With pollution levels in the country reaching alarming rates, keeping indoor plants in the house – specifically the ones that improve air quality – have become a big trend.
Having plants at home has become quite a trend, and there’s good reason for this too. Plants are proven to improve moods and concentration, boost productivity and make us happy. There’s a definite need for the calming effect of plants in the life we lead these days.
For every demand, there lies a supply, as the saying goes. This is why you can find several sellers focusing on selling plants online. The best part – it can also be considered a good business opportunity. The demand for plants to decorate indoor and outdoor spaces is at an all-time peak.
If you, being a nature lover, have been looking for a way to start your own business, now is the time to learn how to start selling plants online.
To ensure that you start your online plant selling business without any hassle, here’s a complete guide that covers almost everything you need to know about how to sell plants online.
Is it a good idea to start selling plants online?
You might not know that the consumer interest in nurturing house plants has grown significantly during the pandemic and it still continues. As per data, the estimated online plant nursery market is Rs. 100 crores. Also, there has been an increase of 24.1% in sales of house plants from 2017 to 2018.
Many sellers who started selling plants online have witnessed a massive spike in online orders for indoor and outdoor plants owing to the pandemic. They have also reported that their audience is mostly millennials aged 25-38 years living in urban centers and not restricted to tier 1 cities. There are a lot of tier 2 cities in the mix too.
While the offline market may be larger, the growth of online sales of plants is an encouraging sign to get started in selling plants online. All these data points and information symbolize a growing market of selling plants. If you have plans to get into this business, let us help you get started.
How to sell plants online – beginner’s guide
Given below is a six-step process to start selling plants online:
Step 1: Choose what kind of plants you want to sell
Step 2: Decide from where to source the plants
See AlsoPricing Strategy Examples | PodiumIt’s Official: Growers Stink At Pricing PlantsMaterial Markup Definition | Law InsiderPlant Pricing 101 — The Watershed CompanyStep 3: Set up and manage your plants’ inventory
Step 4: Finalize pricing, packaging, and shipping
Step 5: Set up your online store to start selling plants
Step 6: Select the right payment gateway for your online plant store
Let’s talk about each of these steps in detail.
Choose what to sell
We all know that plants are of various types and people would expect your store to sell almost every kind of plant too. Since including every plant in your inventory is not practically feasible, it is important to identify your niche/kinds of plants you want to sell through your online store. Hence, the first step to understanding how to sell plants online in India is to choose what you want to sell.
The list includes bamboo, medicinal plants, succulents, ornamental flower plants, orchids, landscape plants, and more. However, for each type of plant packaging and shipping will be different, which can be too much to handle in the beginning.. Besides this, you need to care for the plants in your inventory as well.
Hence, it makes sense to identify a particular range of plants you want to sell online and to develop a USP of your store around them. As the sales grow, you can plan to further broaden the product range and include other indoor and outdoor plants.
You can later expand and sell gardening equipment, fertilizers, seeds, pots, and herbicides on your online store.
Decide on sourcing of plants
Sourcing good quality plants is critical in running a successful online plants store. Whether you are growing it yourself or procuring it from a nursery, the plants must be healthy before you send them to customers.
Unlike any other business, finding a regular source of different types of plants can be tricky. This is why you need to partner with nurseries that can provide plants regularly to your intermediate warehouse. You should also be able to oversee the quality of plants regularly to make sure that the customers will get what they are promised.
As your business scales up, you can plan to set up your own nursery and hire experienced professionals to grow plants in-house as per the season and add more value to the profits.
Set up and manage your plants’ inventory
Inventory management as a part of selling plants online is critical. It’s because you need to account for extra saplings and plants to make sure you have the required numbers in your inventory.
Besides this, you will also need to set up a greenhouse for plants with proper watering and good quality soil to keep them until they are sold. This will ensure you do not lose plants in storage.
Also, you should be able to manage inventories of additional equipment for sale if included in your product list.
Finalize pricing, packaging, and shipping
Set the profit margins carefully while pricing the plants available on your online store. However, if you are selling niche plants that are not easily available elsewhere, you can set premium prices for them.
Next to pricing, comes the need for proper packaging and shipping. When packed and shipped, you need to ensure that the plants do not get damaged during transit and stay healthy.
Since plants are quite fragile, they should not be treated like any other parcel. Given this, you would need specialized logistics providers who can deliver plants to your customers safely and in time. Delay in delivery can damage the plants.
The delivery partner should also be adept with reverse logistics as there will be damaged plants reaching customers inevitably.
Set up your online store to start selling plants
The above points were about on-ground preparation you need to do to sell plants online. Now let’s see how to assemble the online part of your store.
First, you need to set up your online store. The easiest way to get started is to use platforms like WooCommerce or Shopify that will help you build your online store with minimal coding. You can set up the store yourself or take help from a professional.
Investing in building an online store from scratch is ideal only if you need customised features that cannot be found on these pre-built platforms. Since a website will be a very important component of the whole business, it is wise to invest more in it once you have established your brand.
Select the right payment gateway for your online plant store
In many business types, the last step of the checkout process is where most customers drop out. One possible reason many payment gateways fail at this is the complexities involved in this. This is where the right selection of a payment gateway for your online plant store is important to deliver a seamless customer experience.
If you are new to the whole concept of integrating a payment gateway for online payment acceptance, start with understanding the following aspects:
- What is a Payment Gateway and How Does it Work?
- Payment Gateway Comparison: Know How to Make the Right Selection
The payment gateway you select should have the following features:
- Support all the popular payment methods
- Smooth and secure transaction processing
- Easy refunds
- Ease of integration
- High payment security
- Easy to extend bank offers to your customers
- Timely settlements
If you seek a quick recommendation, look no further than Paytm Payment Gateway – trusted by the top online sellers in India. It will ensure that you don’t lose customers because of payment glitches.
Recommended Read: What Makes Paytm Payment Gateway the Best in India?
Some additional tips to start selling plants online
Running an online plant store can be quite profitable. You need to focus on a few critical aspects to make sure that you reach the right customers and add value to their lives. Here’s how to make your plant store stand out:
- Invest in creating content around the plants you sell. For example, taking care of plants can be confusing. Hence, you can provide your customers with important information on how to take care of the plants they have bought from you. This will add value and build trust.
- Social media marketing can be a key in promoting your store to reach the right audience. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are ideal for such business ideas. You can balance both organic and paid campaigns on these platforms for maximum results.
- Asking your customers for reviews and testimonials is a great way to increase your credibility. Make sure that your process accounts for this.
Conclusion
Selling plants online can be a profitable business. The home improvement market as a whole has grown on account of the increased disposable income. Also, in an effort to reduce indoor pollution, people have turned towards making their spaces greener with a variety of plants.
Setting up your online store is surely not rocket science. But it is better to be prepared. The steps above will help you set up your store and get it up easily. Finally, like in any business, it is the quality of your plants and the trust you build amongst your customers that determines the success of your online plant store.
FAQs
Is it a good idea to start an online plant store?
Indoor and outdoor plants are in high demand these days, which makes an online plant store an attractive business proposition. With the right planning and strategy, it could be a very profitable business.
What plants can be sold online?
Assess the demand for various plants in the market. If you are getting started, low-maintenance and highly resilient plants like succulents and bamboos will be a good starting point. They are also easy to deliver.
Keep in mind that any kind of plant can be sold online given there is a proper process to pack and ship the plants without damage.
How do I market my online plant store?
Marketing your plant store can happen via online and offline strategies. Focus on social media platforms for organic and paid marketing campaigns and create good content to attract the right audience and build your brand.
What is the safest payment gateway for my online plant store?
We suggest Paytm Payment Gateway because of the array of payment options it comes with. Besides this, it is secure and easy to integrate to get started.
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