Jenny (00:29)
Hey, welcome back. You may have noticed that I've been doing a lot of episodes around money lately. And hopefully that doesn't turn you off or turn you the wrong way. The reason I've been focusing on this so much is because I have been working with and meeting with so many flower farmers lately who are just not making money. And to me, yes, this is a great dream. Flower farming is amazing, but
I am here for people who don't want this to be an expensive hobby. I am here for people who actually want to have a profitable business and actually want to pay themselves a living wage. And the percentage of people who actually take this seriously is so small. And I'm here for you guys that are here for that. So if you actually want a profitable business where you can pay yourself well growing flowers, then that's why we talk about money all the time because it's really important.
And today we're talking about how to increase your revenue this month without doing more. Because most flower farmers think the answer to making more money is growing more flowers, going out and marketing in selling and getting more customers, growing more beds, more varieties, booking more weddings, doing more farmers markets, whatever. But what if you could increase your revenue this month without growing a single extra stem?
Because that's what we're talking about today. One of the biggest opportunities I see flower farmers missing happens after someone has already decided to buy from you. They're standing there right in front of you with a bouquet in hand. They've already pulled out their wallet. And most of us flower farmers simply say, Thank you so much. Have a great day. But there are three simple ways I'm going to share today to earn more from the customers who are.
Already buying from you without being pushy or salesy or sleazy or anything like that. Because I know this is a huge fear of so many people. They don't want to bother people, they are afraid to ask for more money. But we are going to go over very simple and easy ways to make offers to people today that are not pushy or sleazy and can help increase your revenue.
Everything we're going to talk about today falls under one simple business concept called average order value or AOV. That's just an abbreviation for average order value. All this means it is the average amount each customer spends every time they buy from you. So for example, simple example here. If you sell everything at your farm stand for $20 and almost every single person buys one bouquet.
When they make a purchase, your average order value would be $20. So you can pretty easily figure this out through your point of sale system. So if you use like Square or Shopify or whatever, it has all this information for you. And same if you do weddings, you know, because you offer different wedding packages. Just look at all of the weddings you've booked and take all of the amounts people have spent with you and just figure out what the average is over.
all of the things that you have booked, that would be your average order value. So super simple to figure out
Can be a little harder if you have a self-serve farm stand when you're not there. So you don't actually know how much people are buying at one time if they're buying one bouquet or two bouquets. if you have a camera or a point of sale system that could solve a lot of that. So anyway, not critical to know the exact number, but just wanted to touch on that real quick. So the point is here, we want to increase that average order value. Okay.
So in this example, let's say your average order value is $20. So on average, every purchase somebody makes from you is right around 20 bucks. If you were able to this month bump that up to just $25 this month without increasing your prices, you could have a huge increase in your revenue without actually really doing that much else.
So let's say you sell a hundred bouquets on average a week over the course of this month. So that means over this month you sell about 400 bouquets. That increase of $5 to your average order value, I'm gonna tell you how you can do that in a second. That would mean that your revenue this month would increase by $2,000. So $2,000 extra dollars in your pocket without really doing that much else. Not bad, right?
Now, the beautiful thing about increasing average order value is that you don't need more land. You don't necessarily need more flowers. You don't need to go out and get more customers. So you're not going out and spending all this time marketing and sales and getting customers. You're simply creating a little bit more value for the customers that you already have that are already standing in front of you buying from you.
Because the truth is, the easiest sale you'll ever make is to somebody who's already standing in front of you with their wallet open. Most businesses understand this. A lot of flower farmers don't. So let's get into it. The first thing you can do to increase average order value is upsell. Now, an upsell simply means you just offer something else onto what they're already buying.
Because sometimes all you have to do is ask one extra question. And actually, I was going to do a whole episode about this and call it the art of the upsell, but I didn't because there was other things I wanted to talk about too. But I love this for flower farmers because a lot of customers don't really know what else is available to them or that there's even like options that they can buy other stuff to unless you tell them. So here's how we do this in our business.
Similar to how when you go to McDonald's and they say, Would you like fries with that? Okay, that is an upsell where people are already buying something, but you just ask them if they want something else as well. So we do this in our business. If somebody buys a single bunch of flowers, so a bunch of zinnias or dahlias or whatever, we say, Would you like some greenery with that? That's it. Would you like some greenery with that?
And we have a low cost, like small bundle of greenery option, like a $10, just a few stems for them to add into their single bunch of flowers. So it's cheaper than buying like a big mixed bouquet, but you're bumping up that average order if they say yes. Now, a lot of people are gonna say no, but a percentage of people will say, Yes, actually, I would love that.
Okay, and please do not be afraid of offending people by asking them this. You're not offending people, you're not bothering people. And if somebody does take offense to it, you're simply offering something. The worst thing they they can say is no, right? So we often do this with our eucalyptus, but you can do it just like how we do it on our farm by offering that additional greenery.
But you can also do things like would you like a vase with that? Would you like this gift wrapped? You know, just bring some tissue paper with you, get the waxed floral tissue paper and throw some tissue paper and a paper sleeve around it, charge them five bucks or whatever. And there's your upsell. Add a greeting card if they're buying it for somebody. Add a ribbon.
Suggest a second bouquet for a friend, offer a matching mason jar arrangement or something. You can do all sorts of things. You could be creative with this. It depends on your customer. It depends on what you're selling. But like in weddings, I know a lot of times I use examples of CSAs and farmers markets, because that's what I do. But we also, you know, have done weddings. And we would say things like, would you like flower crown? And they're like, I haven't thought about that.
Or would you like flower girl flowers, like a mini bouquet for the flower girl? I didn't think about that. Yes. You know, there's all these things that people don't even know that are even available to them. But if you ask them
It might be something that they actually want and will say yes to. Like I said, a percentage of people will say yes, not everybody. And that's totally okay. This is still going to help bump up your average order valve value. Now, another way that we have sort of done this a little bit more, like not sneakily, but we've like changed the way we've sold things is with our bulk bucket sales. We used to sell our bulk buckets, so they came with in one bucket filler flowers.
Focal flowers and foliage all in the same bucket. Now we've separated those out. So we have flower buckets that have focal flowers and filler flowers. And then you have to order a separate bucket of foliage if you want foliage or greenery. So this gives them a little bit of flexibility because some people just don't want greenery, but it's very few, I will say. Most people end up buying more because they buy buckets of flowers plus.
A bucket or two or five, depending on the order of greenery, which increases our average order value. So it might not just be, would you like fries with that? You know, would you like a vase with that? Would you like this gift wrapped? It could just be you selling something in a different way to increase your average order value.
So I want you to think about how this month you can do something super simple, super easy to offer people to increase that average order value. And I you have to make a habit of this. This is the key to making this work. You have to make a habit. So every single person you have come in contact with, you have to say, Would you like this gift wrapped? Would you like this gift wrapped? Would you like this gift wrapped? Would you like this gift wrapped? And over time, if
If fifteen or twenty percent of people say yes, those small yeses can make a huge difference to your bottom line for really not that much effort on your part. So try that out. Now the second way you can increase your average order value is through bundling.
So this simply means just bundling two different products together to make a larger purchase option for somebody. So instead of asking customers to choose five separate things, you can create one thoughtful package because people don't just buy flowers. A lot of times they're buying gifts for people. And bundling makes buying easier for your customers because you've already done the work and you've already done the decision making for them. So some ideas for this could be.
A bouquet with a vase that comes with it, a fancy vase, a bouquet in a candle, a bouquet in local honey for maybe somebody who's like sick or like a sympathy gift or something like that. A bouquet and soap or a bouquet and a coffee gift card. Like the options are endless. And this is the cool thing about business is that you can be really creative here.
And I know a lot of flower farmers get into flowers because they have this creative side to them and they love being creative and they love putting the flowers together. And a lot of people find the business side to be, you know, a little bit boring or dry or not interesting. But to me, there is so much creativity you can have with your offers and your upsells and how you do your marketing. And so it's all a creative outlet for me. And I find a lot of joy and fun in just sort of like thinking about.
Stuff like this. So hopefully you can find some joy in that as well.
Now, wedding packages are a really great example of bundling things together. And I've seen people do before tiered wedding packages. So the obvious one here is if you do, you know, buckets of flowers like DIY, you put the stems together versus a la carte packages where they just order their pieces and pick them up to full service weddings where you're actually going and you're setting it all up and doing all that for them. But even within those packages,
you can have different packages or different bundles. So you could have for a full service wedding, like a basic wedding package that's sort of like an elopement where you have your bouquets, boutoniers, basic arch or something like that. Then you could have the next tier bundle that has table arrangements and other items along with it. So I'm just kind of spinning here off ideas, but
Just to get you thinking about how you can bundle different products that you have together to make it go from a $25 purchase or a $1,500 purchase to a $30 purchase or a $2,000 purchase just by bundling similar products together. So super simple, easy way to just offer something more to your customers. And again, if people say no, great.
That's fine, but a small percentage of people will actually really want this and will appreciate you taking the thought to put into this bundle for them and we'll say yes and we'll be really happy about it. So go for it.
Okay, now the last way we're gonna talk about today to increase your average order value is to encourage larger purchases. Now, this can be through quantity pricing or discounting. And it's kind of like two different ways to look at it. So I don't necessarily want to encourage you to discount your flowers. However, I think that there is a time and a place where it makes sense. And
Definitely makes sense when you think about it through the lens of encouraging larger purchases instead of discounting. Because a lot of flower farmers worry that they'll lose money offering quantity pricing. But what really matters isn't your margin percentage sometimes, it's your total profit dollar. So let me give you an example of this. When people do buy two, get one free.
So buy two bunches of dahlias, get one free. That's an example. That can look like discounting your product. However, if you look at it like buy one bouquet for 20 or buy three bouquets for 40, if each bouquet costs $5 for you to produce.
That revenue is actually forty dollars, but your cost to produce those three bouquets is fifteen, which means that your profit on that purchase would be twenty-five dollars.
Versus just selling one bouquet for twenty dollars, your cost is five to produce it. That would mean your profit is fifteen dollars. So just by having that little promotion of buy three bouquets for 40 instead of selling it single bouquets for twenty, you're actually increasing that profit by ten dollars.
This is why larger purchases a lot of times can make your business healthier. Even though the margin percentage is a slightly lower, your actual profit that you are earning is larger. So I hope that makes sense. Ways you that you can do this is you know, buy two, get one discounted. So buy two, get one free, buy two, get one half off, buy three bo case and do it as a special. You could do a
Buy one, gift one special, and you know, there's all kinds of ways that you can figure that out. The thing that's important when you run specials like this with the goal of increasing your average order value, your AOV, is to understand what your cost to produce that product is and what it actually comes out to. So, you know, if you normally sell bouquets for $20, but you're doing
Buy three for 40 or buy two, get one free. It comes out to the same math there. You would still technically, if you earned forty dollars and you sold those three bouquets, you're basically selling a bouquet for thirteen dollars and change, because forty dollars divided by three bouquets comes out to thirteen dollars and thirty-four cents. And so
If it costs you $5 to produce it, you're still earning a profit there, but your average order value has increased. So, yes, this is business math. Please don't be intimidated by it. It's very basic addition, subtraction. If I can do it, I promise you can do it because I hate math. I was so bad at math in high school and I avoided every single math class I possibly could in college. But I get excited about this kind of business math because it is actually kind of fun to be like, well.
Can I actually make more money by making it look like I'm selling my flowers for less? Let's play this game and see what happens. So I think this is worth testing. I don't think that this is for everybody, but it is definitely another tactic to increase that average order value. So those are the three main ways to increase your average order value. One is through upsell. So would you like fries with that? Would you like greenery with that type of thing?
The second way is bundling. So bundling a bouquet in a vase or, you know, other products that you have together. And the third way is encouraging those larger purchases through certain promotions, like buy three bouquets and you get a special price or buy two, get one discounted. Now I love all of these and we will use all of these in different ways throughout the season, like definitely not all the time, with the exception of the first one. We pretty much do the upsells as often as possible, but
They're definitely a great way for you to test this to increase your revenue this month without really doing anything else. Now, I do have a bonus for you because as I was putting this episode together, I kept just thinking about other ways that you can increase your revenue. They just kept popping into my head. And so I do want to mention this one last thing. it doesn't have to do with.
Increasing your average order value, but it does have to do with increasing the amount of orders you get. So before we wrap up, I want you to think about how you don't have to spend all of your energy finding new customers while you're ignoring the people who are already loving buying from you. So like I said before, the easiest customer to sell on is someone who's already bought from you or they're already standing in front of you holding their wallet out. So if you can find ways
To get your customers to buy from you more often, it's only going to help increase your business. Because let's be honest, customer acquisition is expensive. Every customer you acquire has a cost attached to it. Now that is a topic for another podcast episode, or if you join our program, that's something we talk about inside of our program. But for now, let's just focus on how you can get your customers to buy more often. Super simple ideas for you, just like rapid fire, are
Loyalty punch cards. So if you've ever gone to a coffee shop and you see that they have these little business cards with the little coffee icons all around it, like a buy 10, you get the 11th cup free. You can buy do something like that. Buy 10 bouquets, get one free, you know, buy 10, get one discounted, something like that. That encourages people to come back for more. And point of sale systems, like I'm pretty sure Square has a built-in loyalty program where you can utilize that.
Through your point of sale system. You could do a monthly promotion. An example is buy four bouquets the month of August, and you'll be entered to win a free private farm tour, or you'll be entered to win a CSA, or you'll be entered to win a free bouquet, or whatever it is. you know, make sure it's something that isn't actually costing you a ton of money, but it is something enticing and is valuable to your customer.
And you could even just do something as simple as text reminders for people like, hey, are those sunflowers you bought last week dead? Time to refresh them. We have fresh ones available this Sunday. You know, just finding ways to get your customers to come back more often and coming up with a solid strategy or system to do that over and over again. So there are three, actually four, maybe more ideas for you to increase your average order value.
This month, so you can actually earn more revenue without growing a bunch more flowers or putting in a bunch more effort. Sometimes the things that make the difference are actually very simple and easy to do, but they just get overlooked because they are that. They are simple. And simple doesn't necessarily mean easy. So this week I want to challenge you to implement just one of these ideas. Like I definitely don't recommend trying all of them at once. Just create one bundle, try one upsell or try to.
Introduce one quantity pricing offer, just test it out. Small improvements like this can have a huge impact on your profitability over the course of the season. If you found this helpful, I would love it if you could leave a review about this episode. I love getting feedback from you guys to see if this is helpful, if this is working. I often hear people in passing say, I tried that thing you mentioned in your podcast, and it actually worked and it was amazing.
But I would love to see it from you personally. So if you wouldn't mind going and leaving a review for us on Apple or Spotify right now, that would be absolutely amazing.
It would be truly, truly appreciated. So thanks for being here for another episode of the Six Figure Flower Farming Podcast. Don't forget, we release new episodes every single Monday. So we'll see you next week. Same time, same place.
