8 Ways to Drive Summer Traffic - and Sales

Let's get people in the door - or get eyes on our social media - and drive sales! 

Today we’ll be talking about 8 ways to increase foot traffic, specifically summer foot traffic, with the specific goal of increased cash flow. I’ll be sharing multiple ideas for events, promotions and sales to get people in your door or buzzing about your shop. 

Transcript

Today we’ll be talking about 8 ways to increase foot traffic, specifically summer foot traffic, with the specific goal of increased cash flow. I’ll be sharing multiple ideas for events, promotions and sales to get people in your door or buzzing about your shop. I’m not just talking surface level talking points, I have lots of specific examples and processes for you to really put this into action. Now these aren’t all summer specific - they could happen at many points in the year or be worked into your holiday promotions. But for many florists, sales slow in the summer and I wanted to do an episode geared towards that topic. Even if you’re booked up with weddings, your general flower and gift sales may slow down. If that’s your business, this episode is definitely for you! If your shop doesn’t have a slow season, that’s amazing! I think you’ll still find lots of value in some of these ideas. I am going to be referring a lot to my own shop in this episode, which is in Iowa. Your market may be larger or smaller or completely different. My hope is that you can use these thoughts as a springboard for your own next marketing campaign or promotion. 

Events: 

There are few holidays in the summer, and none are floral heavy. So let’s make our own! What “special occasions” can create for your store? Ideas may be to incorporate local town celebrations or festivals, the local high schools class reunion, a popular cause or community fundraiser, or a “national” day of something. For example, August 14th is “Half Valentine’s Day” -  you could offer a wrapped rose special and theme your marketing around surprising her just because you love her. This would be a great email marketing campaign. Heck, you could just make up a silly holiday based on a product you sell if you want. The goal is to create some buzz and give people a reason to come in.   

We host an annual event where we partner with two other retailers for a ladies night out. Each location supplies a light appetizer and cocktail, and we plan a demonstration or in-store special. We also contribute a really nice item to a swag bag. We sell limited tickets and rotate the attendees in groups through each business over the course of the evening.  Last time I did this we sold 36 tickets at $75 each. Our swag bags were valued at $75 retail - but we presold and were about to cover our cost of the item and food plus make a small profit on the tickets. Not to mention we had 36 ladies in the mood to shop in our store for hours. A great tip here would be to partner with a local cause - a domestic abuse shelter or the food pantry - and have attendees bring in items or increase the ticket cost and contribute a portion of the proceeds to the charity. This is (A )just a great thing to do as a human and (B) it is good PR.   

A super popular promotion is to sell flowers or small plants for the local nursing homes or shut ins. My shop is called Bloom - so it’s a Bloom in every room. A minimum $10-$15 donation buys a small gift to be delivered to a local eldery individual. We presell and then deliver them all on one day - we’ve done vases of alstroemeria, small kalanchoes, and poinsettias or Christmas Cactus during the holidays. A lot of people donate more than the $10 minimum because they want to cover a whole wing or floor. Any additional money I use to buy coffee or donuts for the nursing home staff. I make almost retail on a small plant and it’s a great way to give back and bless people's day.  

Ok here’s an idea if you’ve got a good sized retail space…What about hosting birthday parties or day dates at your shop? If you’d got the space, decorate a corner using plants, silk stems, and string lights. Grab a table and 4-8 mismatched chairs and you’ve got a magical secret garden. I could see retired groups of coffee friends or a crew of young princesses taking advantage of a birthday package here. Provide treats from a local coffee shop or bakery, or offer a quick demo or hands on project as part of the package. 

Classes

This brings me to the next traffic driver, and that is classes or workshops. This is a great way to get people in your door, set yourself up as the local expert, and generate some cash flow. The key here is to pre-sell tickets. Require prepayment for reservations and have the cut-off date early enough that you can order only what you need for the class. Fresh flower arranging is fun, but don’t forget about plants. Try a succulent bowl or dish garden class. If you sell silk stems, decor pieces like wreaths, swags, or container arrangements would make a good class. Or partner with a local artisan or woodworker and do a collaborative class. A class for couples where they make their own charcuterie board and table centerpiece - while drinking wine and eating cheese of course - would make a fun date night. The thing I love about classes is that it gives the customer a look behind the scenes and oftentimes makes them realize how tough our job can really be! I’ve had many workshop attendees turn into repeat customers because they see our skills demonstrated in a class. If you don’t have space for a class, the local library or extension office would be a great resource. And they probably have a built in email list and would help you advertise since it’s a draw for them as well. Speaking of emails - gift each class attendee with a limited time coupon or a card with a QR code that leads to your website or sign up for your email list!    

Collaborations 

Ok I mentioned collaborations a minute ago. This is one of my favorite ways to drive social media engagement and store traffic, and I’ve got quite a few ideas for you. 

The first would be to partner with a local winery, brewery or dessert store to do a workshop pairing. Maybe attendees try a wine and truffle pairing while they design a wreath made of grapevine. Or they sample beer flights and create a succulent garden. 

What about a local restaurant? Restaurants are facing challenges with price increases and shortages too. A date night that includes dinner for two and a beautiful bouquet would move product for both of you, and selling items as a package or bundle makes the pricing more appealing. 

July is national Picnic month - can you pre-sell picnic bundles by partnering with a local shop or restaurant? A basket with an assortment of meats, cheeses, drinks, a wrapped bouquet of course, and cutlery would be a fun date night package or anniversary gift. 

Or partner with a local photographer to do a picnic themed family photo shoot. Of course they’ll need flowers all around their picnic right? Set a booking goal and presell time slots at a price that makes you and the photographer a profit. You could also do this with pet photos - supply a few various sized headpieces and collars and take a small cut of the shoot price. You honestly could go wild with photo shoot ideas - just make sure you’re including your retail, profitable price in the package cost so you don’t lose money. This is great advertising and will grow your social media following too, as you’ll gain followers from the photographers page and vice versa. 

If you have retail neighbors, could you throw a summer block party, carnival,  or progressive sales event? Multiple shops advertising to their pool of customers creates a bigger pool - and a bigger advertising budget. 

The most important point here is that business collaborations are really effective. Just make sure you have clear rules and expectations for participating businesses. Communication and setting clear expectations for each "vendor" is key. Here's a few things to keep in mind 

1. What will be required from each participant? Product, service, Time, Set up, Tear down, etc.

2. How is promotion happening?....  Who is in charge of cohesive graphics? Will you stick to social media or have other forms of advertising? What are expectations for posting and sharing? If you're running ads, set a budget ahead of time.

3. How will money be collected and distributed? I'd recommend limiting this to 1-2 places.

4. What is the deadline? The goal is to PRE-sell, so give yourself time to get a headcount and order in product

Sales

If you need cash, a sale is the quickest way to get there. Christmas in July or a Crazy Day sale are both familiar to consumers and pretty much guaranteed to drive traffic. You don’t have to price down everything super crazy - try having different levels of discounts or creating bundles. So if you have an item that you would pretty much give away at this point, pair it with a moderate sale item. Taking 75% off the first item and 15% off the second and pricing the bundle with one sales tag is still going to be a great deal for your customer, and helps you move tired merchandise. 

Try moving your sale online to your Facebook page too - post an album of sales bundles and have followers comment sold to claim them. We’ve done a reverse auction on Facebook before - we made a sales album of single items and listed everything at a fair price. Then intermittently over the course of a week we went in and knocked the price down a bit. The first person to comment won it. So if you really wanted that item you better have bid on it the first day, or if you wanted to gamble you could wait until day 3 or 4 and see how low it got and try to sneak your claim in. 

A regular style Facebook auction works too - list the retail price and starting bid price and give a deadline for followers to bid until. We end up selling some things at over retail when we do this, because people get in bidding wars, especially over one of a kind silk designs. 

You can pull a little collaboration into your sales too. One year I choose one other small business per week to do a partnership with. For example, one week was the women’s boutique, one was the deli, one was the shoe store… so during that special week if you shopped at the shoe store, let’s say, you could bring your receipt into my flower shop and get a discount on your purchase. And if you purchased something from my shop and brought your receipt in to the shoe store, you got a half price pair of nice socks or something. Again, we cross promoted on social media, did Facebook lives together and both had sales and great engagement. 

DIY Take and make kits 

As people’s lives get busier it’s sometimes hard to make an in-person event or workshop. Selling predone craft kits is a great way to move product. We’ve done kits for staging a tray, silk and fresh centerpieces and planter kits. 

But our most popular take and makes are for kids. I try to make them educational and retail under $20 each. If you can make them floral related, great, but if not at least you're making a sale and generating foot traffic when mom or dad picks it up. Examples are dying carnations different colors - which is an opportunity to learn about flower cells, button or coffe filter flowers on a pipe cleaner, flower arranging, painting pots and planting a small plant, creating a mason jar lantern, or a mason jar snowglobe. Our current kids craft is making friendship bracelets and learning about the schemes of a color wheel. My cost is less than 50 cents for the thread and paper... Just presell a certain number of kits to control your product cost and inventory.  

Go pinterest crazy here or just dig around in your drawer of random goodies and see what you can package up as a craft. My next planned kit will be gluing silk flower heads left over from our memorial day bushes - onto ribbons for headbands or onto a cardboard self portrait. We are also working on a Kids Camp that is a multi-day series of educational activities. Parents love having things for the kids to do during the summer, especially if it’s got an educational twist. Include an instruction sheet and record a video of yourself creating the project and share it to your social media pages - this will act as marketing and a how to guide for families that purchase your kit. Again, this a great opportunity to partner with the library summer reading program, a 4H club or local tutors and do a collaborative event or project. Maybe every 3rd Saturday you host a craft day at your shop where families can come create or purchase a take and make kit. It may take some time to gain traction, but if you’re using materials you have anyway then it’s win no matter if you have one person stop in or 20.  

Gamify Shopping 

Ok don’t judge this one til you hear me out! Creating an interactive experience for your customers is one of the best ways to increase your average sale and earn yourself a repeat customer. I talked allll about creating a great customer experience in episode 3 if you want to go give it a listen. 

Punch cards or loyalty points are an easy way to introduce this at your store. Customers can earn a point or punch every time they spend X amount of dollars. To kick things off, or to renew interest if you currently have a rewards program, you could choose a time frame to do double points. 

Live social media sales are fun and interactive and can help bring a little cash influx into your business. Create an event on your Facebook page a few weeks out and post teaser pictures of some good sale items there and across all your platforms. We offer the best deals to those that participate in the live sale, then post an album of the remaining items for people to claim for the next 48 hours. Making it a limited time thing drives urgency and participation. Doing some drawings or a demo during your sale keeps things interesting too. 

One of our most popular social media promotions is Facebook Bingo. We do it 2 evenings a year.  Customers can stop in and pick up paper Bingo cards for a few weeks prior to the event, then tune in live to participate. We play 5-7 games of Bingo - with great prizes of course, and do a live sale of about 40 items in between calling numbers. We also have some interactive giveaways - asking customers to text a photo of something green, or having them play trivia by commenting on the live stream. This keeps viewers engaged during the sale. This online event is most popular for us around the holidays - our Christmas themed Bingo night is the highlight of many of my customers social media year.    

What interactive elements can you introduce to your in-store shopping experience? The goal is to make shopping fun and help our customers discover something new or interesting along the way, not to make things harder. So keep things as simple as possible and make sure there are small rewards or victories along the journey your shoppers take. This won’t be for every customer, but for some of your customers, it will be a real shopping highlight - something that will get them talking and posting on social media. 

Demos

Doing an in-store demonstration is a good way to really connect with specific customer groups within your business. A repotting and propagation demo will bring in plant buyers. A wedding showcase will draw brides. A bonus is that you can get lots of bang for your buck with a demo. Record yourself and use it on your social media platforms. Have a staff member write down questions that come up and use those to guide future demos or blog posts. Ask for attendee feedback on what products or services they’d like to see related to your topic. Demonstrations are a literal gold mine of target market research and content creation.

 Pair your demo with one of the other traffic drivers we’ve looked at - make it part of a larger event, or invite a few other businesses to collaborate. Your bridal showcase needs cupcakes and linens, right? And your plant demo would be extra tasty with veggie quiche and bloody marys. I mean, those are practically plants. Choose a topic that you get lots of questions about from your current customers. Flower arranging, how to style a tray, how to design an outdoor planter or winter porch pot… whatever you can confidently showcase - and then sell. If you’re doing a flower demo, have ready made kits with the flowers and vase you used for attendees to take home and play with. If you’re styling a tray three ways, merchandise your different objects in bundles. If a customer loved the whole vibe of tray #2, she can easily grab that bundle for purchase.  

If demos are new to your store, try tying them to an event like an open house or one day sale so that you have a built in audience. Even if attendance is low, you now have a video and perfectly prepared and merchandised product. Share the video to social media and link to your website or Facebook post where customers can purchase the product bundles. Or create a display with the demo example, suggested add-on product and a printed QR code that sends shoppers to your video, showing them how to use it.     

Last but not least Subscriptions

Do you offer any sort of subscription services at your shop? They are a great way to have recurring revenue month to month. There are a few ways to do this: 

One. Offer single variety “flower of the month” club. This really reduces costs because you are simply processing the bunch and wrapping it or popping it in a vase. You can easily offer 3 price points (single bunch, double bunch, triple bunch) and there’s hardly any labor involved. 

TWO. Offer a “bouquet of the month”. This is a mix of stems. If you’re able to get pre-wrapped bouquets from your wholesaler, keep it easy and don’t promise anything but a fun surprise. Then you can just order that month’s “pre-wrapped special” in the appropriate price point, mark it up and get it out the door. Again, 2-3 price points are a great option. A fun way to advertise this would be to partner with a local radio station that does “birthday announcements” and have them choose 1 winner a month for this bouquet. 

THREE Offer a “gift subscription” at different price levels. This may be a better seller as a quarterly subscription, so do a little market research and ask your customers what they would like. One month may be a bouquet, one month a plant, one month a gift box, etc. You can structure this as a pick up, or allow the purchaser to delegate a recipient for each fulfillment

FOUR. Offer a “plant subscription” - this is popular with us! We charge an average of $45 per month and rotate between 4”, 6” and 8” green and blooming plants. A few months are accessories like a new pot, pruning shears or fertilizer. It’s different every month but the total yearly value is around $550.

Some important things to consider if you’re starting memberships or subscriptions - is this pick up only or will you offer/charge for delivery? Will it be every month, every other month or every quarter? Can people choose their dates or is it at your discretion? Will you take requests or is it designers’ choice? 

At my shop, customers that book 6+ months of a bouquet or gift of the month can choose their delivery dates and make requests on color/style. They often chose holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. It’s popular with the guys who don’t want the stress of trying to remember to order in time for important days!It’s a great suggestion for a summer anniversary gift for that last minute phone customer too! 

There are lots of ways to structure subscriptions, just make sure you are working in plenty of lead time to make sure you can get the product, and don’t promise anything too specific so you can pivot or adjust if needed. I think we’ve all learned a little extra flexibility is a good thing these last few years! 

Whew! I am getting all sorts of excited thinking about what I can do at my own shop with some of this brainstorming power! I hope at least one thing I shared sparked an idea for you to drive up foot traffic - and sales - at your business. I’d love to hear your favorite. Leave a comment, or find me on Facebook and Instagram at Petals and Profits. You can also say hey in the Marketing for Florists facebook group! 

Your action step this week is to choose just one of these traffic strategies and pick a date to execute it. I’ll let you know what we end up doing next too! I’ll talk to you next time on The Retail Florist.