With the arrival of good weather, the outdoor and gardening sector is growing among Italians’ purchasing interests.
“Gardening” is a macro-world that includes numerous markets, from clothing to tools, and involves a large number of distribution channels: depending on the product category and target audience, garden centers find themselves competing with agricultural stores, DIY centers, furniture stores, pet shops, and of course all large-scale retail, with the presence of “garden departments” and, naturally, the online offerings of dedicated e-commerce sites and Amazon.
What are the emerging trends in the world of gardening?
The market
The data provided by the Morgan consumption survey promoted by Comagarden indicates a forecast for the end of 2023 with a -7% in sales volumes. Considering the price increases, we can assume that turnover is stable.
Substrates are declining, for which a return to pre-covid levels is estimated (-5% values against a volume decline close to -10%) and fertilizers (-7%).
The behavior of buyers
The research “The post-pandemic gardening consumer” commissioned by Promogiardinaggio once again starts from the post-pandemic scenario and changed purchasing habits, to investigate the new gardening landscape, understand who gardening consumers are, how they segment in relation to needs, what are the “key” variables to respond to the needs of new consumers and what are their sources of information and purchase.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many Italians, forced indoors and with more free time, dedicated themselves to caring for their garden and terrace: real “extra rooms” in the house where they could dedicate themselves to their hobbies, smart working, or distance learning. Many started during this period, while those who were already green-lovers intensified their activity. This led to a significant increase in the consumption of plants and gardening products in the two-year period 2020/2021, scaled down in sales volumes in 2022/2023.
Those who approached gardening during the pandemic have not stopped caring for plants: the post-pandemic period is rather characterized by a decrease in free time and family purchasing power.
The pandemic period and travel restrictions stimulated an increase in online consultations and purchases in e-shops: a phenomenon that did not only concern gardening. With the return to normality, gardening hobbyists seem to have returned to their habits: 99% frequent “physical” stores to make their purchases. However, 40% have continued to buy some products online as well.
For the purchase of plants, the possibility of touching, seeing, and personally choosing the plant we are going to buy seems fundamental, but the further we move away from “live green” the more e-commerce becomes relevant.
The channels
Online purchases are growing, particularly for product categories where procurement at a physical point of sale is difficult or expensive.
The incidence of e-commerce is more evident in the markets for irrigation products (41%) and motorized equipment (30%), where the online channel is the most important.
However, there is less interest in buying plants online. A new spending model emerges, “onlife”, with a hybrid use of physical and online channels.
The online shopping experience is often satisfactory, and with use, the barriers to online purchase of all gardening products fall.
L’offerta su Amazon
In confirmation of what has already been seen in past years, searches related to the segment have been intensifying since February.
The largest number of searches are for “technical” products, which represent respectively:
- Pressure washers 6%
- Petrol chainsaw 5%
- Battery pruning shears 3%
compared to the total category.
The selection of the top 20 Amazon Best Sellers for garden and gardening in the last week highlights:
- Potting soil
- Fertilizers/liquid fertilizers
- Pest control products
which collectively represented a search volume in february of 17% compared to the total category.
In general, it emerges that the user is looking for “price,” as Amazon, by its very nature, struggles to present itself as a personalized botanical consultant.
Creating a store on Amazon and supporting it with activities external to the platform, particularly linked to social media, will allow companies to forge a direct bond with customers, with the aim of stimulating attention on new products and at the same time reassuring them about the ease of cultivation.
