Making money selling flowers online

How long have you been thinking about making money selling flowers online? A week, a month or perhaps, a year?

I guess it’s fair enough to start with where you are in your journey. Do you have any experience selling online? It could be anything from clothing, jewellery, digital products, services. The reality of selling anything online is more about experience than the product itself.

This article will blow your mind because it’s written from a Digital Marketer’s perspective specialised in the floral industry. Everything you’re about to read will make you question the principle of selling. Why? 

Because I love using psychology in marketing and all of my articles aim to make you see things from a different angle. The goal is not to give you a list of answers on how to make money in the fastest way possible. I’m just here to guide you to make the right moves. 

These are insights of someone (me) totally immersed in the floral community on social media. 

Ready? Grab a piece of paper and a pen. It’s going to get interesting.

Table of contents

1. The idea of making money online

2. How to earn money from flowers

3. You want to succeed in the floral industry

4. The middle ground

5. How to sell floral arrangements online

Marketing advices for aspiring floral business owners

Marketing tips to make more money in your flower business

1/The idea of making money online

This is a real controversial topic. We all want to make money online. Except the elders probably. My dad still believe that internet is bad and you shouldn’t trust anyone online. I also have an aunt who used to believe that paying with your credit card was a scam. Not sure if she still thinks that way though.

So if you’re a millennial or a gen Z, you’ve probably thought of trying to get rich by selling things online, at least once. I think we all go through that phase. Some succeed and some don’t. 

Because I can’t tell if you’re already owning a flower business or not, my first question to you is: What is your main goal: making lots of money by selling “anything” online OR specifically selling flowers and getting rich that way?

I hope you can see the difference between the two. Your intention and ulterior motives matter.

2/ How to earn money from flowers

If you fall into the 1st category of just trying to make money online and you’re mainly driven by the financial outcomes then sorry to say that you won’t last long because running a business has ups and downs. You need to have some sort of interest in the floral industry to be able to grow and scale your online business. Doing it just for the quick wins is a waste of time. 

If all you think about is doubling your sales, increasing revenue, making profits at all cost, etc then you may be in it for extremely greedy reasons. Now hear me out, I’m not saying that those goals are inherently bad. Growing a business requires effort and sales. I totally get it. 

The underlying issue is your big “why”. Myron Golden describes that level of entrepreneurship as a “transactional” level, meaning that you’re in it for transactions, sales and money. That’s the lowest level a small business owner can operate from. Don’t be ashamed though, we all thought like that at some point.

3/ You want to succeed in the floral industry 

On the other hand, if you truly care about the industry, arranging flowers is a hobby, you’re drawn to beautiful floral patterns, you love anything floral, you’re doing floral photography, you love seeing beautiful bouquets on social media, you were mesmerised by the wedding floral decor from last weekend, then you’ll most likely succeed.

Someone who’s passionate like you, is going to put more care in every little detail and I’m sure you’re reading this post right now because you genuinely need help to sell more. Skip to the 5th part of this article and enjoy the read.

4/ The middle ground 

You don’t have a true passion for flowers but you’re willing to give it a try, or perhaps, you’re already in the game! Either way, you’re not truly satisfied with your current income and you want to make more money.  And the good news is: it’s absolutely possible to launch and grow a profitable flower business online. Don’t feel guilty for choosing to sell flowers despite not being a hardcore flower lover. 

Just like running any small business, you have to be ready to learn the right skills, improve your time management and sacrifice a few hours here and there. You may find it difficult in the beginning but perseverance is key. Look at the bigger picture. You may not stay in the floral industry forever but at least, you would have learned the basic principle of selling online. 

5/ How to sell floral arrangements online

Now that you know where you stand about this topic, it’s up to you to see if you’d like to keep reading or not. 

Let me give you my best advices to sell more. Remember when I said in my intro that it’s about experience? Time to expand on that. 

What I meant was, selling flowers when you’re a beginner is different than selling with 3 months of experience. The more you sell, the easier it’s going to be to sell more. You need to get the ball rolling in the beginning.

Marketing advices for aspiring floral businesses owners

If you’re in the early stages of your journey, you’ll have to determine your business model, how you want to operate and run your business, the type of customers you want to serve and your pricing point. 

If you’re still skeptical and you’re wondering: “Can anyone become a florist?” No worries! Just click the link and you’ll get the answers to your question. 

Selling flowers online looks like this. Your main offer or your main products would most likely be: 

• custom arrangements (anniversary, get well, etc) and daily bouquets

• sympathy flowers

• wedding flowers

• flower subscriptions

• luxury flower boxes and gifts

• special events and holidays bouquets (Valentine’s day, Mother’s day, etc)

• event floral designs

• corporate flowers

• etc

You can choose as many offers as you want but it’s always better to specialise. After selecting your favorite offer(s), it’s now time to price accordingly. Check out your competitors’ prices. 

Market research is essential before starting your online business. Write your business plan. There are many templates available on the internet. 

Choose your pricing strategy wisely before crafting your marketing plan. 

If you desire to run your business from home and you don’t think of owning a large inventory then all you truly need is 1 or 2 great social media pages to get started. 

If you’re offering custom arrangements, daily bouquets, sympathy flowers, flower subscriptions and you’re going to buy the flowers at the nearest farmer market or at a wholesaler company then it’s time to create an account on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. You can use all 3 if you want but I’d suggest you start with 1 page in the beginning.

1. Then create different bouquets and floral designs and share them online.

2. Learn how to run Meta and TikTok ads to grow your audience.

3. Be consistent and share new arrangements on a regular basis.

At this point, you don’t really need a website. You can take orders through DMs or they can call you directly.

And for those who want to specialise in wedding flowers for example or corporate flowers or any type of event floral designs, I highly suggest you get a website. But same thing as above, you’ll still have to create your social media page(s) and promote your service everyday. Share as many details as possible, talk about your packages, don’t be afraid to reveal your rates. 

And if you have nothing to showcase on your site yet, make sure you partner with professionals in the wedding industry and plan photoshoots with them. My 1st client did this. She didn’t have enough photos so she worked with models, wedding photographers and wedding venues to show a glimpse of her skills. This should be enough to get you booked in the next few weeks. 

If you only want to sell flowers for special events and holidays then stick to the social media pages. Hype up your audience before selling. Warm up your followers before making an offer. Be consistent in your messaging. Plan in advance. Start teasing your Valentine’s day roses in January. 

Last but not least, if you’re dreaming of selling those gorgeous luxury flower boxes and gifts, show up on social media daily. Run ads, grow your following and collab with small influencers for a good word of mouth marketing strategy. Referrals still work in 2024.

And if that’s still not enough for you, then learn how to advertise your flower business here. I give you real practical steps to follow both online and offline to help you make more impact, acquire more customers and generate more sales. 

Tldr. 

You need a website if you plan on having an inventory and you are ready to run an online floral shop. You also need one if you want to become a wedding florist or an event floral designer, including corporate work. I’m selling Website Templates for wedding florists. Feel free to have a look if you desire to launch anytime soon. I’m also doing Custom Design for a more tailored experience.

Marketing tips to make more money in your flower business

No matter how long you’ve been running your small business, the struggle is the same for all of us and I get you. You want more. We all, want more. 

If you’ve been making good profit for the past months then you’ll most likely need to tweak a thing or two in your marketing strategy. It could be as simple as increasing your rates because you gained enough reputation. Your loyal customers will understand your move and the new ones won’t be aware of the change. See if you can slightly increase your pricing. 

A great way to scale and double your revenue is to hire your first employee or adding someone to your existing team. Think of your least favorite task and hire someone to do it. Yes it requires resources but that could be the best solution for you right now. 

Another great tip is to diversify your offers. Give your customers more options to choose from, more sizes for example. Look at your best selling products and see how you can improve them. The idea here is to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. 

You can also enhance your branding. Get yourself a better website, change your logo, adopt a professional tagline, use the same color palette and fonts in all your marketing materials. You’ll feel more confident in your ability to sell when you put effort in your brand image. When you invest in your business, your brain will begin to think that you deserve more. More reach, more customers, more sales, better reviews, more recognition. It’s an unconscious process. Don’t limit yourself and think big.

And I don’t know about you but I believe that sometimes we have to think outside of the box. For you it could be like trying a different marketing channel. Do you use TikTok or Pinterest right now?

I recently wrote an article on how to promote flowers on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and even Pinterest. Talk to a professional before investing in a new channel. 

Have you ever thought of becoming a real expert in your field? I recently discovered a Youtube channel of a lady who’s teaching brides how to choose the right wedding dress, what type of wedding gown suits each body type, how to select the right accessories. Basically she’s helping future brides get ready for their wedding day. Her entire channel focuses on her work as a wedding boutique owner. And guess what? If I lived in her city, I’d probably go visit her because her videos were so informative and helpful.

I bet you could do the same thing too! Start a Youtube channel or launch your podcast and share your knowledge. It’ll grow your online exposure and you’ll certainly sell more flowers. You could even attract better customers along the way. 

And my last tip for today, you could allocate more budget to your marketing campaigns. Imagine how much revenue you’ll generate by simply spending more on Meta Ads. Start small. Add $50 and see what happens. Track your campaigns’ performance, analyse the data. Add another $50 if it went well. Then slowly increase your daily budget. Don’t hesitate to seek professional assistance for maximised results. 

The reality is that most of the time, we already know what to do. We just need someone else’s reassurance to move forward. 

Hopefully, one of my tip was your confirmation to go all in. Don’t postpone yourself, don’t delay your success. You may not be 100% ready but you’re still reading this article right now. 

This blog post is the sign you’ve been waiting for. Read that phrase again.

In conclusion, making “good” money by selling flowers online depends on your motives. If you’re doing it with an honest and good heart and you know that success takes time, then you’re on the right path. 

Now, make sure you apply those tips and advices to make money selling flowers online, if you’re serious about growth. There’s a million way to sell online and what I shared today is just the tip of the iceberg. Message me on Instagram if you’re craving for more. I’m here to help.

Cheers and get back to work flower friend xo