Find new retail ideas from the ZenGenius Marketplace and GreenDigs Design Studio.

Before the show opened at Cultivate'22, we took a trip around Columbus, Ohio, to get some design and display inspiration. 

ZenGenius' window displays feature biophilic designs.

A professional-grade self station invites customers to snap shots for social media.

ZenGenius creates a witch vibe with flower wands and herbal kits.

Creative signage reminds customers of the healing benefits of plants.

ZenGenius put on a biophilic display design challenge for workshop attendees, who worked in groups to compete for the best display.

A little pun makes for a fun display idea at ZenGenius.

The ZenGenius Marketplace in downtown Columbus features all kinds of visual merchandising and display ideas. From a selfie station to biophilic designs to fun merchandising ideas, there was plenty of inspiration.

Tools and accessories on display at GreenDigs

A table with plant-themed puzzles, coloring books and more

A local vendor provides fun plant-themed products.

A bright plant display gives customers plenty of room to peruse.

GreenDigs prominently displays its mission for all to see.

A farmhouse sink display shows customer how to incorporate more plants in their homes.

The Greendigs Living Design Experience is a showcase, workshop and design studio for the online plant store, owned by the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. The space is part plant lifestyle shop and part plant store, located in the heart of downtown Columbus.

Learn how tech can give your business the tools it needs to turn continuing education into engagement.

Continuing education can be more than just training; it can be a way to engage your employees and make them feel like they're really a part of the team. At Cultivate'22, attendees got the chance to hear from both growers and retailers about their strategies for employee development. Here are just a few takeaways:

At Cultivate’22, John Kennedy shared how garden centers can become sought-after, attractive job prospects for potential hires, along with tips to retain star employees.

According to recent data presented by John Kennedy, owner of John Kennedy Consulting, 70% of full-time employees are considering quitting their jobs. In addition, he said that 79% of job seekers believe they can make more money by switching jobs than staying put in the current market. In the wake of The Great Resignation, these stats are a wake-up call for garden centers to check their organizations' health, and it all starts with attractive company culture.

At his Cultivate’22 session, “Plant Your People: Attraction,” Kennedy shared some ways garden centers can become appealing to job-seekers, and it starts with some introspection from the top down.

“There's wisdom in contemplating asking your team how your culture currently is — and is it one that wants to be attractive? Does your team welcome other folks to come work on your team?” Kennedy asked. He said that company core values significantly impact culture, and if management isn’t following core values, employees won’t either. Here are some ways IGCs can transform their culture and get more applications in the door:

1). Meet people where they are. Gone are the days of job fairs. Now, applicants search for jobs on social media through their friends or other circles of influence. Often, their first point of contact with a company is through the HR department — which may not always feel authentic, Kennedy said. Instead, current employees should be a garden center’s best job referral. IGCs should also follow industry innovators and take inspiration from key players to meet these people where they are. For example, garden centers can make a short, introductory “Why work for us?” video and post it on social media to pull job seekers’ attention.

2) Offer flexible schedules and work-life balance. From full-time millennials to part-time retirees, everyone desires a flexible work environment. There might be a diverse age range of job seekers, but they all want the same thing: work-life balance. For millennials, create a social media post that highlight the company culture, not the day-to-day duties of the job. Many future employees are customers who have retired — get them in the door by posting a flyer for part-time fulfillment while highlighting flexible work hours so they can still see their grandchildren after work. He said it might be a pain on the backend to craft flexible schedules for every employee, but your retainment rate will be higher.

4). It’s not always about money. Star employees often leave to accept a high-earning role with another company — and that’s OK, Kennedy said. Many employees feel motivated solely by higher paychecks, but they often find the job doesn’t suit them or isn’t fulfilling. Kennedy stressed the importance of “leaving the door open” for these employees to return if they wish. Don’t let your ego get in the way, he said. Instead, welcome them back and be willing to renegotiate a higher pay. Then, if they come back to your garden center, work with them to keep them there.

5). Don’t just look for talent when you need it.

Businesses must constantly search for talented individuals to stay competitive, not just when they need to fill open spots. Plus, it keeps current employees striving to do their best. Kennedy cited Charlie Hall’s State of the Industry address, noting that there are 11 million jobs available and 5 million people to fill these jobs.

“COVID amplified negative workplaces. If you were in a negative workplace and then were asked to do more in a negative workplace, a lot of folks said, 'yeah, you know, I've been meaning to get out of here for a while" and then they left," he said. The talent is out there (especially now), but businesses should always look for new opportunities with new people.

6). Hire on attitude, not aptitude

Kennedy mapped out four types of characterizations amongst potential hires, which are:

According to Kennedy, aptitude shouldn’t be a barrier to hiring or even an immediate green flag. Instead, it all boils down to attitude. He said a good attitude, approachable disposition and a personality style that communicates well trumps aptitude every time. But sometimes, people overlook these qualities and focus on ability, which Kennedy cautioned against.

Skillsets are rendered useless if employees aren’t willing to learn and work. Retailers should focus on the willing/able and willing/unable attitude and aptitude traits because training is always an option with the latter. Kennedy said that what you can't train is a good attitude and a willingness to have an open mind and be intellectually curious.

Kennedy said that when scouting new employees, interview questions shouldn’t necessarily focus on the job skills. Instead, ask, “What are you passionate about?” or “Tell us the most important thing to you regarding your work relationships.” These questions will show how well they fit into your garden center’s culture. Additionally, Kennedy recommended that more than one person be involved in the interview process and suggested that retailers have a score sheet they can compare with each other. Often, interviewers can hold positive or negative biases, which is why an unbiased score card ranking specific personality traits can be an excellent way to remain impartial.

A BHAG, or Big Hairy Audacious Goal, is something all garden centers should try to identify, Kennedy said. Doing so will help you discover what makes your company attractive to applicants. One example of a BHAG might be an IGC’s hiring, onboarding and retention process. Here are three guiding questions IGCs can reflect upon to create their own BHAGs:

According to Kennedy, it all boils down to putting care in your people. "If you do right by your plants, they will grow and they stay and they will thrive. We should adopt the same mindset in relationship to our people," he said.

Dr. Bridget Behe shared the key factors that turn a transaction into a lasting relationship at Cultivate’22.

It’s a well-known fact that it’s a bigger investment to recruit a new customer than it is to retain one, so how do you turn a first-time buyer into a loyal customer?

People often act on autopilot, said Bridget Behe, professor of horticultural marketing at the University of Michigan. It takes more cognitive energy to make a change and go to a different retailer than it does to return to a store you know.

"So you have to stop thinking about a transaction as a one-time sale and start thinking about it as a relationship,” Behe said. And once you build the relationship and trust, an indirect benefit is the capacity to make recommendations on plants and placement, which increases their chances of success.

Loyal buyers buy repeatedly but not because there are not other choices. Not because you are the easiest choice, conserving them time and energy. “A loyal customer buys repeatedly but we need to get into the psyche of the consumer to understand that,” Behe said.

There are plenty of choices out there for consumers, but the key to repeat customers is not just making them happy — it’s going a step further to make them delighted. That can be done through anything from signage to new products to freebies.

“Happy customers are satisfied but delighted people are likely to make the purchase again,” Behe said. “Yes, we need satisfied customers, but what we see in the literature is that we need that combination of delight and joy to have loyal customers.”

Emotions like delight, and its opposite, regret, can create intense reactions. And when a transaction leaves a customer with a feeling of regret, they’re likely to make a switch in retailers.

What makes a customer stray?

Competitors can lure customers away with a better proposition (price relative to perceived value). “Customers are not rational,” Behe said. “They will act on what they perceive and what they believe and marketers have a huge capacity to nudge some of those decisions.”

A poor retail experience and/or poor product experience can drive it as well. At the end of the day, a customer’s decision to buy from a competitor comes from that feeling of regret.

In the garden industry, the biggest regrets come from plants that die. That’s why it’s so important to focus on finding a customer the right plant for the right place in their home or garden.

When customers have a great retail experience, they’re much more likely to come back and see you.  The best way to do that is to optimize plant performance and give them the best value proposition. In other words, make them feel like they got what they paid for.

Plant guarantees increase satisfaction, Behe said. A national study of 517 plant customers showed that consumers who knew a plant guarantee was in place experienced less regret and had a higher likelihood of making another purchase, she shared. The findings also showed that there was a higher sense of satisfaction when a plant guarantee was in place.

The same was found in a 2014 study on bouquets. Customers were willing to pay more for a cut flower arrangement when there was a guarantee of longer life. Plus, the guarantee increased the likelihood a shopper would buy a bouquet. And those who value guarantees appear to be willing to pay more for a 15% premium for that assurance.

As prices on plants increased from $5 to $10 per plant, a 30-day money-back guarantee reduced perceived risk for annual plants.

And when it comes to perennials, the money-back guarantee had an increasingly larger effect on reducing perceived risk for each $10 price increase. So, the longer the plant will live, the more important the money-back guarantee is.

Dr. Alicia Rihn, assistant professor, University of Tennessee, shared some research on the differences in generations of buyers as well. Her research shows that garden retail shoppers are, on average, 10 years younger and make about $25,000 a year more than those who don’t garden.

Younger gardeners are more internet- and tech-savvy. They’re online shoppers, so those who have successfully figured out how to ship are the ones who are getting these repeat customers.

Gen Z-ers and millennials are more interested in an experience culture than they are in possessions. So garden centers need to find ways to help customers take care of plants when they’re out traveling. But it’s also important to highlight the fact that growing plants is, in itself, an experience.

Another key value in that demographic is sustainability and emotional investment, since many younger customers identify as ‘plant parents.’

At Cultivate'22, Ken Fisher, Craig Regelbrugge and Dr. Charlie Hall assessed 2022 and provided projections for what 2023 may bring.

The Short North Ballroom was packed to capacity for the AmericanHort State of the Industry Address, with attendees standing along the walls to hear the Monday morning keynote speech. Ken Fisher, president and CEO of AmericanHort led off the morning’s presentation with an overview of the association’s vision, mission and strategic goals. From there, he examined consumer spending – a key indicator of economic health. In fact, it represents 70% of our economic output, he said.

Between the stimulus payments and more Americans continuing to get paid to work from home, we have “more money chasing the same amount of goods,” Fisher said. The question is, how long will Americans continue burning through their $2.7 trillion in personal savings.

According to research from The Garden Center Group, total sales were down 5.5 percent year-to-date for 2022. The average sale at the group's IGC members was up 8.3 percent, but the total number of transactions was down 12.4 percent.

AmericanHort’s Executive Vice President of Advocacy, Research and Industry Relations, Craig Regelbrugge, began his part of the address by reviewing the association’s legislative priorities. Securing and development of the workforce, plant health, solutions through research, and protecting profitability for its members.

Green industry employers that rely on H-2A should be aware that new wage rules may be coming, Regelbrugge said. Regarding H-2B, AmericanHort staff is lobbying for changes like the Returning Worker Exemption Act. There was some good news for the year, like the fact that the Biden administration released the largest amount of supplemental H-2B visas ever.

Regelbrugge asked growers to keep their eyes open for a survey asking nursery/greenhouse owners to weigh in on their experiences with labor scarcity. The survey, which is part of a collaboration with University of California-Davis and Arizona State University, will open around July 28 and run for three weeks.

Regelbrugge discussed the 2022 midterm elections, as well. He said that there is deep dissatisfaction among Americans with the leadership of both major political parties. This has set up an environment that is ripe for major change, he said. He does not expect any legislation on the topic of immigration reform to happen before the November election. Citing research from FiveThirtyEight, he said that Republicans are projected to take control of the House of Representatives in 87 of 100 simulated projections. The Senate races are more of a toss-up, with only 54 of 100 simulations going in the Republicans favor. There are also a few major wildcards that could affect the election outcomes: the ongoing Jan. 6 hearings, the Dobbs decision and its consequences, and global conflict like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Regelbrugge urged attendees not to give up, even when it appears our elected officials are making no progress toward stated goals.

“No matter how frustrating our political system may be, opting out does not help,” he said. “I happen to be a fervent believer in the notion that democracy is precious, and democracy is not to be taken for granted. It requires care, like the plants we cultivate in our industry.”

Dr. Charlie Hall, AmericanHort’s chief economist and the Ellison Chair of Texas A&M University’s Department of Horticultural Sciences, said that 2021 was mixed performance within a great year.

Growers reported sales up 20% across the board. Despite that, their profitability ranged from barely profitable to very profitable. Still, he asked growers to consider where they were a few years ago. When comparing gross sales year-to-date to 2019, 63% of growers are up more than 25%.

Part of this is due to input cost increases. Dr. Hall showed aggregate input costs increased 10.1% in 2021, 8% year-to-date in 2022, and he is forecasting another 3.6% increase in 2023.

He hopes the industry can continue raising prices to compensate. However, in his research, he found that only 40% of green industry companies are passing 100% of their input cost increases on to their customers – which essentially means they are sharing their margins with their customers.

“That’s magnanimous of you,” he said, “but you won’t be in business for long.”

He also discussed a compensation study with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2022, 21% of businesses said they increased wages more than 10%, 58% of businesses reported increasing wages between 6-10%, and 21% said they increased wages 1-5%. If green industry businesses want to attract or keep employees, their wages must keep up with the cost of living and inflation, Hall said.

Dr. Hall pointed to an Axiom marketing survey showing that 19% of respondents plan to add new shrubs or trees to their landscape, a number that compared favorably to other home improvement projects listed as choices.

And finally, although nearly every indicator he showed was positive, Dr. Hall said he believes there is a 50% chance of a recession occurring between now and Cultivate’23. A correction is coming, he said, so what should green industry businesses do? Establish your value proposition, don’t expect massive sales and overleverage your business, or you may be left holding excess inventory.