Placing the order in January
In January, your wholesaler asks for your Valentine's rose order. Prices are higher and supply is tighter, so they want a commitment early. You look at last year: roughly how many, which colours, which lengths. You remember running out of long-stem reds on the thirteenth but having too many pinks left on the fifteenth.
So you guess, adjusting last year's figure by instinct. Then orders come in, and the product mix is different. This year everyone wants the large hand-tied with mixed reds, which uses more stems than the dozen-rose box you sold most of last year.
On the thirteenth, you are ringing around for more reds at the highest prices of the year, or on the fifteenth, you are staring at buckets of unsold roses.
Why the buying is guesswork
Florists sell products, but they buy stems. A dozen-rose bouquet, a single-stem gift and a large luxury arrangement each use a different number and type of stems, plus foliage and sundries. The link between what you sold last year and what you bought is rarely written down.
Past orders are in a website, a relay portal and a pad of paper. Adding them together to find last year's product mix is a job nobody has time for in January.
And this year's pre-orders are not compared with the buying plan as they arrive, so the chance to top up early at a better price, or cut back, is missed.
What guessed buying costs
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Order based on memory | Too many of some stems, too few of others |
| No product recipes | Stems per bouquet never counted |
| Pre-orders not compared with buying | Late top-ups at peak prices |
| Unsold stems after the fourteenth | Waste that eats into the busiest week |
| Substitutions on the day | Customers receiving something different from what they chose |
How much you buy remains your decision. What we can provide is a clear picture based on your own sales, rather than on memory.
Colours and lengths make it harder than a single number. Customers ask for long-stem reds, but also pinks, whites and mixed bouquets, and a shortage of one colour cannot always be covered by another without the customer noticing. The wholesaler wants a commitment by colour and length, so a buying plan that only says 'roses' does not help much when it comes to filling in the order.
How we turn sales into a stem plan
- We gather last year's Valentine's orders from each channel and group them by product.
- You give each product a recipe: stems of each type and colour, foliage, and sundries such as wrap and boxes. We set these up with your florists.
- Multiplying products by recipes gives the stem count you actually used last year, by colour and length.
- You adjust for changes you are planning, such as a new product or a price increase, and the plan shows what to order from your wholesaler.
- As this year's pre-orders arrive, the plan shows stems committed against stems ordered, day by day, and highlights when a top-up would be sensible.
- After the fourteenth, the plan records what you sold and what was left, so next year starts from real figures.
The recipes can also flow through to your website, so products that would need stems you cannot get can be limited or withdrawn in good time.
Buying from figures, not memory
In January, you place the rose order from a plan based on your real sales and recipes. In early February, you see pre-orders running ahead on reds and top up while prices are still manageable. On the fifteenth, the buckets are closer to empty.
- Stem orders based on your real product mix
- Recipes that link products to stems
- Pre-orders tracked against stems bought
- A record for next year's buying
Signs your Valentine's buying is guesswork
- You order roses for Valentine's based on memory.
- You have run out of red roses before the fourteenth.
- You have had buckets of unsold stems afterwards.
- Products have no written stem recipes.
- Pre-orders are not compared with what you bought.