Growing business, naturally

Selling goods online isn’t the only way to make the internet work for your business. Sydney Wildflower Nursery owner Dave Rose, pictured, says a savvy internet strategy is a cheap and easy way to build a following.

“The internet gives people an easier opportunity to find what they want,” he says. “If you have a good web presence and a website that has been optimised properly, basically you’ll appear higher in generic internet searches, which lifts the profile of your company. It is a cost-effective way of getting your business known.”

The past 10 years have been punishing for small players in the nursery industry, thanks to the drought and the arrival of Bunnings on the scene. Rose says being online has helped his boutique business maintain its position.

“Personally our sales have grown, even with the market in decline,” he says. “[Our web presence] has helped us maintain sales. It hasn’t catapulted us but I think a growing percentage of people will find us online.”

Many companies offer search engine optimisation services to help a business rank higher on a Google search, for example. Rose says it’s worth shopping around for the right service provider.

“If you find someone who knows what they’re doing, you can get it done reasonably, without having to pay thousands,” he says. “You might pay $150 a month to continually optimise your site.”

One way Rose optimised his website was by listing every variety of native plant he stocks. That list of about 15,000 plants helps attract niche customers.

“If a customer types in a rare native plant into a search engine, chances are we’ll come up,” he says. “A customer like that looking for a unique plant is then likely to see our stock list and be interested in our other products, too.”

Rose says software is helping him deliver a better service to customers and his embrace of the technology also gives him an edge.

“From an inventory perspective technology has played to our advantage,” he says. “I can look on my computer and see exactly what is in stock, everything we’ve ever stocked, when we last had a particular plant, whether it sat here for 10 years.”

That ability is vital in a company dealing with thousands of native plants. At any given time Rose has 4000 plant varieties in stock but if a customer calls asking for a rare plant the nursery used to carry, it’s now easy to track down.

“Our software immediately tells us where we got it from originally so we can track it down again,” Rose says.

Building an active social media profile is the next project and he’s confident it will build business. “One of my growers of plants, who doesn’t even sell them direct to the public, has 12,000 followers on Facebook. That’s a pretty big presence.”

Rose says a well-executed social media strategy is about boosting online visibility.

“You can’t use social media to push sales, it’s more about letting people know what’s happening in the business,” he says. “We’re halfway up an exponential learning curve in terms of companies having a social media presence.”

Rose is also hoping to offer customers a better facility to place orders online. “Because we’re dealing with perishables, it’s hard to get the logistics right in delivering plants to people, especially to places some distance away,” he says. “When the dispatch logistics are sorted, customers will be able to see exactly what stock we have at any time on the website.”

BRW

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