Your Ultimate Guide to Selling Plants Online

Houseplants fill every room in my home. I started my hobby of collecting houseplants long before the pandemic, but, like many parents living at home everywhere, I ramped it up. Among the hobbies that emerged due to the pandemic, plant gardening offers everything: physical health benefits, mental health benefits, and a very low barrier to entry. At a time when everyone was feeling stagnant, plant gardening was the remedy. Your green thumb could hold more value than you expect. If you’re thinking about selling plants online, now is the time.

Finding an Idea

It’s no surprise that the search for “buying plants online” surged in mid-March 2020, at the same time that businesses and greenhouses everywhere were closing their doors due to the first wave of COVID. Unspent money that would have gone out combined with our shared need for joy at home.

More online plant shops sprang up from garages and garden shacks to meet the demand – a demand that shows no signs of slowing. If you’re thinking about selling plants online, now is the time.

How to Start Selling Plants Online

In this beginner’s guide, we’ll take you step-by-step through starting your own plant-selling business and consult experts for tips on how to succeed. Learn everything from seed growing to building your brand and taking care of your customers.

Meet the Experts

Daniella Dussouil and Minyon Hemsley, founders of Grounded

Sonja Detrinid began experimenting with plants as a coping mechanism from her stressful job in the mortgage industry. When she discovered her talent for sourcing greenery and inspiring her audience with her candid content, she quit her job. During the pandemic, her plant business skyrocketed in California. Most of Sonja’s sales and traffic come from TikTok, a platform she uses to share funny and helpful plant tips with over 350,000 followers.

Finding an Idea

There are more than one way to enter the plant-selling business without having to ship houseplants via mail. How you determine your offerings may depend on the climate you live in, your ability to source plants wholesale or available space for growing, and the amount of investment you’re willing to put in upfront.

Here are some ideas to get started selling plants online:

• Houseplants. Will you specialize in succulents, cacti, or air plants, for example? What can you reliably grow or buy wholesale where you live?
• Outdoor plants. Consider seasonality not only in where you live but also in where you’re selling to. Will you run a seasonal business or sell year-round?
• Seeds and bulbs. West Coast Seeds doesn’t sell live plants but ships seeds, bulbs, and growing supplies across Canada.
• Plant care products. Think about soil, fertilizers, growing mediums, and grow lights. These products can be sold alongside live plants and work well with a bundled sales strategy.
• Home decor. Decorative pots, plant trays, and hanging containers can be sold as standalone businesses or alongside the plants you fill them with.
• Terrariums and planting kits. Sell a collection of live plants and supplies to build terrariums at home.
• Plant-derived products. Grow your own plants and create products derived from them. The founders of Terre Bleu grow lavender on their farm and sell lavender-based soaps, sprays, and salves online.
• Plant subscriptions. Both Grounded and Partly Sunny ensure repeat business by offering recurring plant shipments through a subscription program.
• Think

outside of the original. Why not start a service-based business supplying plants for events and corporate clients? Or try “Interior Environment Design,” a term used by Grounded to describe their consulting service for clients. Sonja initially started her business as a personal plant shopper providing individual consultations and purchases based on client requests.

Should you grow the plants yourself or buy them?

You can grow your own plants for sale if you have the right space and conditions to do so. If you’re starting small, you can grow plants in your home garden or create a small greenhouse yourself – but consider the space constraints if you plan to scale up. You will need many free resources online to teach you the production side of the business.

For the purposes of this guide, we will focus on the business of selling plants online through working with a wholesaler or greenhouse or nursery. It should be noted that you will need a sunny space to store and care for the plants during the brief period between sourcing them and their final destination, but this approach is much easier for new plant entrepreneurs.

Sourcing the Plants

Many greenhouses and plant suppliers offer wholesale programs. Look for details on their websites or inquire directly. There are usually some requirements to become a registered seller, including a minimum purchase.

Tips for working with greenhouses and plant suppliers:

• Build a relationship with the supplier. Ongoing work and a positive business relationship can help secure the best stock or advance notice of supplies.
• Shop around. Some suppliers may have a lower minimum than others – which is ideal if you’re starting small.
• Choose local suppliers if possible. Pick up wholesale orders if you can to minimize costs and reduce stress on the plants.
• Understand seasonal availability. Which plants will be available at what times of year? This will help you plan campaigns and manage inventory.
• Don’t put all your seeds in one basket. Look for multiple suppliers if you can to ensure that if one doesn’t have a popular item, the other may have it in stock. Some suppliers or farmers may also only operate during certain times of the year. Sonja frequents many greenhouses in her area and even looks into local buying and selling groups to find rare plants.
• Establish a pricing strategy that considers the fluctuations in wholesale costs by season.
• Try online suppliers. If you live in an area without a reliable source for wholesale plants, look for suppliers online such as Gro ‘n Sell.
• Direct shipping. Short on space? Some companies, like House Plant Wholesale, can even do direct shipping! Currently, Grounded works with several greenhouses that ship to them before they ship to customers. “I think ultimately, we’ll cut ourselves out as a middleman and ship directly from the greenhouse,” Danielle says. “That’s definitely our long-term goal.”

Developing Your Plant Brand

Don’t skip this step. Differentiating your business from another plant-selling site largely hinges on branding. And we’re not just talking about your logo – that’s differentiation. For a plant-selling business, your brand should achieve the following goals:

• Take a stance. What is your stance? Decide what you will sell and what you won’t sell and set quality standards. Create a cohesive set of guidelines that you will use to make decisions in all aspects of the business and help maintain consistency, even as you scale. Grounded’s brand relies on the power of plants to bring peace and awareness to daily life – a mission that is clearly embodied on the “About Us” page of the site and in all branding and marketing copy. The founders also want to expand their focus on plant education by launching a nonprofit that invests in community gardens and teaching gardening to youth.
• Establish
  Trust. You’re shipping live plants – your messages should reflect that you are knowledgeable about the subject and care about the shipping process and customer support after the purchase. Education as part of your brand strategy and content strategy will help build trust. Sonja offers consistent content like plant care tips to build trust with the audience before converting them into customers.
• Helping you differentiate. What makes you unique? Tell your brand story on your “About Us” page, on social media, and even on the packaging. Define your values, share information about any charitable partnerships, and let customers peek behind the curtain. “People buy from people they like,” says Sonja.

Pricing Plants for Online Sale

You can follow standard pricing models to price most goods for online sale. To find the retail price for plants or plant accessories:

• Add your variable costs for each product (cost of goods sold, packaging, shipping, etc.). Add a profit margin (consider the general market). Don’t forget fixed costs (operating expenses, such as rent).

There are some other factors to consider when pricing plants:

• Seasonality may affect pricing. For example, if you choose to sell a particular plant with a limited number of sizes that you have a reliable supply chain for, consider fluctuations in wholesale cost for the plants (gardens may adjust prices seasonally). If you want pricing to be consistent on your site, consider the highest possible cost when calculating the retail price. “For example, if we sell a golden pothos plant for $20, we’ll keep it at $20 no matter what,” says Minion. “Even if we’re paying a little more than wholesale usually, we’ll keep it at that price to stay consistent.”
• Market price is important to keep in mind. Even though your brand may be completely different from another brand, a snake plant is still a snake plant, and it should be priced within an acceptable range based on the market.
• Who is your customer and what do they expect to pay? “We strategically place our price points in a range that is accessible and affordable for most people,” says Minion. “We want everyone to be able to experience owning and caring for plants.”
• Factor your labor when calculating fixed costs. Even if you’re not paying employees to help with growing and caring for the plants, your effort should be accounted for when calculating the total cost.

Inventory Management and Plant Care

When deciding what to sell, research each type to understand its specific needs. Generally, you will need properly controlled climatic space to care for your plant inventory before shipping it to customers. Sonja, who had to hire staff to manage the volume of incoming orders, still uses her home garage as the headquarters for her business but recently announced a move to a dedicated greenhouse space.

For a plant business, it’s vital to manage inventory strictly. Developing a relationship with reliable suppliers will help you plan for the future. You should also ask yourself:

• Will your offerings change seasonally based on greenhouse supply? Will you sell pre-orders for upcoming varieties? Should you build backup inventory in case part of the stock is damaged or dies? If you’re away for several days, what is your plan for caring for the plants? Automatic watering systems and timed grow lights can help cover the period when you don’t have staff coverage.
• Organize yourself to identify and manage inventory within your Shopify store. Regularly labeling/numbering products along with grouping plants in standard sizes can help keep inventory organized. For example, if you sell a variety of ornamental plants, you might want to create an SKU system as follows: three letters representing the category, three letters representing the type of plant, and two letters representing the size. For example, SUC-ALO-SM could represent a small plant from the succulent family. Define what “small,” “medium,” and “large” mean to you for pricing and inventory purposes, as plants come in a variety range, usually measured in inches by the diameter of the plant/pot.

Photography

Photography for Plant Products Online

For any business selling physical products, it’s important to invest time and care into photography. You can either hire a professional or take the photos yourself. In either case, follow the basic principles of product photography that apply to all product categories.

Photography tips for online plant shops:

• Your product page should include a variety of images to help the customer see the product from all angles. Include close-up detailed shots to illustrate textures. Show the product in a scene (also known as lifestyle imagery) that provides the customer with inspiration on how to style or place the product in their own space. These images are also great for use on the homepage and social media. Consider photographing your products in 3D so customers can use augmented reality to place the product in a room. Your smartphone can capture great behind-the-scenes shots, instructional videos on plant care, and other pictures for social media use. For green plants, you’ll want to photograph them in the best natural light possible so customers have realistic expectations of the plants you are selling. “The last thing you want to do is use filters, because they’re not realistic. They lead people to have unmet expectations about how their gardens should look,” says Sonja.

Starting to Sell Plants Online: Creating Your Online Store

The best way to sell plants online is through your own website. Sonja started her business by accepting orders through a WhatsApp chat group and invoicing each customer. When she found herself spending too much time on invoicing, she opened a Shopify store. This change allowed her to spend less time on paperwork and more time building her brand.

Sell plants online and try Shopify for free

Shopify Templates for Plant Sellers

Shopify is designed to simplify starting a business, even if you don’t have coding or design skills. Use one of the pre-made templates in the Shopify Theme Store, and then customize it with your own branding, fonts, colors, and unique design.

Here are some templates we recommend for plant shops:

• The Cascade template ($$): Great for plant sellers who have a strong brand story.
• The Artisan template ($$): A template that allows you to sell products (like plants) and services (like plant design).
• The Editions template ($): A simple template with plenty of white space that lets your brand shine.
• The Narrative template (free): Prioritizes large lifestyle images and supports small catalogs (e.g., if you only sell air plants).

Shopify Apps for Selling Plants Online

By adding apps to your Shopify store, you can enhance functionality and customize your site according to your individual needs and those of your customers. Browse the Shopify App Store to find apps that align with your site and make selling plants online easier for you and your customers.

Some featured apps:

• The Offset app is a Shopify app that offsets your shipping emissions. With every order, you invest in sustainability initiatives to counteract your impact on the planet.
• The Route app provides extra protection and tracking for your packages – which is particularly important when shipping live plants.
• The SmartTabs app adds product page tabs so you can include important care instructions on each product page without cluttering the sales features or confusing customers.

Product Pages for Plants

Your product pages should include standard information such as the type of plant, description, and size, along with clear product images. Also consider using this space for education. You want to ensure that your customers are equipped to care for their new plants for a long time – and even turn into repeat customers.

It should
Product pages should include education about plants. Use tabs to keep the page organized or link to the source elsewhere on your site.

Product pages must include
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/sell-plants-online

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