schools, and hospitals. These designs often inspire orders from co-workers throughout the day.

Arrangements arriving in offices on Monday can be seen and enjoyed all week so flower longevity is imperative!

What’s the best way to provide proper flower care?

Give your roses some love!

Consumers expect their flowers to last an average of seven to ten days. If they’re disappointed, they’re hesitant to purchase flowers again. Be diligent in providing proper rose TLC.

• Know your rose varieties. Some cultivars are longer-lasting, others more fragrant or a larger-sized bloom. Sell roses with the qualities important to your customers.
• Roses need cool storage temperatures between 33 F and 35 F for peak performance. Be careful that your cooler doesn’t fall below the 29-degree freezing point for roses.
• Clean all design surfaces, floral tools and buckets with Floralife® D.C.D.® Cleaner to keep hidden bacteria from shortening the life of your roses.
• Carefully remove thorns. Scraping and skinning the stem reduces the life of the rose.
• Remove all foliage that could fall below the waterline to prevent bacteria in the water from shortening flower life.
• Use Quick Dip. This instant hydrating treatment helps reduce bent neck and droopy stems in roses.
• Place roses in clean buckets of fresh water with flower food added.
• After the roses have been arranged mist them with the anti-transpirant Finishing Touch.

If you haven’t tried no-cut Express flower food, try it in January.

Express eliminates the need to recut rose stems before putting them in water for storage. You can strip the foliage from stems and drop the flowers into the water without re-cutting the stems.

It’s never a good idea to try new care and handling products during a holiday rush. If you’re going to give Express a try, experiment with it now.

Traditional dozen roses too expensive for some customers?

Offer a range of prices

Take a good, better, best approach to your holiday collection.

Appeal to anyone’s wallet by developing arrangement recipes in a range of prices.

Offer similar designs in at least three price points—budget, moderate and exceptional or tasteful, popular, and boutique.

In advance, create menued rose designs to determine labor and material costs for pricing and to estimate design time.

• Photograph the designs for advertisements, social media, and in-store sales.
• Develop procurement lists from the recipes for placing your supply orders.
• Showcase designs in your cooler to inspire customer’s advance orders.
• Add floral accents to upgrade to basic arrangements. 
• Display photos with pricing in sales areas and by sales phones.
• Post a design on social media each day to catch the consumer’s eye.

Flower buyers are often sentimental. Appeal to them with add-ons like heart picks and accessories. Use Midnight floral foam for an upscale look.

Wrap up the sale!

The Ruby collection of Clayrton’s French wraps are a perfect accessory for some Valentine’s Day designs.

• Bouquet sleeve
• Potted plant cover
• Accent cover for vases

Why are Claytons pleated sleeves so popular? You can upgrade a design with this colorful wrap in just seconds, for less than 50 cents!

The easy-on sleeves are available in four convenient lengths:

• 5”
• 5-3/4”
• 6-1/2”
• 7-1/4”

The ‘grab & go’ impulse items come in compact display boxes that hold 120 sleeves. Keep it on the sales counter so customers can select the pattern they want.

Make it fun and easy

Flowers represent emotions and senders often repeat a ‘feel-good’ experience. Make it fun and easy to buy flowers to gain customer loyalty.

Attract budget-conscious clients by offering interesting mixed flower arrangements of less expensive blooms. Strategically place just a few vivid roses in the focal area to catch the eye. Use decorative containers.

Advertise gifts for all ages and relationships.

• Use spray roses instead of large varieties. Offer fun add-on gifts that children enjoy - balloons, candy, and stuffed animals.
• Prepare inexpensive flower designs for parents and grandparents.
• Sell small floral thank you gifts for teachers, co-workers or friends.
• Display eye-catching ‘grab and go’ impulse buys for last-minute shoppers.
• Suggest customized designs at a premium price for their ‘special someone’.

While 80 percent of consumers are typically satisfied with current trend products the remaining 20 percent are boutique shoppers.

These selective buyers seek something unique and are willing to pay for the difference. Offer upscale designs with a distinctive flair to capture their attention.

Dress for Success

Valentine’s Day is a celebration for all ages, creating a wide range of sales opportunities.

It’s a lot of work and certainly no bed of roses. But, satisfying your Valentine rose customers can be both personally rewarding and profitable for your floral business.

Dress your floral business for success with advance planning and preparation. Are you organizing your shop for the holiday now?

If so, what organizational ideas can you share with our readers?