Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Georgia Ballroom (Sheraton Hotel Atlanta)
In the United States, many businesses have moved into the e-commerce sector. Garden centers are among the types of businesses selling through websites and offering products online. An increasing number of agribusinesses are looking to the Internet as a marketing, management, service, and coordination tool. The purpose of this study was to determine how many garden centers were involved in online retailing of plant products. The objectives of this study were to determine if e-commerce was being used by garden centers and describe the techniques implemented. This study was conducted by web-based searches through Amazon.com and each garden center’s website. A sample of 500 garden centers and nurseries was obtained from a national membership list. Preliminary data encompassed a sample of 99 garden centers (20%) using a quantitative content analysis with three coders in Spring 2016. Reliability between coders was obtained for all 15 variables. Data were analyzed in SPSS. Data indicated only one percent (n = 1) of businesses on the list were currently selling live plants on Amazon.com. The business selling on Amazon.com had a single product with a single photo, which was of good quality. The product cost $5 to ship, took 11 days to arrive, and had a description of five sentences. This business had an average customer review of five stars with two reviews. It did not offer a warranty, did not have a discount or loyalty program, or return policy. The company did not list further online resources or include suggested care for the product listed on the sales page. Further results showed that 10.1% (n = 10) of the businesses evaluated sold products online with their own full e-commerce site, while 4% (n = 4) included a downloadable form for customers to complete and mail to the business in order to purchase products. Of the 99 businesses, 85.9% (n = 85) were not selling products online through Amazon.com or a business website. In conclusion, as the e-commerce sector continues to grow, there will be a need for more businesses to sell products online. Garden centers are not strongly concentrated on Amazon.com nor selling online, however the future for online selling shows potential. Many garden centers are not considering national markets, but solely focused on local selling. It is recommended that training be developed to help garden centers navigate selling online. Future research should identify barriers and benefits to garden centers selling online.