Do you have too much to do and not enough time to do it?

Do you have sales goals that stretch your very limits of sanity?

Have retail prices on blooming items been falling each year, making it harder and harder to hit gross revenue targets?

Are your floral departments under pressure to reduce labor hours?

Could your floral departments sell more upgrades if they had the time to make them?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, my best advice to combat every one of those pressures is — sell orchids everyday. It is an irrefutable strategy for financial success.

You may recall that the orchid became the No. 1 potted floral item in 2010 (Greenhouse Grower, “The Orchid Explosion,” June 14, 2011). Since then, has the orchid been the No. 1 potted floral item in your floral departments?

Corporate buyers and store floral managers across the United States and Canada frequently express a common theme — there is too much to do and too little time to do it. Since time is so hard to find, every moment spent working on sales plans must contribute to generating the maximum return on investment. If the orchid is compared to any other indoor potted floral item, the statistics below clearly show that the orchid ought to be the dominant item featured in your floral departments on an everyday basis. Consider the statistics polled from our national customer base:

• Average retail price of a five-inch orchid is $20. This can be compared to other popular six-inch indoor blooming items with retails of $5.99-$9.99. That’s double the revenue while utilizing less space.

• Average nesting table display of 13.75 square feet can either display 45 units of five-inch orchids for $900 of retail potential or it can display 30 units of a six-inch indoor blooming items for $300 of retail potential. Which one should you choose?

• Average shrink levels on orchids are less than 6.5 percent. This can be compared to other items with shrink greater than 8 percent. That’s 2.5 percent plus to your bottom line.

Now consider what orchids can do to help alleviate labor hour pressure in floral departments:

• A typical six-inch blooming item requires watering two times per week. Orchids generally require only one watering per week and usually the first week the orchids are in store they do not need to be watered at all.

• A typical six-inch blooming item requires daily grooming of dead blooms and leaves. Orchids generally hold their blooms up to four weeks in store and as long as three months with the consumer.

• The time saved each week can be reallocated to other activities in the floral department, like cut flower upgrades that garner substantial ROI and contribute greatly to departmental sales goals.

How about consumer value? Available for download at http://www.justaddiceorchids.com/sell-ice-orchids our annual survey of “Just Add Ice” consumers provides insights showing that orchids:

• Appeal to all ranges of income and every age group.

• Are often bought in multiples.

• Are most frequently bought for everyday occasions (80 percent of the time).

• Are becoming known as “the three-month bouquet.” What other indoor potted floral item could command that name?

So at your next floral department sales planning meeting (where you will likely have too much to do and too little time to do it), focus on the maximum ROI possible by driving everyday sales on orchids.

Maxwell Sherer is the director of Just Add Ice Brand Products. He can be contacted at [email protected].