Beyond the Brick and Mortar—Two Years Later–Part 1

Vendors and Retailers collaborate and partner in the new digital space of e-commerce.
by John Kennedy

In this first installment of a two-part series on the E-Commerce movement, John explains “The Why” regarding IGC’s leveraging technology to reduce the impact of weather from their foot traffic and expand your customer experience into a 24/7 model.

Two years ago, this past May, I was invited to write an article about the growing trend of independent garden centers looking to increase their revenue and relevance within the convenience economy space of e-commerce. The link to the initial article can be found HERE. 

I am a fan of Shark Tank, and have always enjoyed the “where are they now” updates, so I figured it would be a great idea to do the same with L&GR.

Over the past two years since the article published, much momentum has occurred with both vendors and retailers as they now embrace new, innovative ways to improve sell-through rates and drive inventory reduction after a few soft years in 2023 and 2024. Who carries the inventory is becoming a bigger question for the industry? The vendor or the retailer?

In essence, it’s “musical plants” –and who will be left holding the plant when the music stops?

The Challenges:
The 2024 IGC consumer survey conducted by Proven Winners shows, according to the consumer, that over 40% of the time, the retail store did not carry all of the items the customer was searching for during their visit, and nearly 70% of the consumers shop between 2-5 IGC’s annually with 24% stating they visit 5 or more. How can an IGC create better loyalty and better availability to drive higher customer engagement and repeat purchases?

An IGC carrying everything “just in case” is neither practical nor profitable, drives higher labor and carrying costs, and increases your dump rate. Not a healthy outcome for any retail brand.

And expecting a vendor/supplier to grow “just in case” varieties is equally problematic. Often times, the grower ends up carrying the burden of unrealized sales. Not a fair outcome for growers at all.

Borrowing from the musical, Hamilton, “Son, buying is easy…selling is hard!”

So, the $64,000 question becomes, how does an IGC expand its inventory offering to the customer and improve the overall buying experience without growing their physical footprint or increasing their costs, while at the same time, how does the grower find a new sales channel to serve their IGC customers and move more material to reduce expensive inventory?

The Solutions:
Some of the brands mentioned in the original article are now offering white label, off-brand sites to move their inventory. A forward link to a virtual plant store is added to an IGC’s website that drives their customers directly to the vendor’s e-commerce platform, which then fulfills the order directly to the IGC customer.

Like anything, there are pros and cons to this model; however, it is a solution that works well for some. Kudos to the brands who launched their own solutions early in the game and swung for the fence! Industry leading early adopters producing some great early-inning runs.

Another model offers a cookie-cutter approach to the IGC’s e-commerce platform without freedom of choice on customized site design, vendors, products, or pricing—a one-size-fits-all approach. It also has a price tag that may be cost-prohibitive for small to medium IGC’s. Just like the previous example, there are pros and cons as well.

However, one vendor from the 2023 article saw the vision, put a plan together and is now changing the game—Willoway Nurseries.

Tom Demaline & team leveraged an existing order fulfillment platform, OrderEase, and are now re-shaping the industry by partnering and collaborating with IGC’s to offer endless aisle, drop-shipping solutions.

Willoway has also partnered with another participating vendor, Plant by Number, to create awesome e-commerce garden collections. The IGC’s customers can search nearly a dozen unique garden designs and have the plants (and a customized garden template from PbN) shipped straight to their home for a weekend project, with care cards and instructions, on behalf of the IGC.

This is the future of the industry—collaboration and partnerships with IGCs, vendors, suppliers. And the future is now…

A Zen Garden or Deer-Resistant Garden are just a few of the collections that these two brands are joining forces to offer the IGC community and their customers.

Even better…Imagine having a “display only” garden at your retail store, having a customer love the idea and want to purchase it, and you walk them over to your e-commerce site, show them all of the garden collections, they order which one they want, and then have it drop-shipped directly to their home from the team at Willoway Nurseries.

One simple display. Reduced inventory. No more, “we don’t have all of those plants in stock.” Just a short walk, a click of a button, payment, and the order is completed and on its way. You are simply loading the soil and mulch into their vehicle and letting the E-Commerce Connect Program do the rest.

This approach enhances the customer experience, embraces the convenience economy, improves your units per transaction/average transaction, lowers your inventory costs, improves your sales/labor ratio, and allows you to compete directly with the big box stores—David’s slingshot to slay Goliath.

Smitty’s Garden Center in Fort Dodge, Iowa is the very first IGC in North America to participate in this game-changing partnership program. Ellie Baedke shares, “Our entire team is thrilled about the possibilities that the E-Commerce Connect Program will bring, allowing us to better serve our customers and expand our reach in the lawn and garden market.”

Allie Bast from Bast Brothers Garden Center in Mullica Hill, New Jersey adds, "We are so excited to have this connection with Willoway now and hope to see additional wholesale growers jump on board so that we can expand our online offering into other categories like houseplants & annuals”—FYI: The Plant Company, and more, have already joined, Allie!

Stay tuned for part two where John explains “The What & The How” of the E-Commerce Connect program and invites Group Members to enjoy the benefits of the additional revenue while reducing your inventory and labor costs. There will also be a panel discussion at The Fall Event discussing the E-Commerce Connect Program.

Interested in learning more about the BoomerWrangle E-Commerce Connect program?

Visit: Your ConnectSpace