The Ultimate Guide To Selling Plants Online

Houseplants are a fixture in many homes. But the way people shop for plants is changing. Where they may have gone to a local shop in the past to pick the perfect potted plant, they are now turning to online retailers.

If you’ve ever thought of selling plants online, now is the time. Learn what you need to start your own online plant store—from planting the seed of an idea to cultivating your brand and nurturing your customers.

Ready to start your business? Create your website today or learn more about Shopify’s tools for selling online and in person.

8 types of plant businesses

1. Houseplants
2. Outdoor plants
3. Seeds and bulbs
4. Terrarium and kits
5. Plant-derived products
6. Plant subscriptions
7. Online workshops
8. Plant services

Selling houseplants is just one way to get into the plant business. You may decide to focus on a variety of offerings or just one type. Your decision depends on the climate where you live, your access to wholesale greenery or space to grow, and how much you’re willing to invest upfront.

Here are a few ideas to get you started selling plants online:

1. Houseplants

Indoor plants appeal to a wide range of people. Customers don’t need to have a garden or even optimal lighting within their homes to find a plant that works for them.

You might choose to specialize in a type of houseplant, such as succulents, cacti, and air plants, or you might decide to sell the plants you can reliably grow or wholesale where you live.

House Plant Shop focuses on houseplants and categorizes them by type (rare plants, trailing plants, dried plants, pet-friendly plants, and more), size (small air plants and large air plants), and even zodiac sign.

2. Outdoor plants

There are many types of outdoor plants, from herbs and vegetable plants to trees and bushes. If you decide to sell them, there are more considerations than if you sell houseplants. For example, how will the weather affect your business? Will you run a seasonal business or sell year-round? If you’re selling bigger plants, how will you handle shipping or local delivery?

Educating your customers can help you overcome some of these hurdles. For example, The Sill—which originally sold houseplants before expanding into bushes, patio plants, and flowering trees—lets customers shop for plants based on their growing zone. The brand also adds details like “hardy as a Midwestern winter” and “unfazed by frost” to guide customers to find the best option for them.

3. Seeds and bulbs

Seeds and bulbs are easier to ship and store than plants, though they might be more appealing to those with some plant experience. For example, West Coast Seeds ships seeds, bulbs, and growing supplies across Canada.

4. Terrariums and kits

Sell a combination of terrariums populated by live plants and supplies to build terrariums at home. For example, London Terrariums sells terrariums of different sizes as well as kits to make your own.

Founder Emma Sibley’s business began as a hobby. “I was just kind of making terrariums, photographing them, and then putting them on Instagram,” Emma says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “And then, friends and family would say, ‘Oh, it’s my mom’s birthday. Can you make her a terrarium for me to give her?’’” As requests and interest from family and acquaintances grew, she realized she had a real opportunity on her hands—so she started selling at local markets and, ultimately, at her own shop.

5. Plant-derived products

If you have a green thumb and a home garden, you can grow your own plants and create products derived from them. The founders of Terre Bleu grow lavender on their farm and sell lavender-based soaps, sprays, and salves online.

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6. Plant subscriptions

A subscription model offers plant lovers the chance to continually add to their collection of plant species. Partly Sunny Projects offers the PSP Succulent Subscription Box, which includes three plants every month.

7. Online courses and workshops

Share your knowledge about plants and gardening with online courses and workshops. The Gardener’s Workshop offers various classes on topics like flower farming and selling to florists, providing customers with all the tools they need to launch their own projects.

8. Plant services

Why not start a service-based business to supply plants for events and/or maintain green walls for corporate clients? Or try “planterior design,” a term Grounded uses to describe its private client consultation service.

How to sell plants online

1. Find your niche
2. Decide whether to grow or source your plants
3. Choose a business name
4. Legally establish your business
5. Price your plants
6. Develop a business plan
7. Figure out your approach to inventory
8. Build your online store
9. Optimize your product and collection pages
10. Safely ship plants
11. Devise a marketing and social media plan

Here are the steps to get your online plant business off the ground:

1. Find your niche

When launching a plant business, there are a few things to consider:

• Skills and interests: You might be a talented gardener who has a way with fiddle leaf figs, or you might have an interest in sharing your best growing tips with others. Your skills and interests can help you decide what kind of plant business is right for you.

• Location: Are you in an area with challenging growing conditions? Or are you able to easily grow plants year-round? Where you live can determine what type of plants you sell or even inspire you to focus on a certain kind of plant business.

• Target audience: Your target audience will shape your business. For example, if you target people who care about the healing power of plants, you’ll have different messaging than a store that helps novice plant owners buy and care for plants.

• Competition: Researching the competition can give you insights into how crowded the market is or how to stand out among others.

2. Decide whether to grow or source your plants

Growing plants to sell is possible with the right space and conditions. April Mall, founder of Unsolicited Plant Talks, started her business by propagating plants on racks inside her home.

But selling plants on a larger scale requires more space, and you might quickly outgrow your setup. “The more we expanded, the more I needed space,” April says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.

Partly Sunny Project founder Sonja Detrinidad decided not to grow her own plants because it was easy to find experienced growers to partner with where she lives in California. “I have growers that have been growing certain varieties of plants for 40 years,” she says.

Ultimately, the decision comes down to your business model, skills, budget, and space.

3. Choose a business name

Your name can be straightforward, like London Terrariums, or voice-y, like Unsolicited Plant Talks. It just depends on your brand identity.

To help you come up with a name that fits your plant brand, try Shopify’s AI Business Name Generator. Describe your business—you can include your location or information about your offerings—and the tool will generate various options.

Before you commit to a name, check its availability as a social media handle and a URL domain, and within your state’s business entity database (typically, you can do this through your local secretary of state office).

4. Legally establish your business

How you register your business depends on where you live and the type of business you want to start. For example, if you’re a solopreneur in the United States, decide whether a sole proprietorship or limited liability company (LLC) is right for you. An LLC typically requires more paperwork, but it can protect your personal assets from liability.

US-based businesses of all types should obtain an employer identification number (EIN) from the IRS. Additionally, you may need to register your business with local and state government agencies.

5. Price your plants

You can follow standard pricing models for pricing most goods for online sale. To find a retail price for your offerings:

• Add up your variable costs per product (cost of goods sold, packaging, shipping, etc.).

• Assign a price to your time and project the amount of time you’ll spend per product.

• Add up your fixed costs (overhead expenses, like rent) and divide by the average number of products you expect to sell per month.

• Add a desired profit margin on top (consider the overall market).

Additionally, consider who your customers are and what they expect to pay. “We strategically put our price points at a place that is affordable and accessible to most people,” Mignon Hemsley, cofounder of Grounded, says. “We want everyone to be able to experience having plants and being able to take care of something.”

6. Develop a business plan

A business plan is a roadmap for your company. A few elements of a business plan include:

• Company description: List your business, goals, business model, business structure, vision, mission, and value proposition.

• Market research: Include insights into the strengths, opportunities, size, and competition of your chosen market.

• Services: Describe your offerings, including how you’ll price your plants.

• Marketing plan: Your marketing plan covers how you’ll promote your plant shop.

7. Figure out your approach to inventory

Unless you’re only selling outdoor plants, you’ll generally need a climate-controlled space for your inventory. Sonja of Partly Sunny Projects started in her garage before moving to a dedicated greenhouse space.

Your storage needs will depend on what you’re selling, how you’re sourcing products, and your budget. You might go the route Sonja did and use home space for storage while you establish your business. Or, you might lease space in a warehouse. You might also consider dropshipping, which is a business model that allows you to sell plants or plant-related products under your brand name but have them fulfilled by a third-party supplier.

Once you’ve decided where your inventory will live, you’ll need a strategy for managing it. Developing a relationship with reliable suppliers will help you plan ahead. You should also ask yourself:

• What will I do with excess inventory?

• Will I run pre-sales for upcoming varieties? 

• Should I build in a buffer in case some of my plant inventory is damaged or dies?

• If I go away for several days, what is my plan for plant care? Automated irrigation systems and timed grow lights can bridge the gap if you don’t yet have staff coverage.

8. Build your online store

Selling plants online through your own website gives you the most control over your business. Sonja started by taking orders through a WhatsApp group chat and invoicing each customer. When it became too time-consuming, she opened a Shopify store. The switch helped her spend less time on paperwork and more time building her brand.

Shopify makes it easy for businesses to start their websites, no coding or design skills necessary. Choose from one of the preset themes in the Shopify Themes Store and customize it with your branding, fonts, colors, and unique layout. The Cascade theme is a great option for plant sellers who have a strong brand story, and the Editions theme features lots of white space to let your plants shine.

You can also layer apps onto your Shopify store to increase functionality and customize your site. For example, if you want to sell on marketplaces like Etsy or Amazon, you can use Shopify Marketplace Connect to integrate your Shopify catalog with those platforms. You can also connect your Shopify catalog to social selling channels like Facebook.

9. Optimize your product and collection pages

When you sell plants online, you don’t have the advantage of being able to walk customers through your nursery. Instead, your collections and product pages will need to do the work of helping customers find the perfect plant.

Provide detailed information about your plants, such as plant species, common names, description, size, care instructions, and difficulty level, to guide customers. Then, group your plants into helpful collection pages. This level of detail isn’t just useful for customer education—it can also help shoppers find your products via search engines.

Photos are one of the most important elements of your page. Whether you hire a professional or do it yourself, here are a few tips to follow:

• Feature a variety of shots to help your customer see the product from all angles.

• Include close-up detail shots that illustrate texture.

• Show your product in a scene (also called a lifestyle shot) that provides inspiration to your customer for styling or placing the item in their own space. Keep the plant’s light and moisture needs in mind when styling. For example, you wouldn’t want to shoot a fiddle leaf fig tree in direct sunlight, since these plants prefer filtered sunlight.

10. Safely ship plants

Shipping and packing plants requires careful planning. “Imagine that your package is going to be in a rugby match until it gets to its destination,” Sonja says. “You have to do everything you need to do in order to protect it.”

Packing your plants correctly ensures their survival—and customer happiness. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you determine your packing and shipping processes:

• Account for international shipping laws. There are laws that govern how soil and organic matter can travel over international borders. For example, Canada allows imports of soil from the US with the correct documentation, but not from other countries.

• Consider extreme climates. Extreme temperatures can damage plants, so take precautions to protect them. For example, if a plant will be subject to below-freezing temperatures in transit, add heat packs and use express shipping.

• Prepare the plant. Wrap a cardboard collar or wood excelsior around the base of plants to minimize messy soil spillage. Ensure the plant has enough water for the trip. Nest wrapped plants in a box with plenty of packing material, like newsprint paper or biodegradable packing peanuts.

• Find the right carrier. Work with carriers that deliver seven days a week to avoid weekend interruptions, and consider offering only express methods for locations beyond your local area.

11. Devise a marketing and social media plan

Opportunities abound to grow your online audience with the right mix of channels. Here are a few to consider:

Social media marketing

If you’re starting with a limited budget, grow your social media audience organically with consistent posting and useful information. For example, Sonja positioned herself as a plant expert on TikTok, which has allowed her to introduce customers to her brand without a heavy sales pitch.

“Make yourself valuable on the platform as a source of information, then do a little sidestep like, ‘Oh, by the way, here’s the link to my website,’” she says. “And they’re going to trust what you’re putting out there because they’re seeing results from the things that you’ve advised them to do.”

Press

If you’re struggling to build an audience on social, earned media can help boost your awareness and credibility quickly. Grounded experienced this as it was gearing up for a big launch in 2020. At the time, it was struggling to gain traction on social media and with its newsletter. “Danuelle made her dad an Instagram so he could be our 100th follower,” Mignon says of her Grounded cofounder, Danuelle Doswell.

Then Danuelle wrote a press release that highlighted its subscription programs—an offering that helped the company stand out—and shopped it around to local DC publications. One picked it up, and the brand’s follower account surged to 8,000; 700 people signed up for the newsletter.

Content marketing

The idea behind content marketing is to create and publish helpful content to build trust with your audience. For example, a brand might choose to create educational videos that show viewers how to create a balcony garden. Epic Gardening was a blog before it became a plant shop, but it still uses its blog and YouTube channel to provide its audience with helpful content that its customers can trust.

“We have a staff horticulturist, and then all of our writers are garden writers,” Kevin says on an episode of Shopify Masters. “They’re trained in some kind of gardening. Maybe their specialty is flowers or ornamentals or bushes. We’ll pick the right writer for the right topic. All our articles pass through what we call a hort review: Our horticulturist will look at it, check it for accuracy.”

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3 tips for running a successful plant brand

• Establish trust
• Make in-person connections
• Focus on customer service

Here are a few ways you can help your online plant business grow:

Establish trust

You are shipping live plants—your messaging should reflect that you are knowledgeable and careful in your shipping process, and provide after-purchase customer support. Making education a cornerstone of your brand and content strategy can foster trust.

Sonja of Partly Sunny provides consistent content like plant care tips to build trust with an audience before converting them to customers.

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Make in-person connections

Consider gaining more exposure for your brand and connecting with new audiences through local retail opportunities. Beyond opening your own brick-and-mortar store, there are many affordable ways to add in-person selling to your mix:

• Open a booth at local farmers markets.

• Run a pop-up event, like a plant swap.

• Partner with an established retail business to sell plants from their space. They benefit from the décor upgrade and take a commission for each sale.

• If you grow plants or work from a dedicated facility, offer limited hours for customers to browse your inventory in person, say through a monthly event.

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Focus on customer service

Like plants that need adequate sun, water, and nutrients to thrive, your customers require care before—and especially after—their purchases.

Use order confirmation emails, packaging, or blog posts to help customers take care of their plants, and pack your FAQ page with common plant care concerns.

For issues not covered in the FAQ, make sure customers know when and how to contact you with plant concerns. As you scale, hire or outsource customer care to knowledgeable people. “We have a plant specialist who speaks with our customers whenever they have an issue with their plants,” Danuelle says.

Grounded mitigates customer disappointment by investing heavily in customer support, too. “People can sign up for free Zoom office hours,” Mignon says. “It’s easier for us to assess the issue with the plant through video and help bring it back to health.”