How was Lockdown for you? Survey results in
Over the last 12 weeks – way before the official Lockdown was finally announced - we’ve been in contact with our readers via every possible channel. Newsletters, social media, Zoom meetings; heck we’ve even used the old fashioned telephone to call people!
And, of course, our surveys which have allowed us to reach a huge number of people and ask a range of questions.
The results have been a unique insight into the industry; good, bad, happy and sad but all with the objective of keeping in touch to find out how our readers were feeling, what they needed help with and how they were coping with a pretty ghastly situation.
And even taking account of the bad bits the results have been fabulous.
Because, whilst no-one is kidding themselves this is going to be easy to recover from, the positivity throughout the flower industry has been phenomenal.
The sheer gritted determination to find a solution to whatever this ghastly virus threw at you was palpable even when your replies were written, and we confess we were moved by many of the observations made in the open responses to our last survey.
Yes everyone realises there are more challenges to come, the dreaded redundancy word is being used (see our piece on this here) and everyone realises that the buoyant ‘I miss you’ market probably won’t last once people have both freedom of movement and other things to spend their money on.
But it hasn’t been all bad.
Because hundreds of owners, who have held the fort whilst staff were furloughed to make sure the business could survive, have had a unique chance to really assess how things can and should be in the future. Not just in terms of opening hours – who says you have to open 9 – 5? - but how they will operate in terms of range, staffing, marketing and life.
As a result, whilst it is still very early days it does seem there are a lot of you not just ready and able work – albeit it a very different way - but perhaps in a better place as a result of the enforced shutdown and having time to think.
The Overview
Who responded to our last survey?
67% of our respondents were High Street Florists, 14% were based in units or similar commercially rated properties and 16% ticked the home based studio category. The others were a mix of concessions, garden centres, tutors, freelancers etc.
Location wise 82% were based in England, 43% had a turnover of £0 - £83k, 25% were in the £83 - £150k turnover band and less than 2% had a turnover in excess of £500k.
33.5% of you are one man bands, 48% employ between 2 and 4 staff whilst only 4.5% have 8 or more full or part time team members, the rest employing between 5 and 7.
How have you traded over Lockdown?
When lockdown was announced, apart from tidying up and finishing off funeral orders, only about 30% of the industry kept going under the online trading rule.
Reasons for not opening behind closed doors ranged from the belief that no non-essential trading should happen, a need to shield due to health issues, be it your own or other family members, caring for children and aged parents and a desire to just catch breath and sort out paperwork, assess the situation and understand the forward implications.
By Week 5 (when we did our first mini survey) nearly 50% of you were working behind closed doors for online and phone orders, many having used the previous weeks to rebuild/correct websites, refurbish shops, and sort out things like data bases and photo albums.
By the end of week 11 - and after click and collect had been allowed - just over 70% of you were trading.
However, it should be noted that trading is not necessarily 5/6 days a week or 8 – 5 opening hours so 70% of florists trading does not necessarily mean the sector is back to 70% of normal; indeed many of you said that other than the sad uplift in funerals, a lot of the uptick in order levels was predominantly down to the fact that people can’t get to their loved ones so are using flowers as the connector instead. There are also obviously regional differences ... a fact bourne out from talking with wholesalers around the UK.
Many of you have also done really well with a weekly offer of fixed content flowers to enable people to cheer themselves up with lots of florists looking to expand this concept into a more heavily promoted subscription flowers package.
It also seems that a lot of you are really pleased you have shops as it has given you a proven customer base to sell too. Yes 29% think some shops will convert to studio based operations, but the vast majority have really seen the benefits of a high street location with several respondents telling us that whilst you may not trade in the same way you won’t give up the shop any time soon as the benefits (visual/Google rankings/workspace) outweigh the disadvantages and at this stage you want to hang on to every advantage you’ve got.
Where you got - or didn’t get - help
The question was a multiple choice and it’s clear you used a variety of sources for help. However, the vast majority of you used the Government websites as your main source of information.
Trade associations (43%), Facebook (44% although this includes looking at posts made by people like trade associations and magazines) and trade magazines (43%) were pretty much on a par as advice sources - and here we must say thank you for all your kind words about us – greatly appreciated.
65% of our respondents belong to one of the three relay companies. D2F were praised for the way they supplied legal and practical information and Interflora really came up trumps and surprised members in how they dealt with it and continue to offer member support.
However, eFlorist didn’t fare so well with more than one reference made to the fallout on Facebook over boxed flowers they sent when they shut down the florist network at the beginning of lockdown and comment made that they didn’t seem to open for florist orders as fast as the others.
Out of industry The Federation of Small Businesses and BNI came in for praise, a lot of you were helped by your accountants and several mentioned how helpful their UK based wholesalers had been; not just in sourcing flowers when supply lines were at their worst but by supplying professionally sourced legal and financial advice as well.
Lessons learned
We also asked what Lockdown had taught you.
Again, a multiple choice but the top two answers were that you loved your job even if it was bally hard at the moment and that you needed a better work/life balance.
On the business front 49% said how important a good website was (echoed by those of you who said you have already rebuilt/improved yours over the last few weeks) and 50% said good social media use can make a huge difference.
14% will be reviewing staffing levels and won’t be bringing them all back although understandably that percentage increases the higher the number of staff employed, 24% said you had saved money by having the time to look at all your costs, and 27% were going to simplify the range on offer as you were just carrying too many lines.
Many of you had used the time to find new suppliers; something you hadn’t been able to do before and were pleased with the results and amongst those who belonged to a relay company you hope they will continue with florist choice as not only is it more fun but more profitable as well for everyone.
However only 10% said their database needed work and felt they were missing a trick by not using it to the full. We aren’t sure if this means 90% of you have perfect databases or if you aren’t properly thinking about why it is so important to have one and instead relying too much on Facebook.
It’s something we need to look into but at this stage we would simply say not everyone is on Facebook (no really, they’re not!!) plus we believe that the whole shop local thing could and should be really worked on but you need to connect locally … i.e. with newsletters, leaflets, postcards etc. and for that you need to make sure your database is good.
Re-opening the shop doors
We asked if shops were opening
Although all non-essential shops in England can – if Covid safe - officially open their doors and let people in from June 15th based on the survey results at the beginning of June only 23% of you are planning to do so and even then not full time. Our research shows that a lot of UK florists have decided to open the doors for limited hours – i.e. mornings only and then use the afternoon for deliveries or catch up time; not only does it save on staff costs but many of you are home schooling as well.
For the rest of you it’s a case of sticking with click and collect (17%), 24% haven’t decided as you think it is too early to lift restrictions, 10% will have an outside display but won’t let people in as the shop is simply too small and 20% of you will open slowly when you can bring staff back in under the new part time furlough rules or have enough work to afford staff.
Of the balance respondents are either based in Scotland and Wales which at the time of the survey hadn’t lifted restrictions, were event florists so retailing non applicable but brings its own big headaches, have health issues which makes trading impossible or still can’t get sufficient supplies to make it viable.
Back to the future
How do you think the future looks?
In terms of where you saw the industry heading it was a real mix of good and bad and in the survey element we again offered a multiple choice as we wanted to cover all bases.
One of the biggest fears is rising flower prices with 38% ticking this answer. Given some growers either didn’t plant a follow on crop or had to reduce production during the 3 month peak of the pandemic or sadly have already gone out of business prices are already going up ... we know Chrysanthemum is like gold at the moment.
Rising prices are a particular concern for wedding and event florists who haven’t just had to squeeze thousands of brides into later this year (and more likely next) but are now having to think about quotes and viability of them given it isn’t always easy to offer alternatives.
Here retail florists are far luckier as they can buy what’s good and decently priced rather than being strictly ruled and again a reason why relays may need to keep florist choice going for several months and certainly until the end of the year so supply lines can recover completely.
Because 38% are also convinced that this isn’t going to get better until at least October and probably longer. The new normal isn’t the new normal until everyone is either back at school or work and the economic fallout is clear. Add into the mix the whole Brexit thing and there are some challenges ahead.
12% said they were petrified but would just have to get on with it and 15% accept that cash flow will be tough and expect wholesalers to want payment with order as the norm but less than 1% were going to give up.
Several respondents mentioned mental health concerns; the worry of it all has been tough and impacted a lot and the age old question of home workers versus bricks and mortar is something 8% of you think is a concern.
On the plus side - and there were many - 18% think it will be fine and if people work at it Christmas should be good, 22% of you are really excited, 36% think there is a real opportunity to play the local shop card given so many people have seen how brilliant it’s been, and 31% think there is an opportunity but only if the industry works together.
However perhaps the nicest part of all our surveys is seeing how many owners – who are totally in the front line now keeping shops afloat - have not only realised just how important flowers are to people (48%) and how much you have helped people over the last few months at a time when they couldn’t see their loved ones or had to say good bye in the most gruesome of ways (51%) but how many of you have fallen back in love with your jobs … a whopping 57% are happy to be in the flower industry however hard it is.
To us that stands our industry in good stead for the future. Because as Joey Azout of Alexandra Farms told us in an interview recently “Florists are the engine that drive this flower industry.” We may all need a bit of a bit of a battery charge every so often in the coming months but there’s still obviously plenty of life in the engine.
© The Florist Trade Magazine, established in 1949, uses its database of over 5000 florists and Survey Monkey for its questionnaires as well as sharing links on its social media platforms. The content of this report is owned by Purple Spotted Media Services Ltd and any use should be requested by emailing
