Drip Is Hip

Ellen C. Wells

The industry agrees that helping customers be successful is the name of the horticultural game. If customers have big, beautiful plants that burst with blooms or are laden with ripe produce, they’ll be back for more. One of the most fundamental ways of ensuring customer success is encouraging consistent and proper watering of those plants they’re carting out your door. Yet customers often don’t supply enough water and in the right way. Their excuses center around not having enough time and not knowing how much is enough.

The consistent and proper watering home gardeners need for success is possible with drip and soaker irrigation systems. The market has had a number of drip irrigation and soaker kits—pre-packaged sets of tubing, hose, drippers, faucet adapters and other system necessities—come online over the past few years, yet kit sales remain low. Why is that?

Watering That Works
Setting up a drip system seems complicated with the measuring, cutting, inserting drippers and such. In truth, the old way of setting up a system by finding parts in a hardware store was much more involved.

“The genesis of the system came about because it was very confusing to find parts to put together,” says Proven Winners’ director of marketing Marshall Dirks of the company’s WaterWise drip irrigation system. Proven Winners saw that consumers were having difficulty setting up a watering system on their own from parts found in plumbing departments, so they found a Florida-based manufacturer that could package the necessary components into one small kit. Having a ready-to-go pack makes the introduction to drip irrigation more understandable for home gardeners.

RainBird, synonymous with pop-up sprinkler systems, has developed a complete program of drip irrigation kits.

“One of the reasons they’ve done this is due to water conservation issues, especially in California and out West,” says Mark Renn, president of Moleton Sales Associates, the firm that represents RainBird. Mark says that sales of drip irrigation kits lag in the East, but it’s an up-and-coming product as water conservation becomes more of an issue. “For independent garden centers, drip kits are where you should start,” Mark says, as a way of introducing the consuming public to smarter, more automated ways of watering their gardens.

Pictured: RainBird has developed a complete program of drip irrigation kits in recent years.

Even less complicated than pre-packaged drip irrigation kits are soaker hoses. “Basically, soaker hoses produce tiny droplets of water that make their way down into the root zone,” says Dramm’s marketing manager Jessica Reinhardt. Laid either on top of the garden soil or dug just underneath, soaker hoses provide a consistent application of water directed to where the plant needs it most.

Tips to Sell More
We’re convinced drippers and soakers work. And home gardeners who’ve tried them have become converts, too. But how can garden centers encourage customers to try a new way of watering—and encourage more sales?

Demo baskets. Marshall suggests highlighting three containers in the nursery area: one watered by natural rainfall, one watered by hand and one watered by a drip system. “Through my own experience the [drip] baskets were double the size versus the ones I watered myself,” he says. “The drip system is the no-brainer.” And the baskets provide a great visual customers can understand.

Signage. Jessica suggests including signage telling of the benefits of soakers and drippers. Highlight the fact that these systems help save time and ensure the plants are properly watered. And when the system is automated to turn on and off with a timer, the “chore” of watering becomes almost non-existent. Also, says Jessica, explain the difference between “good” systems (e.g. thick hoses and packaged kits) and “bad” systems (e.g. thin hoses and picking your own parts).

Pictured: Soaker hoses produce tiny droplets distributed into the root zone.

Cross merchandise. Including the kits in different retail areas (by the combination containers and the demonstration vegetable garden, for example) will give the products more exposure, says Mark. “When the consumer is buying flowers for their beds or vegetables for the garden, properly placed merchandising of the drip kits will ultimately increase sales.”

Sell on what matters. Marshall adds that there are opportunities to sell drip systems to three different types of garden center customers: 1) the gardener who cares about properly nurturing their plants; 2) the eco-conscious consumer who wants to conserve resources by lessening their water use; and 3) the customer who wants to protect the investment they just made by ensuring their plants survive. Appeal to what drives the customer’s purchase decision and you’ll likely get a sale—and a successful gardener as a result. GP