Of the various techniques that a store uses to draw customers inside, the flowers perhaps they are among the most subtle. Many use mannequins, posters, flashy windows, among other options, but flowers are present in many of them.
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In New York, for example, most of the big stores present flowers as a way to attract the customer's attention, and always with lovely, large and bright bouquets. This is part of a marketing strategy.
According to Paco Underhill, who is founder and CEO of the behavioral research and consulting firm Envirosell, the secret is sharpen customers' noses and salivary glands so that they become less disciplined when it comes to shopping.
In this scenario, fresh flowers awaken consumers' desire to spend, because when they approach and feel the delicious smell of flowers, they believe that inside the establishment it is possible to find very good goods.
"You're flagging fresh, you're flagging 'natural'... all the good things that make food good," explained Ashwani Monga, who is a professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School. Also according to him, people associate fresh flowers with fresh products sold by the place, as if it were impossible to sell old things there.
This is just one more of the psychological influences that establishments use to make customers spend more money, and it is called the effect of incorrect attribution, which is when the consumer is in a good mood – because of a good smell, listening to pleasant music – and ends up spending more.
In 2019, some stores reported a great profit for selling flowers, reaching a gross margin of 47% of flowers cut, as most stores in the United States purchase flowers from South America, where the cost is more cheap.
In the pandemic, the cut flower industry had supermarkets as the biggest consumers. “People had to go to supermarkets as one of the few places they could still come and shop. They wanted things that could bring them a little bit of joy, a little bit of fun, a little bit of happiness,” said IFPA Director of Flowers Becky Roberts.
At the moment, inflation has taken a toll on the value of the flowers, but Roberts expects sales to remain strong, as it is a fairly cheap luxury to pamper yourself, if we consider the value of travel and dinners, for example.
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