This year the purchasing of garden plants for the new season once again started at GROEN-Direkt! Because of COVID-19, the largest green market in Europe organised a Spring Showroom instead of its usual Spring Fair.
The showroom opened its doors on Tuesday 2 February and will remain open for quite a while, to enable all interested garden plant traders and buyers to view the enormous range in a safe way. The Spring Showroom’s (online) range, comprising 5,500 sample batches, concepts and Mediterranean plants, and also the digital Product Promotion Plaza can be visited until the end of February.
GROEN-Direkt’s Spring Showroom attracted fewer visitors than its usual two-day Spring Fair. Due to the current COVID-19 measures, a maximum of fifty visitors are allowed to visit the showroom by appointment only every morning or afternoon. This led to the decision to prolong the Spring Showroom until the end of February, to create more opportunities for buyers to visit it. In spite of the necessary adjustments, GROEN-Direkt is very satisfied about the showroom’s first few days.
Exceptional result
That’s because many visitors have been finding their way to GROEN-Direkt digitally, as a result of which sales so far actually almost equal the turnover of last year’s Spring Fair. Large numbers of plants have been bought by East European and Scandinavian countries in particular. External factors such as Brexit, garden centres’ current hesitancy due to the continuing lockdowns, and the wintry weather have evidently had only little effect on sales. GROEN-Direkt is delighted with what it considers to be an exceptional result, thanks in a large part to the attractive range created together with the growers, and the products’ higher prices.
Webshop
The popularity of GROEN-Direkt’s webshop made the first day of the showroom’s opening extra busy. This meant that traders and buyers were for a short time unable to log in and start ordering, in spite of all the preparatory work that had been done. Fortunately, the problems were solved within a few hours, and the following days ordering via the webshop went well.
NEW Digital Product Promotion Plaza
The digital Product Promotion Plaza was newly introduced this year: physically unmanned, digitally manned stands intended to enable visitors to physically view the growers’ ranges and offer them a low-threshold way to contact the growers online, on a one-to-one basis. The digital Product Promotion Plaza can also be visited via the webshop.
Particularly popular
The Spring Showroom’s extensive range also comprises Mediterranean plants, niche products and attractive new batches. There is a lot of demand for early spring products, with plants such as Acers and Magnolias proving particularly popular. The sales figures show that Box is once again selling well.
Sample presentations to continue
GROEN-Direkt is going to continue to organise weekly sample presentations, subject to compliance with the prevailing COVID-19 guidelines. Visitors may physically view the latest ranges by appointment only. For the latest information or to plan a visit, please go to GROEN-Direkt’s website.
You can also buy garden plants digitally from a safe distance at any time via GROEN-Direkt’s webshop, where you’ll find the huge range of more than 5,500 sample batches accompanied by up-to-date photos in an easy-to-navigate presentation. To apply for a login code, please go to info@groen-direkt.nl.
More information
For more information on GROEN-Direkt, its webshop and visiting its Spring Showroom, go to www.groen-direkt.nl or call +31 (0)172 21 15 76.