That was the question asked by BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours programme this week, and was answered by two prominent figures from the industry – consultant Jane Lawler and Blue Diamond Garden Centres managing director Alan Roper.
The programme, aired at lunchtime on Thursday (December 3), stated that garden centres didn’t seem to bother too much about being online until they were forced to shut when the first Covid-19 lockdown was imposed.
As a result, claimed the programme, hundreds of garden centres without an online presence suddenly launched a website virtually overnight.
With the You & Yours presenter suggesting that selling plants and products through a website might be the future for UK garden centres, Alan and Jane debate the pros and cons of online retailing in this industry.
You can hear what they have to say on BBC Sounds by clicking on the following link https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000q0z1. Their debate starts around 26 minutes into the programme.