This year’s Valentines Day and mother’s Day million’s of consumer’s bought flowers. It’s peak for florists, anticipating to bring billions of dollars to the floral market.
While it’s easy for customers to pick up flowers at the local grocery store, florist shop or to seamlessly order arrangements online, not surprisingly there’s up to a year of forecasting and planning for what one representative from online flower delivery company calls a “last-minute holiday.”
Don’t underestimate the importance of these days to the floral industry. The biggest floral holidays are Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, but Valentine’s Day is a big percentage of yearly sales.
High volume, perishable products, fickle winter weather and long transportation routes means that the supply chain must be working smoothly to get the fresh flowers in the customers’ hands at the right time.
The cold chain
Lovebirds around the world can thank the cold chain for allowing them to adorn their tables with blooming buds every February, and actually all year round. That’s because most of the flowers sold come from abroad. The main domestic floral producers, accounts for only a small percentage of the flowers, though these flowers too must be maintained in the proper environment for quality purposes. The rest of the flowers primarily come from South America and Africa.
The main flower hubs and international Airports in Europe and America see the entry for planes full of flowers. These stems are stored in refrigerated rooms at the airport before hopefully moving via refrigerated truck or plane to other parts of the country, with some going directly to consumers.
Flowers then transported to r regional airports are ideally moved quickly to a refrigerated distribution center. Here, they’re sometimes made into arrangements or bouquets and sent out directly to the consumer, or they go to the florist’s refrigerator before local delivery.
The longer the flowers remain in a cooled area, the longer they’ll survive. Flowers do best when cooled to 33-35 degrees at the grower’s site, and maintained around that temperature during their entire journey through the cold chain, starting with the truck ride from the grower to the local airport.
Unfortunately, not all regional airports, domestic airplanes or regional wholesalers have that refrigeration.A cold chain interruption can cause a 30-40% loss of vase life for the flowers, even if they’re put back into a cold environment.
The Valentine’s Day timeline
Most dustributors have a long lead time for the flowers and containers, with some ordered nine months to a year ahead. “For the hot selling items, we want to make sure we secured those for next year, like containers and vases that go into these arrangements,” said a florist.
Most distributors start putting together their partner marketing materials three to six months before peak, they start talking to florists about their Valentine’s Day orders a few months ahead. They’ll discuss the type and quantity of flowers each florist may need for a productive holiday.
The day after Christmas, some wholesalers send price lists for valentine to retailers, along with their prior year’s orders for planning purposes. They send their supply list to the growers in mid-January, for arrival starting February 1.
Supply Chain Dive
The week before peak is crunch time. The florists start “greening up” a few days before the holiday. They’re premaking bouquets with the greenery in them. The florists are also planning out delivery logistics, checking their order numbers, delivery zip codes and routes. They may also hire extra drivers. This is done in advance so the florist has the arrangements ready to go at the right time. For same-day orders, florists need to check current inventory as well as driver and arranging capacity before agreeing to an order. The arrangements are filled with the flowers a day or two before Valentine’s Day. Some florists offer a discount for February 13 delivery, to spread them out.
The floral timeline and forecasting
Growers start growing the roses a year ahead of time. Roses are the biggest seller, with 63% of floral purchases including red roses.
And even though planning starts a year in advance, Valentine’s Day is a last-minute holiday. That’s because most of the orders come from men, who tend to delay making their flower plans. Typically, consumers are 60- 65% women for most floral ordering.
Minimizing variability makes the florists’ job easier, and there’s less excess product. Some distributors have proactively slimmed down the number of designed arrangements. For Valentine’s Day, which is different than most other holidays, most consumers stick with reds, pinks and sometimes whites. This helps the florist ensure they’re not stocking up on colors or varieties that won’t sell. Consumers can still choose a custom bouquet, but if it’s the florists’ design, the florist will likely use the same types of flowers as the other arrangements.
To forecast the orders, distributors look at year-over-year data as well as the day of the week that Valentine’s Day falls. “Unfortunatelyfor data purposes, Valentine’s Day orders are dictated by the day of the week. Additionally, the number of people ordering flowers on a mobile device or tablet is exploding so comparative data is more difficult to obtain.
When Valentine’s Day is on a weekend, then the inventory a florist needs will go down, as men are more likely to take their partners out to dinner or another activity. On a weekday, every woman in my office and most offices, wants those bouquets planted on their desk for everyone to see. They want to see who has the biggest arrangement. Florists get more orders when Valentines’ Day falls on Tuesdays through Fridays.
Supply Chain Dive
Another factor in the flower planning forecast: the weather. If a snowstorm is predicted for Valentine’s Day, even stores with heavy foot traffic will pull back on inventory.
Keeping the flowers fresh
There’s usually a 10-day span from arrival at the floral warehouse to customer delivery, and roughly a 24-day period from the grower to the customer. It’s a long process, and the way the stems are cut and packed, along with refrigeration is what allows them to have the long life. Once they’re put into water, they start to bloom, but they also start to die.
The stems can initially be left dry, and they’re usually not shipped in water. Not only does it take more resources to ship flowers in water, but the blooming and dying process quickens. Florists start putting them in water about seven days after they’re cut.
The entire cold chain process means nothing if the flowers quickly die or don’t look good. The Valentine’s Day flowers on this holiday of love should last two to three weeks at customer level. If not, perhaps there was a lapse somewhere in that cold chain.
