Valentine's Day and Lantern Festival followed, and flowers and tangyuan together became the hot CP of major supermarkets and e-commerce platforms in recent times. As the main variety of Valentine's Day, the supply of roses has become larger in recent days, and the price has hit a new high in 20 years. In a flower shop near Nanjing West Road in Shanghai, for example, the price of 11 bouquets of safflower roses is 258 yuan, and the average price is as high as 23 yuan.
On Valentine's Day, the price of roses in Shanghai florists
However, cheap flowers also have somewhere to go. In the fresh e-commerce platform Dingdong to buy vegetables, this year's Valentine's Day flagship 11 red rose bouquet pre-sale price is only 108 yuan; Hema 99 red rose pre-sale bouquet, priced at 999 yuan, the price is almost "waist chop" compared to the physical flower shop. How does fresh e-commerce "beat" the price of flowers?
Selling flowers into "betting" on flowers?
This year, many florist owners are hesitant to get more roses. Due to the relationship between the epidemic and bad weather, foreign flower imports, as well as flower production in Yunnan, a major flower-producing province, have been affected.
Kunming, the main producer of roses in the mainland, suffered a cold winter, and last autumn and winter were rainy and rainy, which had a certain impact on the growth of flowers, resulting in the yield and quality of roses being inferior to previous years. "High-quality roses are expensive and difficult to find, C-grade roses are currently more than 10 yuan / branch, more than 20 years have not been high prices." A boss who has been in the flower business in Kunming for decades said that most flower shop owners dare not rush to "bet" on roses.
Yunnan flower farmers work at flower bases (Xinhua)
The price of flowers has risen, but it has not reduced the enthusiasm of users to buy flowers during the festival. Due to the fragility and high timeliness requirements of flowers, air transport has become the first choice for seasonal flower transportation peaks. In Shanghai, data from China Eastern Airlines Logistics shows that from February 7 to 13 this year, the company airlifted a total of 1518.9 tons of Yunnan flowers to Shanghai, an increase of 112% year-on-year.
Yu Shui, head of the Dingdong Buy Vegetable Flower Project, said that according to the current booking situation, the sales of flowers for Dingdong Buy Vegetable Valentine's Day this year are expected to reach more than 10 times that of last year; Wang Qian, head of the Ele.me flower industry, introduced that during Valentine's Day, the overall order of Ele.me will increase by more than 300% year-on-year. In addition to roses, carnations, tulips and other flowers orders have also increased significantly; Hema also launched a pre-sale bouquet this year, online pre-sale has increased by 459% over the same period last year, from the pre-sale situation, bouquet sales within 200 yuan are the most popular, 999 yuan / bunch of 99 red roses in Shanghai, Hangzhou predetermined the most; Pinduoduo data show that in the past week, the platform cut flower order volume increased significantly, an increase of 369% month-on-month, of which roses accounted for more than 85% of the total number of orders.
Dingdong picker packing flowers
On the one hand, the price of flowers has soared, and on the other hand, the demand for flowers has soared. Behind this is the traction and drive of consumption after the fresh e-commerce entered the flower track in recent years.
Buy vegetables with bouquets of flowers
From 2003 to 2013, it is known as the golden age of China's rapid growth of flowers, with annual sales rising from 7 billion to more than 20 billion.
Since 2013, there have been more than 50 financings in the field of flower e-commerce, reaching a peak in 2015, with 22 financings that year. The players in the track are mainly vertical flower e-commerce, such as Spend Time, Fauvism, Roseonly, etc.
However, at that time, the prospects of the flower track were still unclear. In 2019, flower e-commerce only raised two times a year, and the "first share of flowers" Aishang Flowers and Huaji Network were terminated in the national SME share transfer system, and the financing in the field of flower e-commerce fell into silence.
The arrival of the turnaround is the entry of fresh e-commerce.
Hema Garden
In May 2021, the above-mentioned brands were upgraded to "Hema Garden"; in 2020, Dingdong Buy Vegetables has also become one of the fresh e-commerce companies in the flower track; at present, Daily Excellent Fresh has also launched a flower delivery business, as well as local life platforms such as Meituan and Ele.me and community group buying platforms, which can buy flowers... This track is not bustling.
According to the "2021 Annual Consumption Trend Report" released by Dingdong Shopping, Dingdong Shopping Vegetables sent more than 180 million flowers to 5 million families in 2021. At this time, its flower business has only been online for more than a year.
How can the fresh e-commerce platform "hit" the price? In short, it is to sell flowers with the experience of selling vegetables.
Take Dingdong buying vegetables as an example, its supply chain advantages can fit well with flowers. Dingdong has carried out order cooperation with the head base of the main flower-producing area in Yunnan, according to the sales forecast of this year's Valentine's Day, lock in 5 million flowers during Valentine's Day in advance, quantitative pricing, and avoid the problem of shortage of Valentine's Day flowers and "sky-high prices". Dingdong buy vegetables this year's Valentine's Day main 11 red rose bouquet pre-price is only 108 yuan, the cost performance is very high, but also the most popular bouquet at present.
"We found that in addition to the special nodes that will follow the entire market to do a big sales outbreak, the consumption habits of users buying flowers in Hema are becoming more and more routine, and the habit of buying flowers like buying vegetables is gradually developing." The person in charge of procurement at Hema Garden told reporters that from 2020 to 2021, the proportion of sales of bouquets and cut flowers of Hema has changed from 7:3 to 5:5.
Under the improvement of the living standards of Chinese people and the cultivation of the concept of self-pleasing consumption, flower consumption is entering the "fast lane". In first-tier cities, ordinary users are more and more like to buy for themselves at any time and at will, neither need to "hitchhike" festivals, nor love complicated packaging, purely used to enhance the visual and atmosphere of home and office scenes. This is also closer to the consumption concept of flowers in developed countries.