When the COVID-19 pandemic started to tear through economies around the world, the owner of Down to Earth Garden and Nursery expected she would soon be closing her doors.
Kelly Chashai did not anticipate dealing with record sales, long lines and an e-commerce platform that has helped drive traffic and keep her staff hopping.
“We are so busy at the nursery — it’s never been like this,” said Chashai, noting customers who have turned up to buy plants, gear and accessories for their outdoor spaces are taking the long lines in stride. “We thought we would be closing, so this is a surprise.”
Chashai attributes the surge in traffic to a few factors, from people having more time to work in their gardens to a spike in the desire to grow your own food to tighter budgets that have forced people to do their own digging and landscaping instead of contracting out the work.
She said she got the sense that this growing season was going to be different when food plants started flying out the door.
“We grow a lot of food here and we’re seeing maybe 50 per cent more sales than usual, so we switched over from bedding plants to [focus] on food, soil and seed,” she said. “Everyone wants edible plants right now. It’s unbelievable.
Helping to drive strong sales in what for many has been a brutal retail market has been their new online presence.
The nine-year-old nursery launched its website last week, and while Chashai thought it would result in a trickle of orders, they have already seen a steady level of strong business.
To deal with the reality of retail in the age of COVID-19, the nursery has split its shifts for staff. Some are now working late to put together online orders so they’re ready for next-day pickup, between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., or to be delivered on the weekend.
Chashai said she was surprised at the popularity of the online business, as well as the size of the orders.
“We’re talking about full yard-fulls of plants,” she said.
And though it was meant to just provide an income stream in what was expected to be a tough time, Chashai said they are likely to maintain the online business long after the COVID-19 outbreak is in the rearview mirror.
“I think it’s the way of our future,” she said, noting the nursery has always struggled with whether to extend its hours to accommodate those wanting to shop after work.
The online store means people can simply drive by and pick up their orders on the way to or from work to tackle their weekend-warrior projects.
Rob Cooper, co-founder of Internet marketing firm PlusROI and its Jumpstart Web division for small business, said small retailers that might never have considered websites before are turning to online business as a means to stay in the game during the outbreak.
“The survival instinct kicks in,” said Cooper. “At the end of the day, change brings opportunity.”
There are now e-commerce sites for a wide variety of small local businesses that have had to close their doors due to the COVID-19 outbreak — everything from liquor stores to coffee shops and all kinds of retailers, he said.
Cooper’s companies — PlusROI, a full-service agency that does websites and marketing for national and international firms, and Jumpstart Web, a low-cost website and marketing firm catering to local small businesses — have stepped in to help a number of firms around the region and the country.
He said the barriers to e-commerce entry for small business are considerably lower, thanks to companies such as Shopify that offer retail templates.
But setting up the online store is only one part of the puzzle — the next step is targeted marketing to drive traffic to that website.
“If you build a site without promotion, you won’t sell anything,” said Cooper, who has set up the sites for Down to Earth, Outlooks for Men — expected to go live next week — and others.
Cooper said most small retailers could have a useful e-commerce site up and running within a week or two. He advises starting small with a boutique approach, highlighting just a small fraction of a store’s most popular items.
The site can be a do-it-yourself project for the store owner, or a professional firm can do it for anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000.
