Having the right data on production and inventory has been a game-changer for Petitti Garden Centers, helping them stock, staff and sell. Accurate information on everything from peak times to what’s on the tables to which promotions are performing well, the Northeast Ohio garden centers are using Epicor’s Retail Management Solutions to boost their profits.

“Without those tools, we’d be sunk,” says A.J. Petitti, president.

Petitti Garden Centers produces 90% of what they sell, and overproducing used to be a big headache for the nine regional stores. Accurate inventory data goes directly to the production model, helping them determine what’s moving, what’s not and what they need more of in real time.

That means less waste, less labor maintaining extra product and less stress on teams to bring in extra materials. And at the end of the day, they can evaluate mistakes, overproduction and waste.

“Now we’ll go through days where we’ll process tens of thousands of transactions in one day and it’ll be smooth as silk,” Petitti says. “And so the product flows in when you need it, it’s sold, it’s replenished and everything just works really well.”

And on busy weekends like Mother’s Day, having accurate data is invaluable. The store will sell 35,000 baskets in just two hours, so without information on everything from inventory, sales, distribution and logistics, it wouldn’t be possible, Petitti says.

“So by having that good information, by having those good systems and practices in place, we’re able to flow that information out from 7 to 9 a.m., sell that quantity of baskets and then by the time 9 a.m. starts, the store looks perfect,” he says. “It looks like nothing was shopped and you’re ready to go about your day for Mother’s Day weekend like nothing happened.”

There are surprises every year at Petitti but by establishing and tracking trends, they can see the effects of promotions and displays outside of gross sales. They can track not only what’s going out the door, but what each customer is taking along with a sale item, whether it’s another plant, some garden decor, a container or supplies to help that plant thrive.

“If we’re running 50% off on lilacs, you can see if they’re just buying that one lilac or if our team is really doing a good job of upselling the steps for success and having the soil, having the fertilizer with that lilac,” Petitti says.

Petitti Garden Centers is constantly trying new promotions to see what works whether it’s a gift card deal, a percent off sale or something else. But to know if it’s something they should try again, they have to look at how sales performed.

Having the tools to measure each sale’s efficacy, financial return and boost in sales determines which sales they’ll run again and which ones flopped.

“Running a promotion isn’t just about selling lilacs at 50% off; it’s about getting traffic in, introducing hopefully new customers to your store, capturing their information and also really upselling and inspiring them to do more in the landscape instead of just selling lilacs,” he says.

When you’re planning your budget for the year, analyzing your peak times and planning out your staffing, you have to really dig into the data again, Petitti says. From ramping up for the busy season to scaling back during slower periods, that information is key to staffing and stocking decisions throughout the year.

Exposure to the public can be a valuable resource for a garden center. When a new four-lane highway was completed in Park Rapids, Minnesota, Darin Hafner, owner of local grower-retailer Hafner’s Greenhouse, saw an opportunity to get more eyes on his brand.

“As the younger generation of Hafner’s Greenhouse, you try to come up with new ways of advertising your products in ways that people can actually see,” Hafner says.

Deciding to use branded hanging baskets on the light poles along the highway and main avenues of Park Rapids, Hafner was faced with a watering problem. After all, baskets hanging over a highway still need water. The 16-inch Weekender and 23-inch Labor Saver hanging baskets from Eckert’s Greenhouse, a company that had supplied Hafner’s previously, provided the answer.

Hafner says the large-reservoir baskets from Eckert’s greatly reduce watering requirements, making them ideal for the branding effort along the main street.

“We needed something, and the ideas [were either] having two or two-and-a-half gallons of water in the reservoir or watering every day, maybe even twice a day on the hot, windy days,” Hafner says, adding that the Eckert’s baskets were designed to be watered about every other day. The decision to go with Eckert’s was easy.

The Labor Saver baskets have been spreading awareness of Hafner’s Greenhouse for about seven summers now, Hafner says. And the benefit of the hanging basket program doesn’t stop there. Hafner’s is compensated by the Park Rapids Downtown Business Association for the decoration service — effectively adding a revenue stream to the business.

“We have a main street, like every small town does, and we have 55 [baskets] of the smaller variety, which are the Weekenders, that hang on Main Street,” Hafner says. “We’re a small community, but we’re a big resort tourist community in the summer. It’s priceless.”

“The downtown business association in Park Rapids pays us — we give them a really good rate on it, but they pay us to do it,” he adds. “It helps them, it beautifies the downtown, and we get our name on it.”

The arrangement has worked for Hafner’s Greenhouse, thanks in part to the time and water-saving qualities of the hanging baskets from Eckert’s.

Doug Danielsen says the reason he’s been selling Bailey Nurseries’ First Editions Plants since they were introduced to the market is very simple — they sell.

“They are high-quality plants. They are in great condition,” says Danielsen, who has been a nursery buyer for Bachman’s, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for 15 years. “We’ve never had any issues with them. Bailey supplies a top-notch product, and that’s one of the reasons we go with them.”

Strawberry Sundae hydrangea, which boasts flowers that emerge vanilla and transform over the season to a light pink and finally a deep strawberry color, is one of Danielsen’s favorite plants and thrives in his own garden. Hydrangea is the leading shrub at Bachman’s, and Strawberry Sundae is one of the five best-sellers they carry.

“Strawberry Sundae is a great color, and it’s a great size. It doesn’t get very big,” he says. The plant grows 4 to 5 feet high and 3 to 4 feet wide.

Another standout plant for Danielsen that is also popular with customers is Technito Arborvitae.

“That’s a great evergreen. It’s a full-growing arborvitae, it’s great for hedges, and it’s good for smaller spaces,” he says. “That’s one strategy in the landscape industry — plants for smaller locations — and Strawberry Sundae and Technito are two plants that fit that bill for us.”

Other First Editions Plants are also top sellers at Bachman’s, including Little Devil, their most popular ninebark, resulting in quicker turns for Bachman’s shrub department.

Not only does Bachman’s carry First Editions in its six retail stores, but the company grows the plants and incorporates them into landscape designs. In addition to the retail locations, Bachman’s has a landscape division, floral department and a 670-acre growing facility.

“We wouldn’t grow them if we didn’t like them,” he says. “We have people asking us for [First Editions Plants], and if we have customers asking for them, we know we need to carry them.”

Bailey Nurseries is based right in Bachman’s backyard in St. Paul, Minnesota, which makes working with them convenient and efficient. Both businesses are also fifth-generation, family-owned companies, and customer service is a priority for Bailey. When Danielsen needs a plant quickly, it doesn’t take long for Bailey to send his order, an essential quality he looks for in a supplier.

“They are an easy company to work with, and it’s a really good relationship,” he says. “The plants don’t sit on the ground. We sell a lot of them, and that’s the kind of plant we want to have.”

Van Wilgen’s Garden Center has carried Endless Summer Collection hydrangeas by Bailey Nurseries since the launch of the collection’s first product, The Original, 15 years ago.

“At the beginning, there was high demand,” says Vice President Ryan Van Wilgen. “Through the years, their popularity grew and customers pretty much only asked for [Endless Summer] instead of a lot of the old varieties we used to carry.”

Van Wilgen’s shifted its focus from wholesale to retail in the early 1990s because they sought to connect more directly to customers. “That’s where our passion lies,” he says. Van Wilgen’s is a grower as well as a retailer, and the quality of Endless Summer convinced the garden center to carry the hydrangeas.

“Traditional hydrangeas would need to produce a stem, produce a bud and then flower the next year, where the Endless Summer can produce a stem and a flower in the same season,” Van Wilgen says. “The flower power is much more prolific and more reliable.”

Van Wilgen also praises Endless Summer hydrangeas for their incredible resilience.

“They’re easy to maintain. They’re going to get a bloom whether you have a bad winter or a good winter,” Van Wilgen says. “With Endless Summer, it’s really easy to say that no matter what, you’re going to get flowers.”

Van Wilgen also notes that the people behind Endless Summer at Bailey Nurseries are the utmost professionals.

“As far as [suppliers], they’ve been great,” he says. “We’ve approached them about going in as partners in a few projects, and they were very amicable and great to work with. We even hosted an event here last summer where they had Dr. Michael Dirr, the [hybridizer] of the Endless Summer line, do a talk. We drew 500 people in the middle of July on a rainy day. So, that speaks high praises indeed. We sold almost 300 hydrangeas that day alone.”

Van Wilgen adds that Endless Summer is the best-selling variety that he carries. “People in New England love the beautiful blue flower,” he says. “It reminds them of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and the shoreline, so people just love it.”