The Market & Information Department of FloraHolland conducted a survey on the online flower-buying behaviour of consumers in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and France. They found that the British and French consumers are most familiar with purchasing flowers online.
This survey was last held in 2012, conducted by the Horticultural Product Board, and the one before that in 2010. This short survey was repeated by the Market & Information Department of FloraHolland to obtain insight into how this market is developing and which online flower sellers have become bigger.
About 37% of British consumers and 32% of French consumers indicated that they had bought a bouquet online at least once in the past year. That is a rise of 10% compared with the year 2010. In the Netherlands and Germany, these percentages were 12% and 23%, respectively; relatively stable to a slight increase over 2010.
The greatest improvement in the past five years in all four countries was seen in the delivery of birthday bouquets. Birthdays are the most important motivation for an online flower bouquet. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day take second place, but these special days seem to have decreased in popularity in the past five years.
With a market share ranging between 25% and 38%, the online flower market is dominated by Fleurop/Interflora in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK.
But its decreasing market share, with the exception of the Netherlands, reveals that this party is starting to feel the ‘pinch’ of relative newcomers on the market in 2015.