In This Issue
Remember to bring some floral cheer to the nation on #floralfriday tomorrow - Good Friday
FREE E-commerce Web Site for Garden Centres
The HTA launches ‘Plants Near Me’
Helping hands to combat coronavirus
Greenfingers Charity and friends bring a little social media cheer on #floralfriday - How will you join in on Good Friday?
Johnsons of Boston Food Hall open today despite major fire in garden centre yesterday
Horticulture hits the national and local headlines
Florainbow and Floral message of Hope
For sale - A long Established Garden Centre Business
Garden Centre Opportunities..from around the world
Bheta intervenes as big retailers threaten suppliers with extended trading terms
GTN Xtra - Send to all
Lofa members seek help with container charges at ports
Hillier announces five new plants for 2020
Gardening is deemed ‘critically important’ to physical and mental health during #stayathome
GTN Bestsellers Garden Re-Leaf Subscription Offer
LifestyleGarden® vow to support retailers during lockdown
Petindex postponed until 2021
More companies, including one from China, sign up for PATS Telford
Vitax donation helps rehabilitate lives of servicemen and women through horticulture
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Fiskars Wins Prestigious ‘Best Buy’ Award
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch results show milder winter helps small garden birds
Garden Radio charges on hold
David Domoney takes on role of Patron for Greenfingers Charity
Growing Media Europe welcomes four new members
The best of last week's
Exeter garden centre stays open but cannot sell plants - Cherry Lane close all centres
Calling all businesses in garden retailing to sign HTA/RHS/NFU petition
Horticultural Sector Worth £1.4 Billion Could Be Wiped Out By Coronavirus Shut Down In Just Weeks
Glee at home
40th Annual GIMA Awards Cancelled
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
Send us your news and great ideas

Contact us with your news. 

Email neil.pope@tgcmc.co.uk, or trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700


FREE E-commerce Web Site for Garden Centres
GTN Xtra promotion

GrowNation (grownation.co.uk) is a new marketplace platform built to support the industry and make online sales a reality for all. Listing products on the platform couldn't be easier, with payment, order management, customer messaging and more built-in and ready to go.

 

If you're a garden centre operator, you can easily add or import any products you wish, including photos, descriptions and your own unique prices. The process is simple, and GrowNation provide all the training and help you need to get selling fast.

 

GrowNation stores immediately benefit from:

 

• A completely free to set up online shop

• The ability to list as many or few products as each centre wishes

• Secure online payments by credit or debit card

• A unique web address with its own storefront and product range

• A simple to use vendor dashboard to help manage orders and customer details

• Full training and support to quickly get stores up and running

 

With current government guidance effectively shutting down the whole garden retail sector, local deliveries are the only viable fulfilment option right now. Pressure is mounting for restrictions to be fully or partially lifted, so the GrowNation platform has been built to seamlessly transition to click & collect as soon as that happens.

 

Steve Meleka, Managing Director of ConnectNation said: “It’s been encouraging to see garden centres doing their best to supply customers with local deliveries, especially at what is clearly the most important time of year for gardeners.

 

"For businesses who don’t already have an online shop it can be a daunting prospect, so many have taken to encouraging customers to order over the phone or on Facebook. This creates its own challenges, like keeping track of orders, organising deliveries, letting customers know what’s available and how much it costs - all of which generates a lot of work and potential for mistakes.

 

"Online stores are designed to organise and streamline this whole process, which is why we’ve developed the simple to use GrowNation platform. Garden centres can quickly take advantage of the system and start taking orders and payments while maintaining high levels of customer service and efficient operation."

 

The site supports secure online payments from the Square payment processing system straight out of the box, with no need to apply for a separate account. Garden centres can begin taking orders and processing payments straight away, later calling off what they're owed for fulfilled orders, paid straight into their bank account.

 

Claiming a free site is easy. Simply visit the registration page at grownation.co.uk, fill in your details and GrowNation will do the rest.

 

Future enhancements will see GrowNation enabling safe, contact-free click & collect protocols - fully supported by the software - and the provision of detailed product information sourced direct from growers and wholesalers. A full product roadmap will be published in due course.

 

The GrowNation platform is one of a series of marketplaces from ConnectNation Ltd, a company formed to help address some of the unique business challenges posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

 

ConnectNation was founded by a group of colleagues with specialisms in marketing (including in the horticulture sector), CRM platform design & integration, social media management and e- commerce web site development.

 

The team are working on a parallel project aimed at linking wholesalers of food and other products originally destined for the hospitality industry with NHS workers through a completely contactless click & collect service delivered within hospital grounds.

 

Find out more by completing the registration page at grownation.co.uk or call 03333 446601

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