Thank you to everyone who completed our Christmas survey 2023. It’s always good to nosey and see how your fellow florists are doing. Here we have all the results from the 13 questions we asked you.
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –Retail / Studio florist | 92.41% 146 |
| –Event Florist | 2.53% 4 |
| –Contract/ Freelancer Florist | 1.27% 2 |
| –Event Planner | 0.00% 0 |
| –Education facility | 0.00% 0 |
| –Wholesaler | 0.00% 0 |
| –Postal Flowers | 0.00% 0 |
| –ResponsesOther (please specify) | 3.80% 6 |
| TOTAL | 158 |
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –Scotland | 8.28% 13 |
| –Wales | 6.37% 10 |
| –England | 84.08% 132 |
| –Northern Ireland | 1.27% 2 |
| –Ireland | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 157 |
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –under 1 year | 3.80% 6 |
| –1-2 years | 3.16% 5 |
| –2 – 5 years | 12.66% 20 |
| –5 – 10 years | 14.56% 23 |
| –10 years plus | 65.82% 104 |
| TOTAL | 158 |
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
|---|---|
| –Less than £85,000 | 38.06% 59 |
| –£85,000 – £150,000 | 24.52% 38 |
| –£150,000 – £250,000 | 18.71% 29 |
| –£250,000 – £500,000 | 9.68% 15 |
| –Over £500,000 | 7.10% 11 |
| –Over £1 million | 1.94% 3 |
| TOTAL | 155 |
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –Flower and plant costs | 56.77% 88 |
| –Estimating sales for buying purposes | 58.71% 91 |
| –Staff sickness | 9.03% 14 |
| –Utilities / overheads costs | 27.74% 43 |
| –Flower and plant deliveries | 7.10% 11 |
| –Availability of sundries | 7.74% 12 |
| –Website issues | 2.58% 4 |
| –Responses | 7.10% 11 |
| Total Respondents: 155 |
- Weather, overall a satisfactory Christmas a bit better than last year and flower & plant cost were down, for me personally the weather just took a bit of gloss off, like I said it was a good Christmas with more favourable weather it could have been a very good one but you can’t control the weather.
- Amount of Interflora orders to expect
- The stress of getting orders , i received less than half compared to last year
- Quality and grading
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –The best year in sales I’ve ever had | 10.19% 16 |
| –Slightly better than last year | 30.57% 48 |
| –The same | 22.29% 35 |
| –Less than last year | 26.11% 41 |
| –A significant decrease in sales compared with last year | 13.38% 21 |
| Total Respondents: 157 |
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –Average order value up | 42.31% 66 |
| –Average order value down | 18.59% 29 |
| –The same as last year | 36.54% 57 |
| –ResponsesPlease enter a comment you may have about your average order sales. | 2.56% 4 |
| TOTAL | 156 |
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –Yes my delivery charges are all the same | 22.78% 36 |
| –No, my delivery charges change depending on the delivery address | 72.78% 115 |
| –I don’t charge delivery | 3.16% 5 |
| –I don’t deliver any orders | 1.90% 3 |
| –ResponsesPlease enter any comments or frustrations you may have about delivery charges. | 1.90% 3 |
| Total Respondents: 158 |
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –We had more online orders than last Christmas | 17.83% 28 |
| –We had the same amount of online orders | 19.75% 31 |
| –We had less orders online than last Christmas | 45.86% 72 |
| –Don’t have an ecommerce website | 17.20% 27 |
| Total Respondents: 157 |
How did you manage your Christmas range of products this year? Was it bigger or smaller? Perhaps more ‘florist choice’ for options to buy more creatively. And (if applicable) how were shop grab and go customers this year?
- More grab and go customers this year and less bespoke requests. Customers seemed happy to go with ‘florist choice’
- Grab and go was good on Christmas eve. Florist choice was ok.
- Smaller, grab and go customers were fine, as we had a range of arrangements for most budgets.
- More florist choice & slightly less Christmas Range
- Footfall was good but the customers were more discerning and wanted bespoke bouquets rather than the pre-made Dutch bouquets we buy in ad back up.
- Smaller range (34 respondents said the same thing)
- We didn’t buy loads of festive product, so the odd one or two containers we had left can still be sold, I made up a few grab and go hand ties and arrangement which sold Xmas eve, but trade very quiet on that Sunday
- Tried to push more Florist choice to give me the freedom when buying. Grab and Go Customers were busier than usual.
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –Controlling and managing costs | 56.33% 89 |
| –Maintaining an acceptable level of profit in my business | 63.29% 100 |
| –Energy costs and cost of living in general | 39.87% 63 |
| –Cost of fresh products i.e Flowers and plants | 54.43% 86 |
| –Managing the business cashflow | 20.25% 32 |
| –Salary increases | 39.87% 63 |
| –Impact of bad debtors | 1.27% 2 |
| –Building new business relationships in 2024 | 10.76% 17 |
| –Responses | 3.80%6 |
| Total Respondents: 158 |
- VAT
- Everything we do HAS to be profitable otherwise we will decline the work especially weddings that are not commercially viable.
- The climate for growing flowers
- Learning to move with the times
| ANSWER CHOICES | RESPONSES |
|---|---|
| –Closure of business | 5.33% 8 |
| –Moving business premises | 8.67% 13 |
| –Business restructure | 20.67% 31 |
| –Staff redundancy | 5.33% 8 |
| –Staff increase | 6.00% 9 |
| –Cutting overheads and operational costs | 54.00% 81 |
| –Diversifying the business model | 32.67% 49 |
| –Increasing turnover | 50.00% 75 |
| –Increasing marketing activity | 47.33% 71 |
| –Upskilling technology methods | 25.33% 38 |
| Total Respondents: 150 |
