In the last months, I've had a number of doom and gloom articles hit my desk. The first one came out with the UK magazine, Choice, it was entitles "The Future of Garden Centres, With Increasing Competition the Future Looks Bleak." Having thought this was a one off, the next day New Zealand Retail magazine arrived, with an article entitled "How does your Garden Grow, Shocking Spring Weather Put Paid to Much Activity in the Garden."

With two sensational headlines in quick succession, it causes one to pause and consider what is happening in the garden market.

It is clearly evident that if your garden centre has not changed since the 90's you're losing out on the living fashion boom which is taking the industry by storm.

But, What is the Future?

When you compare both articles, from either ends of the globe there are a number of trends that are similar when you analyze leading garden centres.

The Coffee Shop is Dying

Coffee shops started a trend in garden centres, but the trend now is table service restaurants within the garden centre. Consumers want to come, linger longer and really enjoy the experience. They used to drop in for a coffee, and of course they still do, but they are now pre-booking Valentines Day, Mothers Day, Easter and Christmas dinners and they want the works. A fully catered offer in a garden setting is a critical factor in the successful category mix.

Food Halls

Keeping to the food offer, one of the biggest growth factors in retailing is the farm food hall. Traditionally, these were small shops on the farm, but now the TV food gurus are encouraging consumer to buy local, fresh, healthy food. The result is a boom in farm shops and the natural thing to do is to place them in garden centres. A plant, meal, food hall mix seems to be the success formula for this decade.

Ready Made Gardens not Plants

More and more retail space is being allocated to ready made gardens at the expense of the plant sales benches.

Recently, working with Plantland Garden Centre in Pretoria, South Africa, the team have taken a large part of their plant centre and gifted it to the local horticultural college. The college students design futuristic gardens for the area using plants and materials available from the garden centre.

Plantland has created show gardens for visitors and increased its average sale per customer by 30% as a result of this change.

Sell Large not Small

The immediate garden is now everyone's dream. Seedling sales are being left to the 'Greying Tigers' whilst other generations buy large plants. They don't want to see the colour grow; they want the finished colour now. As a result, as seedling departments shrink in size, the ready colour department is growing.

One result of this is the continuing increase in sales of finished patio containers. This is something that I do not see changing for a few years.

Loyalty is a Key

Everyone wants advocates for their business, but some garden centres are trying harder than others to get and keep their advocates.

Loyalty programs come in a variety of formats, some retailers network between different businesses who target the same customer, whilst others have dedicated loyalty cards. In my experience both systems work as long as you ensure the loyalty program offers added value and does not become a discount program.

Keep up with the Generations

Possibly the biggest change we are finding is that garden retailers now have to be aware of, and appeal to, generation garden lovers.

The furnishing industry has been aware of generational marketing for a number of years. This means that different age groups are turned on by different things.

I recently dropped into a garden centre I had not seen for a number of years. What surprised me was the age of the shoppers; they were all 'Greying Tigers'. When you looked at the merchandising and display you could understand why they had such an audience, they were targeting them.

Today's retailer has to set out a garden retail outlet that attracts Generation X (25-35 year-olds), the Jones' Generation (35-49 year-olds), Baby Boomers (50-65 year-olds), and the Greying Tigers (over 65 years-old). Those retailers who don't understand generational marketing will have a limited future.

Is there a Future?

I think the future for garden centres is exciting, the future offers so many dynamic opportunities in an industry of exterior home decorating. Yes, the traditional garden centre may be worried, but the innovators will enjoy the journey.

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About the author: John Stanley is a conference speaker and retail consultant with over 20 years experience in 15 countries. He regularly contributes to retail magazines around the world and has authored several successful marketing and retail books including the best seller Just About Everything a Retail Manager Needs to Know. www.johnstanley.cc