Square Register manages inventory and tracks sales of product varieties at different times of the year, invaluable data for florists around Valentine’s Day
As Valentine’s Day approaches, florists across Australia are busy preparing for what is our busiest trading day of the year. I’m all too familiar with the annual rush, having started wrapping at my uncle’s Camberwell market stall when I was 10 years old.
You can’t really compare Valentine’s Day to anything else in any other industry as far as trying to keep up with demand. As part of our preparation, we make up as many arrangements as possible for two days beforehand, because as soon as we open it is flat out busy until we sell out.
Receiving orders as early as the first week of January, we don’t take chances with Valentine’s Day preparation – I rely on the data from free mobile point-of-sale app Square Register to manage and plan inventory and track sales performance right from my iPad, which takes second-guessing out of the equation.
Providing more than just reporting and analytics, Square supports my whole business by helping to manage inventory, track which flowers are most popular, and indicate what varieties I’m selling at different times of the year. This gives means valuable data about my business is transformed into measurable cost savings and insights into what’s selling best.
Being able to check my data from last year’s sales while ordering flowers now makes life so much easier. The last thing I want is to be left with too many red roses.
By understanding last year’s sales data, I’ve been able to identify which were the most popular type of roses sold, which stem length, colour and quantity. This helps me plan not only stock, but prices and the amount of staff I’ll need to service the shop ahead of the biggest commercial day of the year.
As expected, previous year data showed the most popular flowers sold on Valentine’s Day were red roses, closely followed with the Dahlia, Oriental Lily and Chrysanthemum. More specifically, 30cm-50cm rose bouquets outsold garden flowers and single stem roses.
It goes without saying that Valentine’s Day is all about red roses. However, in recent times our native arrangements have been really popular for people who are after something a bit different.
Understanding the reporting side of a business is key for small businesses of all types to make better decisions which can make work easier. Square gives me the ability to deep-dive into easy-to-understand sales data.
Michael Pavlou, Owner, Azalea Flowers
