Making Floral an Affordable Indulgence

During the summer season, the supermarket floral department was valued $1,384.8M in dollar sales and 162.8M in unit sales. The summer selling season is always one of the smallest in terms of floral sales due to the lack of floral holidays, consumer travel, and the tendency for consumers to spend more time outside.?While inflation boosted the dollar sales of floral during this timeframe, we experienced a decrease in unit sales.

During the summer selling season floral dollar sales increased by +$13.8M over 2021 while unit sales declined by -$12.4M compared to 2021.

IRI consumer data indicates that shoppers feel their financial situation declined, are actively seeking discounts, and are cutting back on discretionary spending. ?Yet, consumers allow for affordable indulgences during inflationary times.?We see this with consumers purchasing morning coffee or bake goods.?How do we achieve a high permissibility for the floral department?

According to IPSOS, people don’t walk away from premium brands in times of recession.?In fact, the need for small indulgences to bring joy magnifies the role flowers at different price points can play. Consumers don’t want to deprive themselves completely of what they like. Indulgences simply take on a different affordable form.?It requires us to understand what is in our portfolio and the optimal price points to satisfy the consumers’ desires for a pleasurable experience that is affordable.

Products considered utilitarian will be replaced with lower cost alternatives. In contrast, products considered as affordable indulgences will continue to be purchased or attract new buyers during a recession.?This is the floral department’s opportunity to reverse the decline in unit sales.??

For more information: https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/floral/