What other florists did for Valentine's Day: Interview with September Studio

Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest events on a florist’s calendar, so it’s easy to see why this day can be incredibly stressful for florists who take it on!

We caught up with four successful who took part in Valentine’s Day in 2024 to hear their insight into their experience and advice for other florists on what to expect out of the day.

This is part one, an interview on Valentine’s Day with Bryce, owner of September Studio. His shop in based in Darlinghurst, combining ceramics and daily floristry.

What was the highest priced order that was placed?

We kept it pretty simple with two sizes. $265 and $450, with an increased ppu. This allowed us to do less orders whilst maintaining revenue.  

There were obviously people who called to place larger orders. With everything from guys ordering every day a week before Valentine’s Day, through to people ordering over 1000 stems across two days. 

We managed to do roughly 400% on last year’s orders, with the key for us being limiting variety to be able to nail a design that people were happy with. 

What did you do to feel/be prepared for the week?

For us, a lot of the planning was more logistics than actual bunch making. We are pretty comfortable making orders, but with Valentine’s Day, we find couriers, drivers and logistics is always the hardest part. We had six of our own drivers on the road and couriers to take anything outside those areas. Which, although manageable was definitely a stress point. 

In terms of making, having one recipe to follow and being able to execute and make designs the day before leaving only wrapping to Valentine’s Day really helped out in making sure we were prepared for the quantity of orders placed. 

How did you choose your offerings? Price points, styles, quantity etc

We looked out our weekly pricing, and worked out what people ordered for special occasions. Setting our base price point just above that. We understood that we would miss out on the smaller orders, but left rose stems available for people who didn’t wish to spend that amount. 

In terms of quantity, we capped it at 150 units for each size of rose stems, which we felt with our team that was the limit of what we could get through. 

What marketing techniques did you use to increase sales and target your ideal client?

I honestly feel like Valentine’s Day is a terrible time to try and market your product. There is so much content on peoples feeds that both paid and organic reach always suffers from saturation. 

Instead, we focused on further out timelines, engaging people with our product and content so that by the time Valentine’s came around their decision was made. We always post consistently online which I think is very important as then the consumer doesn’t feel like you’re selling to them, more that they are comfortable with your brand and product. 

 What was the most challenging part of Valentine’s week?

It’s a really tough week, I won’t lie. Myself and my team definitely had moments where we felt like crying (and did). To be honest, when you’re doing increased volume, it is stressful, but pressure makes diamonds. Our space was probably the biggest factor trying to output volume in a 30 square metre store. Which is something we will definitely change for Mother’s Day. 

An unexpected lesson that you learnt?

Be confident in your product. Orders come in late always for Valentine’s Day. Set your prices to what you want to make, not just to sell bouquets. It’s the best chance to get your product into the hands of people who don’t usually order. Make it special.

Biggest win from the week?

We did some fun orders for people we wouldn’t usually get the opportunity to do flowers for. From The Kardashians to Blink 182 to the Australian Prime Minister.

What would you do differently next year?

I think we would cut down options again to one size and stems. It makes ordering stock, making and delivering a good product so much easier. And we would cap orders and limit deliveries.

Do you have any tips on how to hire, manage and lead your flower team on such a busy week?

I am so lucky to have the team I have, treat them well. Make sure they know you appreciate them and you will get through it as a team. We employed drivers and helpers for the shop and left our team to do making and logistics with many sets of extra hands. 

If you’ve done Valentine’s in the past, did you look back on previous data and find any common trends or anything interesting you could share?

We look at returning customer data for this and see that on Valentine’s Day our returning customers are usually happy to spend 30-40% more with almost the exact same conversion rate online. 

Any other tips/tricks/advice for florists wanting to do Valentine’s in the future?

Be prepared, be confident and don’t feel like you have to do Valentines’ Day. It can be a great way to generate revenue coming into slower months. But it’s not essential to grow your brand.