More young people are interested in green spaces and houseplants, with 83 percent of 18-34-year-olds thinking gardening is 'cool', and over half choosing a garden centre over clubbing.
So, ensuring you are offering what young people might like is important. Here, we will explore some ways to entice more young people to visit your garden centre.
Planting workshops
One way to keep young visitors coming to your garden centre is to focus on the growing hobby of caring for and rejuvenating houseplants. In 2021, the average Brit spent £300 on house plants, and members of Gen Z are the ones investing in their plants the most, study finds.
So why not set up some planting workshops, to teach young people how to care for their new plants? Additionally, this could be a great opportunity to market new plant tools and fertilisers or even hand out off-cuts of plants to take away and propagate.
Sustainable food focus
More millennials are looking for sustainable changes in their lives when it comes to shopping. In fact, 75% claim to be eco-conscious, allowing sustainability and environmentally friendly choices to influence their spending. So why not lean into growing demand with your product offering?
Rather than simply offering products, why not market them as tools for a more sustainable lifestyle? This can even include workshops on how different plants can be used in the home. Take, for example, a grow-your-own pizza workshop where employees can encourage customers to choose sustainable food purchases, opting to grow their ingredients rather than resorting to supermarkets.
Diversity
The younger generations truly embrace diversity and inclusion. In fact, 67 percent of customers were more likely to purchase for the second time if the company promoted diversity and inclusion, with 73 percent of those aged 18-34 being more likely to buy after seeing an inclusive ad. Some steps you can take to ensure your business is more inclusive: Having a diverse workforce on the shop floor and interacting with customers.
Supplying a wide range of stock, such as gender-neutral and sustainable cards from trusted greeting card suppliers or vegan products from animal-friendly companies. Ensuring all adverts, broadcast in or on behalf of your stores, include a diverse cast. Making sure your shop layout is accessible to all, including moving display stands away from the door if it blocks wheelchair access.
Enticing marketing
Another way your marketing can encourage young people to visit your garden centre is through enticing marketing. More than 9 in 10 young people aged 16-17 have at least one social media platform. So, making sure you are targeting these useful marketing tools can help you drive more customers to your business.
This can even include having a photographic, or "instagrammable", area within your garden centre. When making purchases, 55% of social media users are influenced by friends and family, so by encouraging your existing customers to share their visit on social media, you can encourage more people to visit. Younger generations of shoppers are a ripe market for the garden centre industry – especially with some labelling themselves as "plant parents" rather than opting for having children. So, tapping into this excitement for foliage and flora could help your garden centre boom, whether teaching customers how to grow their meals or offering a rainforest backdrop for the perfect social media post.
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