Online Plant Sales Are Taking Off

The Signal: Our original report on the online plant business, released in June 2019, was among the first to uncover the industry’s massive upside.

Americans spend ~$50B a year on plants -- the vast majority of which are purchased at big box retailers like Home Depot. But the online plant business is ripe for expansion.

Since the pandemic, one of the biggest DTC players, The Sill, has been experiencing "days that look and feel like Black Friday," Eliza Blank, the company’s co-founder and CEO, recently said. Sales increased by more than 50% from March to April 2020, while website traffic of competing sites also spiked from January to May, according to SimilarWeb:

• The Sill: +84%
• Bloomscape: +111%
• Leon and George: +150%

The Opportunity: While the COVID tailwind won’t last forever, the blooming houseplant industry is by no means a fad. Since the pandemic, research and articles linking houseplants to mental health have come to the fore. Companies like The Sill have leaned into this by "[increasing] content for the Sill's Instagram TV channel and [focusing] on self-care messaging instead of solely promoting discounts."

There is room in the market for more challengers to emerge. Entrepreneurs can also take advantage of ancillary opportunities such as:

• Plant care: Keeping a plant alive is no mean feat. People are searching terms such as "plant care" (5.4k searches/month) and "plant care app" (1.3k searches/month). The Sill is currently charging $10 for its virtual plant care and design classes.
• Accessories: While some DTC brands manufacture their own pots, many don’t. You could offer high-end pottery and accessories, such as plant hangers, which have been trending since the pandemic. One Trends member was inspired by our original houseplants article to help PICO, a self-watering system for houseplants, raise $1.5m on Kickstarter.
• Community: Last week we wrote about how to build a community as a product. We highlighted one community, The Succulent Lovers Club, which charges members $25/month. The community serves as a place for succulent growers to meet, learn, and exchange ideas with one another. There is an opportunity for others to create communities around different plants, or houseplants more generally, and to use the community to upsell other products.