You want to start an online business, but the thing is… you love plants. And it sounds like a crazy idea to sell plants online, doesn’t it? Well, the truth is, it can actually become a profitable business, and we’re here to give you all the deets to start selling plants online .
Before we dive into how to sell plants online, we want to answer some questions you may have about plant businesses in a quick selling plants online FAQ. Let’s get started!
The idea of selling plants online might seem weird to you – after all, we’re talking about shipping living beings here! However, interest in growing plants spiked at the beginning of the pandemic, when everyone was stuck at home, looking for new hobbies and ways to brighten up their place.
Lockdowns are over almost everywhere, but people are still shopping for plants on the internet, which means you have a good chance of turning your online plant store into a profitable business. Other factors that may influence your profit margins are the kinds of plants you sell and your business model. We’ll delve more deeply into it in this article, so keep on reading to get more answers.
This might surprise you, but there are a lot of plants you can sell online. A few factors can influence your decision, like where you are located and how you pack and ship them. However, succulents are a relatively safe type of plant to sell on the internet. They are low-maintenance, resistant and usually small, which makes it easier for them to survive shipping.
Depending on where you’re located, plant businesses might be required to obtain a permit. But the idea isn’t to make it harder for you to start selling plants online! Licenses are a way to prevent the spread of organisms that could harm a place’s agriculture, environment and human population. If you’re based in Canada, check out the Canadian regulations on the Government of Canada’s website.
Now that we’ve planted the seed, it’s time to nurture it! We’ve prepared a step-by-step guide to help you sell plants online.
Here are some questions to help you choose the best plants for your business:
Do you have a lovely garden at home, with a greenhouse and everything? Then why not grow your own plants to sell online?
The main benefit of growing plants at home is that you can choose exactly what you want to sell, giving you more control over what you produce and the freedom to meet your customers’ demands. Besides, you don’t need to deal with plant suppliers when growing your own plants.
The downside, on the other hand, is that you’re limited by the space and resources available to grow plants, which might make it challenging to scale your plant-selling business in the future. Growing your own plants can also be more expensive than working with a nursery or a wholesaler, as they operate on a larger scale and are able to reduce costs.
This is the path taken by most people who sell plants online. By partnering with a plant wholesaler or a local nursery, you can get plants for a much lower price and sell them for profit, all without having to invest in tools and resources to grow plants.
A plant nursery or wholesaler will provide you with a variety of items, from high-quality starter plants and seedlings to rare and delicate plants. While wholesalers are able to sell you plants in large quantities for an affordable price, you’ll have a better chance of meeting customers’ expectations and requests by building a close relationship with local greenhouses or nurseries. Once you begin buying from them more regularly, you might be able to place requests for a specific plant your customers are interested in, for instance.
When choosing your plant suppliers, be thorough in your search to pick the best partners and establish a reliable supply chain for your business.
If you want to run an independent plant business, consider building an online store. By having a nook of the internet to call your own, you have much more control over your business. Besides, having a website makes a company look much more professional and helps you consolidate your brand in the market.
Before you sign up for the first website builder you find, take some time to assess what each one offers so you can choose the right platform for your store.
You might be thinking, I don’t have this kind of money! 😩 The good news is that many ecommerce platforms offer affordable plans for first-time entrepreneurs. For only $28 a month, Shoplazza’s Basic plan equips you with everything you need to sell plants online, and you don’t need any coding or design skills to get started.
If you don’t want to invest in an online store right now, you can also start by selling plants on marketplaces like Etsy and eBay. These websites come with a hefty customer base that you can tap into, and they offer many resources to help you promote your plant business.
While these websites don’t require an upfront investment, they tend to charge higher commissions than ecommerce builders, which may reduce your profit margins. Besides, you’ll be competing with many other sellers for the same visibility, and making your plants shine amongst so many others may be challenging.
That is why many entrepreneurs choose to open an online store and use marketplaces as additional sales channels. By following this strategy, you get to drive traffic to your store through the marketplaces while building your presence in the plant niche.
If you want your online plant business to be a huge success, you should spend some time building your brand. Through clear brand identity, you’ll be able to establish a close relationship with your audience and make it easier for them to recommend your store and products.
No idea where to begin? Here are a few things you’ll need to create your plant brand:
Now that you have a good idea of what your brand looks and sounds like, you need to make the final adjustments to your store so you can start selling plants online:
One of the worst things that can happen when shopping online is receiving your order and finding out the product is damaged or completely broken. To provide the best shopping experience – and not lose money –, make sure to find the best packaging and shipping services for your delicate plants.
Here are a few things plant sellers need to prepare for when packaging and shipping plants:
Now that you have your own plant-selling business, it’s time to let your audience know about it.
There are several ways you can go about promoting your online business. We’ve put together a list of the most effective marketing strategies:
All the time and energy you’ve spent on your own website will go down the drain if no one can find it.
SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, is a strategy many other businesses follow to place their online store in front of potential customers. It consists of using specific keywords throughout the website to tell search engines like Google that your online store is exactly what users are looking for.
🌱 Want to know more about SEO? Check out our Top 9 SEO FAQs: Beginner Edition.
If you want to sell plants online and reach as many customers as possible, you can use social media both as a marketing tool and a sales channel.
When you feed your audience valuable content that helps potential customers, they become more likely to show gratitude by promoting and buying from your plant store. Besides, investing in a content marketing strategy will enable you to build your authority in the market.
Looking for inspo? Here are some content ideas for your social media:
It might take some time to figure out how to create posts that engage your audience on social media, but the secret to success is good ol’ trial and error. Spend some time analyzing your content’s performance so you can learn from what worked and what didn’t.
And you don’t have to use social media only to offer free relevant content. Because people spend so much of their days on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms, selling on social media is a profitable strategy for any online plant store.
You don’t have to be on all social channels at once. Instead, pick one or two that your audience is more prone to using, create a business account for your brand and apply your own branding everywhere. Oh, and check your inbox and comments frequently to provide the best customer service and buying experience.
🌱A few articles to help cultivate your online plant business:
Growing your online store is like growing your own plants: the more you invest, the higher your chances of getting the results you want.
As a new business, you might not want to spend money on paid ads at first, and that’s understandable. While it’s entirely possible to promote and scale a business on a free marketing strategy alone, paid ads have the ability to take your plant business to the next level at a much faster rate.
To get started, consider running campaigns on Google Ads and/or a social media platform of your choice. By the time you begin to sell plants online, you’ll have a clear notion of who your audience is and where they are. This info will help you target your ads and ensure you get the most out of them.
🌱Help your online plant store bloom with these guides:
Many people decided to brighten up their homes with plants during the pandemic, which increased the demand for businesses that sell plants online. If you have a green thumb or are just passionate about plants, then we hope this guide helps you start selling your plants online.