Prince & Prince: 44M US Households To Make Floral Purchases For Valentine’s Day

Note: This P&P consumer floral research utilizes the latest U.S. household projections for 2015 to 2020 from estimates determined by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University (McCue, 2014). The P&P consumer floral research from 2007 to 2013 was sponsored by Smithers-Oasis North America (SONA). P&P thank SONA for their financial support in making this research possible, providing benefit for the entire floral industry.

Prince & Prince, Inc. (P&P), a leader in market research focused on the floral and green plant industries, has released a projection for the number of U.S. households making a floral purchase for Valentine’s Day 2018, and the total retail value of that holiday floral purchasing. Valentine’s Day is Wednesday, February 14th, 2018, and on this day, nearly 44 million U.S. households (43.8 M) will have made one or more floral purchases to celebrate love, compassion, and romance with significant people in their lives, in or out of the household. And what better way to say, “I love you!”, than with flowers. The P&P U.S. consumer floral aggregate spending projection for Valentine’s Day 2018 is $3.4 billion dollars at retail, including all fresh floral products (fresh cut flowers, including roses, arrangements, bouquets, bunches, single stems, and corsages, and indoor potted flowering and foliage plants & planters) and any associated delivery/ service fees. This projected market value for Valentine’s Day 2018 is about $106 million more than P&P’s 2017 Valentine’s Day market projection.

According to P&P market survey estimates, Valentine’s Day is the second largest "floral holiday" for the U.S. floral industry, in terms of consumer dollar spending on floral products (largely roses), with floral spending second only to Mother’s Day (P&P’s 2017 Mother’s Day floral projection was $4.2 billion; Prince & Prince, 2017b). P&P also project that each floral-purchasing household, on average, will spend just over $77 on floral products for Valentine’s Day, including all household members that make a floral purchase, with associated delivery/ service fees included. Recent historical trends about consumer floral purchasing for Valentine’s Day have been previously reported by P&P (Prince & Prince, 2017a, Prince & Prince, 2014b).

About the P&P U.S. Consumer Floral Tracking Survey

Prince & Prince has been tracking U.S. consumer floral purchasing behavior for Valentine’s Day, and floral purchasing for 23 other holidays, events, and occasions, over the past two decades with their periodic surveys of floral-buying households (over 6,000 randomly-selected households surveyed since the initial survey in 1996, as well as surveys in 1998, 2000, 2007, 2010, and 2013; Prince & Prince, 2014a). Thus, P&P is able to identify salient consumer floral-purchasing trends over time for the floral industry. P&P’s latest update of the U.S. consumer floral tracking survey is scheduled for later this Summer/ Fall (see below).

From the P&P databases of historical household floral purchasing, P&P is able to track consumer floral trends overall, for specific holidays, events, and occasions, and by specific consumer demographic segment (U.S. regions, urbanization, age of householder, household income, educational attainment, singles, and presence of children, teenagers, and retirees in the household). With this robust and comprehensive database of several thousand randomly-selected floral-buying household over 6 time periods, P&P now has the ability to model, track, and make fairly accurate future projections for each of the 100+ floral metrics captured in the P&P survey. For nearly every survey metric, P&P can now determine if the data series represents a significant linear increasing trend (or decreasing trend), and the slope of that trend, or a quadratic trend (suggesting an increasingly building trend upward or downward), or a cubic or higher-order polynomial trend (multiple inflection points (up & down) in the data series), or no trend at all. P&P can relay these statistically-validated historical product and occasion/ holiday trends to their clients in the floral industry, who can then incorporate this salient market information into their business and marketing strategies.

2018 P&P Consumer Floral Tracking Survey Update

Prince & Prince is currently seeking research co-sponsors for a 2018 update of the P&P U.S. Consumer Floral Tracking Survey. This consumer research reveals the types of consumers who buy fresh floral products, what they buy, where they buy, when they buy, why they buy, & how much they spend on fresh cut flowers & indoor potted plants (specific survey content at the P&P web site). The 2018 survey will be the seventh national P&P consumer floral tracking survey conducted over the past 22 years. For 2018, the P&P consumer survey will employ a “mixed-mode” survey distribution, utilizing both mail and Internet-based survey methodologies, to obtain the most representative and valid survey information (Dillman et al., 2014).

P&P research co-sponsors receive the consumer floral market information first thru a one-day, on-site seminar with Q&A, and the complete 800+ slide market research presentation on a flash drive. The on-site seminar is tailored to the information needs of the individual research co-sponsors. Co-sponsors also receive exclusivity of the consumer information for a one-year period, following completion of the research. Interested companies should contact P&P shortly for research sponsorship opportunities.

Dillman, D.A., Smyth, J.D. and Christian, L.M. (2014). Internet, Phone, Mail, and MixedMode Surveys (Fourth Edition). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

McCue, D. (2014). Baseline Household Projections for the Next Decade and Beyond. Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University.

Prince, T.L. and Prince, T.A. (2017a). U.S. Consumer Floral Market Projection for Valentine’s Day 2017 Holds Steady at $3.3 Billion Dollars. Columbus, OH: Prince & Prince, Inc. (P&P Market Report).

Prince, T.L. and Prince, T.A. (2017b). Prince & Prince Project a $4.2 Billion Dollar U.S. Consumer Floral Market for Mother’s Day 2017. Columbus, OH: Prince & Prince, Inc. (P&P Market Report).

Prince, T.L. and Prince, T.A. (2014a). The Prince & Prince U.S. Consumer Floral Tracking Survey, 2014 Edition. Columbus, OH: Prince & Prince, Inc (On-Site Seminar and Seminar on Flash).

Prince, T.L. and Prince, T.A. (2014b). Historical Downward Trend in Consumer Floral Purchasing for Valentine’s Day: A “Wake-Up” Call for the Industry? Columbus, OH: Prince & Prince, Inc. (P&P Web-Site Market Report).

About the Authors

Drs. Tom and Tim Prince, formerly of The Ohio State University, are brothers and co-founders of Prince & Prince, Inc. (P&P), a leading marketing research specialist in the floral and green plant industries. P&P has completed more than 75 major marketing research projects and countless reports for the floral industry in the U.S., and has also conducted floral market projects in Canada, the United Kingdom, Holland, Germany, and Spain. P&P conceptualize, design, and implement market research projects for floral and green-plant suppliers, hardgood suppliers, floral importers, wholesale florists, retail florists, floral mass-marketers, floral-industry associations, and companies serving the allied floral trade. Recent projects include an assessment of product attribute valuation for potted orchids in supermarkets, and a U.S. market assessment of consumer and commercial demand trends for tropical cut flowers, with emphasis on cymbidium orchids and Bird-of Paradise.

For more information, visit the P&P web site at www.FloralMarketResearch.com, or e-mail Tom at FloralMktResearch@att.net

Source: Prince & Prince, Inc.