Houseplant Survey Results

Ellen C. Wells

If you missed the December 9 webinar revealing the results of the Floral Marketing Fund’s Consumer Houseplant Purchasing Study, I have two good-news items for you. The first is I’m including a few of the major take-home results below for your convenience.

• The study found that plants in the flowering houseplant category are the most purchased plant among the 10 categories included in the survey. However, the most spending occurred in the bromeliads and indoor palms categories.

• The plant is considered to be more important than the container it is in. However, 37% of purchasers think that the container is just as important as the type of plant.

• Home improvement stores and independent garden centers came in tops for places to purchase houseplants, although there wasn’t a significant difference in numbers between any of the retail venues.

• Overall satisfaction ratings of retailers that sell houseplants indicate that most retailers are providing satisfactory to above satisfactory offerings, value, quality and service.

• While some houseplant purchasers engage with e-commerce retailers, they indicated they have some caution with purchasing live plants online. The reason? The possibility of receiving damaged plants during shipping and being unable to see the product before they purchase.

• On average the purchasers have only purchased one to three plants online in the past but did indicate they planned on increasing their online purchasing by 53% into 2021 and through e-commerce channels into the future.

• The study’s final conclusion is this: “It appears that the industry has been leaving money on the table, so to speak, in that the price elasticity of demand appears favorable, with respondents indicating a general willingness to pay sometimes substantially higher prices than industry firms have been charging at retail.”

Yes! The study authors suggest that while folks consider or experiment with higher prices, perhaps entry-level/first-time houseplant buyers would still need a price that attracts them to an initial purchase. A dynamic pricing strategy, perhaps, would be useful for differing levels of consumer price elasticity of demand.

Oh, and one final observation that I thought was interesting: The study asked questions of both houseplant purchasers and non-purchasers. It turns out that purchasers have great optimism about the future “even though their personal and professional lives were heavily affected by COVID-19”—in fact, houseplants helped make them feel happier!—whereas the non-purchasers are not as optimistic about their future and also have lower ratings of the positivity of health and well-being. Maybe we just need to do more guerilla houseplant giveaways to get folks more familiar with how wonderfully our products can help them feel about themselves.

And the second good-news item is that you can read and interpret the entire Consumer Houseplant Purchasing Study for yourself for free (registration required). You can download the report at floralmarketingfund.org/research. GP