NEW WAYS TO ATTRACT CUSTOMERS
The nurseries are still coming up with ways to keep their tills ringing, despite feeling the heat.
World Farm, for example, is enhancing its product offerings through ways such as additional ornaments, deliveries at a discount and disposal services to raise sales.
“Consumers are always willing to pay for something that other places do not have. So for us, we do have enough lorries and manpower to actually cope with this.”
Most of the customers shopping for Chinese New Year plants only visit nurseries once a year, said Mr Ng.
“So when we offer them saying (we) can help to add on the ribbons and disposal at this cost, a lot of them are quite surprised. It’s an ad-hoc thing for them. So that actually helps to push more sales,” he said.
Meanwhile, larger nurseries including Far East Flora, which also has a presence in Malaysia and Hong Kong, are hosting activities such as Chinese calligraphy to attract younger customers looking to soak in the festivities.
Far East Flora managing director Alex Cheok said his stores are seeing younger people, and “their taste is quite different from the traditional kind of taste”.
“We do more promotion to entice customers to walk in and experience for themselves what is the atmosphere of buying a Chinese New Year plant,” he added.
One advantage brick-and-mortar stores have is that many customers would prefer to choose their plants on site, noted Mr Cheok.
Nurseries said they will continue to work on improving customers’ shopping experiences, and are confident that these beautiful blooms will bring their shops a New Year boom.