Fresh flowers as a marketing move. Their placement in supermarkets forces customers to spend, say experts

• Flowers at the entrance to supermarkets are an effective marketing move. Their presence encourages customers’ desire to spend

• According to experts, they make them feel that they will only find fresh and high-quality goods in the store in question. Flowers also have a positive effect on the mood of consumers

• Flowers have only become part of grocery stores in the last 30 years. Their presence has been strengthened even more by the coronavirus pandemic

Mannequins with fashionable clothes, decorated shop windows or posters announcing enormous discounts that you won’t find anywhere else. In order to attract their customers, shops usually use very similar tactics, which mainly consist in attracting their attention. And while some pranks scream this tendency, others are so subtle that you barely notice them. This plan is typical for supermarkets, for example.

What is the first thing a customer is likely to see in such places? Most likely flowers. Large, colorful, fresh-cut bouquets don’t just greet shoppers at the front door by accident. There is a strategic decision behind their placement. “It’s very, very simple. If you can activate someone’s nose and salivary glands, they will become a much less disciplined customer,” he explains to CNN Paco Underhill, founder and CEO of behavioral research and consultancy Envirosell.

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In other words, flowers trigger the senses and prepare customers to spend. And not only that. Their pleasant aroma sends a signal to the brain that the person in question will find only quality goods in this place. “They signal freshness and naturalness … all the good things that make food appealing,” says Ashwani Monga, a professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School.

“If I have a grocery store, that’s exactly how I want people to perceive it. If we look at it logically, if this person can manage fresh flowers and sell them, he won’t even sell old food,” he adds.

Like carols and lights

This is one of several ways that stores influence consumer behavior and make them more likely to part with their money. For example, Christmas music and decorations during the holidays have a similar influence. According to psychologists, a role in these cases is played by the fact that similar stimuli that stores target you will improve the mood of customers, which will have a positive effect on their need to buy and spend.

Flowers are also effective in this regard because they are a high-margin item. According to CNN, they only make up one to three percent of sales, but a report by the International Fresh Produce Association clearly shows that in 2019, cut flower stores posted an average margin of 47 percent. This is due to the fact that they are usually imported from cheap areas.

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Flowers only started to appear in supermarkets in the last 30 years, depending on how busy shoppers increasingly rushed between the shelves. Stores had to adapt to them, because it was necessary to get many things in one place. The pandemic period was particularly lucrative for the cut flower industry.

“Supermarkets remained one of the few places where people could come and shop,” says IFPA director of floristry Becky Roberts, adding that customers also wanted something that would bring them a little joy and happiness. Although consumer behavior is currently affected by inflation and rising prices, Roberts expects flower sales to remain strong even as consumers cut back on non-essential spending.

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