15 takeaways from Cultivate’15

With more than 600 exhibitors, 120 educational sessions and keynotes, AmericanHort’s annual Cultivate trade show can feel like a whirlwind of activity and information. As you begin to absorb what you learned during the event and implement new ideas, take a look at our highlights and key takeaways from the show. What captured your attention and inspired you? Check out our 15 key takeaways and ideas for independent garden center retailers from Cultivate’15 and add to our list by emailing Michelle Simakis, managing editor, at msimakis@gie.net.

For more coverage from Cultivate’15, watch our video highlights and check back for more updates in the next few weeks.

1. There’s a lot we can learn from retailers in other industries. During the Retail Road Show, attendees stopped off at Giant Eagle’s Market District, a high-end grocery store chain with one location in Grandview, Ohio. The tour offered a bevy of ideas applicable to garden center retailers, but one of the company’s core values stood out for many attendees – “If you see it, you own it.” Employees have their specializations, but they aren’t segmented into departments, so everything from spills to customer service is everyone’s responsibility. The store’s Q-shaped checkout system also captured our attention, and is a layout garden centers could implement, especially during peak season. All shoppers are funneled through the same line, which is intentionally surrounded by shelves of impulse items. That line feeds into several separate registers so customers don’t have to worry about avoiding the “slow” line or finding the “fast” one.

2. Employees, not customers, first. Customer service is always king, but the Market District’s strategy is to take care of employees first, because if employees are happy, they’ll treat customers well. Positive reinforcement, rewards and other incentives are distributed to motivate and encourage staff to do a good job.

3. Branding is essential. This was a message repeated throughout the show at keynotes and educational sessions, but Oakland Nurseries offered a concrete example of why branding is important during the Retail Road Show. A couple of years ago, the garden center – with four locations in the Columbus area – opened a separate facility at its Dublin location and coined it “Oakland Nursery HOME.” As the name suggests, the store contains all home décor items, many of which are rustic, vintage pieces. The store has an obvious and seemingly purposeful nature-inspired, organic feel, and the success is seen in sales growth. In the 4,300-square-foot store alone, sales grew by nearly $500,000 from the 2013-2014 season, when it opened, to the 2014-2015 season.

4. Education is key. Scheiderer Farms, a stop along the Retail Road Show, gives customers opportunities to learn how to garden in a variety of ways. The company offers container workshops where gardeners can learn how to plant beautiful pots. They can also come in anytime and visit the custom container area to get assistance depending on their level of need. This has helped push the average sale in the department to $50. Customers can also use their phones to learn as they independently browse the store through the company’s app, which has “beacons,” or informational alerts that pop up on shoppers’ phones when they browse by a notable plant or section of the store. Simple signage can also offer educational opportunities. Co-owner Candi Scheiderer indicates her favorite plants and an easy, three-step process to creating custom containers displayed on signs in the greenhouse.

5. Understanding Millennials, both employees and customers of this generation, will make or break your business. Curt Steinhorst’s keynote on Day 1 of the show offered attendees a humorous but honest perspective onhow to reach 20- and 30-somethings. It’s essential because Generation Y will outspend Baby Boomers by 2017. For a variety of reasons, the generation is “delaying adulthood” – getting married, having kids and buying homes in their early- to mid-30s. They will invest in their landscapes, but it’s going to be later than previous generations. Capturing them means making them feel successful and important. Keep plant language simple, provide how-to videos and concrete examples and offer loyal customers exclusive offers and other incentives to make them feel like VIPs. Once you do, they’ll share their experience with their friends via social media. So make your online presence known. If you don't, to this generation, you simply do not exist.

6. “We need to reinvent the hobby of gardening.” The lively Town Meeting, “Not Your Grandma’s Garden: Gardens in the new millennium” featured panelists Brienne Gluvna Arthur of “Growing a Greener World,” Garry Grueber of Cultivaris Europe, Kelly Norris of the Des Moines Botanical Garden and Mason Day of GrowIt! Mobile. The group of experts repeated ad nauseam the importance of social media and changing the way the industry sells plants. One panelist (comments can be reported but not directly quoted and assigned) said one of the most important things retailers must do is “reinvent the hobby of gardening.” For years, the industry has tried to make gardening simple and easy so that people weren't scared off and consider it "work." That has inadvertently diminished the idea of gardening as a hobby. People are looking for hobbies and DIY projects, and gardening is a perfect outlet for them. Planting a landscape shouldn't be a one-time event. Be sure to advertise this, too. As one panelist noted, “Marketing is a real profession.” Hire someone to help.

7. “Food drives consumers.” Canning, brewing, fermenting, hydroponic gardening kits and other DIY food-making products should be offered at garden centers, panelists said during the Town Meeting. Edibles are a no-brainer, and often do well when sold in larger pots and “ready-to-go” containers for small space gardeners. But this generation is reverting back to their grandparents and great-grandparents’ traditions of preserving their garden bounties and making their own products.

8. People appreciate green spaces and like to spend time outdoors. As an industry, we need to help them do this. Attendance is up at public gardens. By creating an experience at your store, customers will start spending time (and money) there, too. (More on this below.)

9. Garden centers: SHIFT your idea of what retail means and how you operate your business. AmericanHort shared results from its yearlong (and going) study of garden centers and retail, with the goal of getting new gardeners into independent retailers. After visiting and researching more than 40 garden centers across the country, AmericanHort and the MindMarket team from the Columbus College of Art and Design digested the data into explicit, specific examples of how garden centers can better serve customers. This includes a friendly, no hassle (and conversational) return policy, later hours, especially during peak season, and rethinking how we talk to shoppers. Instead of inundating customers who may be new gardeners with questions like “Sun or shade?” Keep it simple and instead ask “Pink or purple?” “Indoors or out?” “Gift for you or for someone else?”

10. The industry needs to get back to its roots. Sure, dog food and scarves can attract a more diverse customer base, but the focus of the garden center should be plants. Retailers can engage customers by asking questions like, “Why are plants important to you?” and give them space to share their ideas. (The SHIFT display at Cultivate’15 included a white board and dry-erase markers where people could share their thoughts on this.) Merchandising should celebrate and be centered around green goods.

11. People are looking for custom products. How do you customize products for your customers and make them feel like VIPs? This observation was noted during Day 2’s keynote from Nancy Fire, a consumer expert and consultant to leading and well-known brands, like HGTV .

12. Social responsibility is important to people, and people support companies that give back. Surely you’ve donated seeds and plants to a school or community garden or given back to your city or town in another way. Promote this in a big way, Fire says, because it will draw in new customers and help you retain loyal ones. TOMS shoes success can be attributed to its one-for-one model. For every pair of shoes bought, another pair is donated to someone in need.

13. Matchy-matchy is out, imperfection is in. Mix patterns, colors and don’t be afraid of asymmetrical shapes or containers, Fire says. This is what people are doing in their homes. Floral and nature-inspired themes are also everywhere in the design world, and garden centers can capitalize on that by incorporating these patterns in their displays or selling floral-inspired goods.

14. Create an experience. Giant Eagle’s Market District is more than a grocery store – there’s a café, a bar and plenty of samples at the fresh food counters to draw people in. Make your space a place people like to hang out in. For inspiration, check out Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco or The Windsor Gardener in Colorado. You don’t necessarily have to offer food or drinks. Something as simple as a beautiful display and a bench can be enough to encourage customers to stay a while longer.

15. Shoppers are inspired by the industry’s passion. Two MindMarket researchers involved in the SHIFT project were so moved by what they saw during their study of garden centers that they’ve decided to start their own green business with a focus on indoor plants. More on this soon. Passion is what separates IGCs from the big box stores. Study after study shows that plants make people happier, more focused and healthier. Embrace that and make sure your staff does, too.

Have more thoughts from Cultivate’15? Share them with us! Email Michelle Simakis, managing editor, at msimakis@gie.net.