Florists Industry Profile

Companies in this industry sell cut flowers, floral arrangements, potted plants, and other gifts from physical retail establishments. No major companies dominate the industry. Floral order-taking services such as 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, FTD, and Teleflora (all in the US), Euroflorist (the Netherlands), and Tokyoflora.com (Japan) provide orders to independent florists but are also competitors.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Cut Flowers estimated at about US$30 billion in 2020, is forecasted to reach a revised size of nearly US$45 billion by 2027, according to PR Newswire. Major importers of cut flowers include the US, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, France, Russia, and Japan. The Netherlands is also a leading cut flower exporter, along with Colombia, Kenya, Ecuador, and Ethiopia.

The US florists industry includes around 13,000 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $5 billion.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand for flowers depends on discretionary consumer spending. The profitability of individual shops depends on effective marketing. Companies focus on a local or regional market and compete based on location, price, and customer service. The US industry is highly fragmented: the 50 largest companies account for less than 10% of revenue.

Florists compete with supermarkets and mass merchandisers. When selling to business customers, they may also compete with wholesalers and sellers of artificial flowers. In addition, online sales of cut flowers are increasing. A growing segment of online sales ...