During my years in procurement, I knew if I didn’t have a successful Valentine’s Day, then the balance of the year would be a struggle to recapture lost sales. Remember, during the holiday there will be challenges but pre-planning will minimize the impact of such challenges if all areas of the supply chain are informed and focused on their contribution to “the plan.” Some tips mentioned in this article will help you finish your 2016 planning or be proactive for 2017.

Post-holiday recaps (12 months prior).Post-holiday recaps are key for planning any holiday. Make notes concerning sales, assortment, scheduling, product placement, supply chain successes and challenges, daily shipping volume, post-holiday inventories and supplier performance.

Assortment analysis and selection (four to six months prior).Depending on shipping schedules, assortment analysis should include scans from Feb. 10-14. Valentine’s Day 2016 is on a Sunday, which will cause a lift in sales the three days prior to the 14th, so plan bouquet shipping accordingly. In order to capture new sales, review your bouquet scan data in units and know the percentage of unit sales in each retail tier — low, mid and high retails. This analysis will help determine the price point assortment, case quantities and help upsell customers into the next retail tier. Share this information with your bouquet suppliers so they can present a balanced assortment with relevant designs. Supplier presentations should be heavy on red, pink, lavender and white but there has also been a trend toward non-traditional designs to capture the younger demographic shopper. If you haven’t tried this non-traditional bouquet strategy in previous years, use caution when committing to quantities.

Finalize product quantities (three to four months prior). An important trend for Valentine’s planning has been the “store survey” process for procurement. Surveys allow each florist autonomy and also ensures stores have the right product and quantity. Once surveys are finalized, the information should be shared with suppliers as a pre-book so they can plan production.

Buyers and merchandisers should also begin to write their ad and merchandising strategies for Valentine’s Day. Bouquet strategies include advertising, date coding, drop-in vase arrangements, cross merchandising, suggestive selling ideas, rewrapping, strategic product placement, display planning and signage, just to name a few.

Supply chain planning (two months prior). Floral procurement teams should meet with logistics, distribution and inspection to finalize shipping volume, arrival and ship dates, specs and product handling. This meeting will help avoid mishandling of product and allow each area of the supply chain to voice any concerns about the ability to ship unusually high volume and cube.

Retail planning (one month prior). Buyers and merchandisers should publish their ad plan and if possible, meet with floral associates to review store preparation plans for the holiday. Florists should review store shipping volume and arrangement production numbers for the purpose of planning labor and inventorying supplies for bouquet upgrading and rewrapping in a short period.  

Bouquet merchandising (one week prior).To achieve high sell-through, it’s important to have all mixed bouquets in store and processed no later than Feb. 12. Also, secure supplemental display space in the front of the store to merchandise high-end bouquet displays with rose bouquets, balloons and plush. This merchandising strategy will create the “wow” factor and help upsell your bouquet customers. Once your cooler begins to sell down, then feed the supplemental product back into your cooler. During the holiday it’s all about constant replenishing and shifting bouquet product to keep displays filled and appealing.

In the end, these tips provide only a brief snapshot of all the details involved in planning for Valentine’s Day, but the central theme is communication and the sharing of information throughout the entire process to ensure a successful holiday.

Valerie Johnson is sales manager at Sunshine Bouquet Co. in Miami. She can be contacted at [email protected].