2020 UK Retail Floristry Market Report

What this Florist Retailers Market Report all about...

We’ve been digging into online retail floristry this week and have discovered who has the best marketing strategy, and which sites need some sun and water. Inside our report you will discover which sites are wilting and those blooming in this beautiful spring sunshine.

Within the report we look at various different factors that make the perfect environment for an online florist. In it you will find metrics including page speed, online visibility and keyword competition. But that’s not all. We also delve into more specialist metrics such as brand reach and social scores.

If you’re an online florist looking for advice on how to maximise your e-commerce or SEO for florists, this report could be just what you’re looking for. Expect an insight into the brand leaders – both what they’re doing well and not so well – and learn how to take your online strategy to the next level.

Download the report now to see how you are doing and how you can plant the seeds for some real online growth.

Why Is This Retail Floristry Report Important To Me?

If you’re at the helm of an online florist business, this report will give you a clear look at the lay of the land in the industry. Looking at technical SEO metrics such as visibility, as well as brand reach, social scores and keyword potential, this report is important to you as it will give you a clear insight into who’s performing in the industry and why. If these terms are new to you, our sector report glossary is a great jargon buster.

Overall, this is a snapshot of the overall performance of online retail floristry. This gives a broad look at who’s strategy is worth looking at and who’s you should be steering clear of. As we only measure the top 50 sites in the industry, not all are included in the report. If yours is missing, we offer a bespoke SEO audit – get in touch with our team for further information.

The winners and losers in the online florist industry

The retail floristry industry is a bit of a mixed bag online, with some companies positively thriving and others fading. Some big brands such as Moon Pig have seen some big losses this year, but some smaller brands, such as Apple Yard Flowers, are really coming into their own.

Overall the market has seen a small increase this year, with an overall visibility increase of +1%.

To get an exclusive insight to both yours and your competitors brands simply download the report. That way you can discover how to make the most of the SERPs in the coming year.

Which are the biggest online retail floristry sites in 2020?

Here is a quick rundown of the top 10 sites:

1. moonpig.com
2. funkypigeon.com
3. interflora.co.uk
4. eflorist.co.uk
5. serenataflowers.com
6. flyingflowers.co.uk
7. waitroseflorist.com
8. prestigeflowers.co.uk
9. bloomandwild.com
10. bunches.co.uk

Which online florists have seen the biggest growth in 2020?

1. prestigeflowers.co.uk (+173%)
2. interflora.co.uk (+23%)
3. flowerstation.co.uk (+214%)
4. appleyardflowers.com (+161%)
5. direct2florist.co.uk (+46%)

Which online florists have seen the biggest losses in 2020?

1. waitroseflorist.com (-36%)
2. serenataflowers.com (-24%)
3. moonpig.com (-4%)
4. flyingflowers.co.uk (-13%)
5. eflorist.co.uk (-8%)

Keyword opportunity for online retail florists

Flowers come into everyone’s life at some point or another, sent as gifts or apologies, and marking a variety of occasions. So, naturally, some of the keywords attract fierce competition. Some keywords are searched as much as 246,000 times a month!

For the most competitive keyword “flowers”, Interflora have far outgrown the competition, landing the top spot in the SERPs. Marks and Spencer may not have top spot, but they’ve made some real jumps ahead of other online florists.

For the second most competitive keyword “flower deliver”, Interflora aren’t looking as good. Instead Flying Flowers take position one, with eflorist and Waitrose Florist coming in second and third.

With other keywords, florists are nowhere to be seen. For example, the keyword “plant pot” shows results for much more general retailers such as Homebase, Wayfair and Wilko. With over 49,000 searches a month, and despite it’s tough competition, this is one the whole florist market should be looking to dominate.

There are many other highly competitive keywords in our report. These offer a unique insight to how your competitors rank and how you can branch out in the SERPs.

Another area we look at is high opportunity keywords. These keyword terms have high search volumes (as high as 60,500 a month) and less competition. These shine a light on methods that you might be missing out on. Here are some of the methods that could give your business a real spring in its step.

Location, Location, Location

There are some big search volumes for “near me” type terms, in which many smaller florist businesses have the best performance. Take a look at what comes up when searching in Chester:

The first big name to appear in these SERPs is Interflora at position 4. As the local map is at the very top of the page, having your stores marked up with local business structured data is a big opportunity. Read more on what this means and how to implement the SCHEMA in our handy guide.

Care For Your Rankings With Care Guides

Many of the SERPS for highly searched for keyword are filled with care guides and consideration content. For many keywords, the SERPs are dominated by sites such as Wikipedia, RHS, Gardeners World and even Woodland Trust.

Therefore, it is likely that many florists aren’t matching user intent or exploring the wider questions their audiences have. Having a section on your site dedicated to gardening and floristry, without a sales focus, could help you to climb the rankings. A big opportunity here is care guides for specific flowers.

To find the flowers with the biggest opportunities to create care guides for, download the report now.

Flowers For Events

Another opportunity that presents itself is life events and which flowers are best suited. Keywords relating to events often display a “People Also Ask” box above position 1, offering a great way to jump to the top of the SERPs. In the cases where it doesn’t appear before position 1, you can almost guarantee there’ll be a featured snippet there instead.

These questions and snippets relate to flowers appropriate for various events, how much event flowers should cost and the symbolism behind flowers. Optimising for these SERP features offers a real easy opportunity to jump from the bottom of page 1 to the top – definitely worth a pop!

Having category pages for these events with enhanced content that answer these questions could help you to really drive brand awareness, traffic, and revenue.

Retail Floristry and social networks

Regardless of your industry, social media can not be ignored. When used properly you can promote your brand and values, showcase your expertise, and attract new customers. Knowing how to engage with your audience is a sure way to grow your online strategy.

The most social florists turn out to be Waitrose Florist. However, as their social media accounts are the same as their main accounts, they have a much larger audience and don’t only focus on flowers.

The florist-only retailer that has the best owned social score is 1800 Flowers and these guys are smashing it. With over 1 million followers on Facebook, they really know what they’re doing. Their Facebook and Twitter is really casual, and not ‘salesy’ – a mistake often seen in social novices. Instead of sharing products they share blog posts that are informative and crafty. For example, they share how to make DIY unicorn decorations.

When it comes to their Instagram game, they change approach. Here, they post bright and colourful images, often of women holding flowers. These are often images by other people who they tag in the post.

If you’re looking for inspiration on how to improve your social, these are the ones to watch.

Those with the top brand searches are also more general gift retailers. Moon Pig have an impressive 100,000 brand searches a month, despite coming at in at position eight in our social score charts.

Being Top Isn’t Everything – A Look At reviews

Moon Pig might be top in terms of visibility and be a well-known brand, but that doesn’t mean it’s all roses for them. Looking at Trust Pilot, these guys could do with a bit of a tidy up.

Moon Pig have an average of 2.5 over 12,204 reviews, putting them all the way down at position 25 in these charts. This puts them well behind other big brands. For example, Funky Pigeon take the top spot, with 168,354 reviews giving them an average score of 4.5.

As Google is constantly focusing on Trust, this is one that Moon Pig should look at. Not just increasing their review score, but also encouraging reviews in general (though the more positive the better).

Which online florists have the fastest page speed?

It’s easy to overlook the importance of page speed on a website, but it’s often the parasite that causes online retailers to wilt. You could have a website that looks bouquet-beautiful, but if it doesn’t load quickly no one will hang around to see it.

Page speed is a key factor that search engines such as Google look at when considering where you rank. So not only is it important for the customer, but it can seriously affect where you appear on search engines too.

Here’s who PageSpeed Insights identified as the top 5 fastest florists:

1. moonpig.com
2. 800florals.com
3. cascade-lampeter.co.uk
4. lovelyfloraworld.com
5. clareflorist.co.uk

Read more about the importance of page speed.

How much does the florist report cost?

Absolutely nothing! Our reports are completely free. We research industries that we’d like to work with and give the report out for free to build relationships. Therefore, you can have the data by simply filling out a quick form.

Download the report now.

Help! I can’t find my brand in the report!

There’s no need to worry if you can’t find your brand in the report. We have various thresholds that need to be met when we build our reports – quite simply we can’t include everyone!

If you’re not included but would like to know where you sit and how you could improve, just get in touch. We’re more than happy to provide you a personalised report that includes your brand.

Want to know more about the report? Or maybe you’d like to talk about how we can create a bespoke SEO strategy for your brand? Just get in touch today and we’d be happy to help.