Along with pet adoptions and home gyms, houseplant purchases soared during COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. You probably noticed more customers coming through your shop doors searching for the perfect plant, or multiple plants, to nurture. “Plant parent” became a widely used term. And houseplant-focused social media groups emerged. The pandemic created a houseplant boom. But the question on business owners’ minds is, “Can the industry sustain this positive growth when consumers return to their ‘normal’ life and work activities?”
To help shed light on this important question, five major horticulture industry contributors collaborated to fund the research study, Houseplants Consumer Preference and Purchasing Behaviors. This is the first study to explore emerging trends in the present houseplant marketplace. Coordinated by the Floral Marketing Fund, Hortica was one of the five contributors along with Altman Plants, Costa Farms, Green Circle Growers, and Metrolina Greenhouses.
Researchers in the horticultural sciences industry, Dr. Hayk Khachatryan, Dr. Melinda Knuth, and Dr. Charlie Hall, focused on the pandemic’s effect on houseplant purchases and what the current trends mean to greenhouse growers, nurseries, garden centers, and floral retail businesses. They surveyed approximately 2,000 consumers across the United States within an eight-month timeframe to uncover the primary motivation for purchasing plants during the pandemic and to determine the driving factors of those purchases.
We’ve looked carefully at the entire 290-page report and condensed the researcher’s key findings for you. Read on to see what they’ve learned.
While no one has a crystal ball revealing the future, the Houseplants Consumer Preference and Purchasing Behaviors study gives you an in-depth analysis of the houseplant purchasing surge and how it affects our industry.
Overall, the study indicates most customers want quality houseplants that make them feel happy, whether through new hobbies, gift giving or location decor. And the researchers’ findings suggest consumers will sustain their enthusiasm even as the COIVD-19 pandemic winds down.
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