The Online Grocery Industry

1
The Online Botanical Gardens
Emily C.
Ishmael B.
Nadia A.
Yi-Hsin C.
2
Online Botanical Gardens Basics

• Virtual Tours - NYBG, PHIPPS, FAIRCHILD, DBG
• Community Links- Missouri, Longwood
• Educational Experience
• Wide range of educational offerings, for adults,
  children, students, etc.
• Example Splitting a Persimmon seed to forecast
  winter (NYBG)
• Functions
• Corporate Cocktails NYBG, Minter Botanical
• Weddings, Automobile shows

3
A Sample Front Page
4
Players in Online Botanical Gardens
5
Website Comparisons
Phipps Conservatory
Desert Gardens
6
Customer Base

• Student
• Corporations
• Wildlife adventurers
• Retirees
• People who are
• Regular visitors to botanical gardens
• Love gardening but dont have time
• Need to search for information about plants

7
Fundraising

• Donations
• Non-members (Desert Botanical Gardens)
• Sponsorship
• Corporate (NYBG)
• Membership
• General and Corporate (sample from Missouri BG)
• Contributing Plus Member(100)
• Sustaining Member(175)
• Sponsoring Member(250)
• Directors associate(500)
• Garden Fellows(2,500)
• Garden Ambassador(5,000)

8
How They Attract Customers

• Link to other botanical gardens
  websites(majority)
• Memberships(majority)
• Visitor information(majority)
• Online research resources
• Volunteer opportunities to get people involved
• Special events and activities
• Shoppers at Garden Shop
• Garden Clinics
• Tourist Bureaus

9
Value Added

• The basic value added is the memberships
• 10 discount at Garden Shop
• Special member rates for educational courses
• Special member-only parties, sales and events
• Opening night previews of flower shows
• Trips designed especially for members
• Weekend bus trips from city to garden (NYBG)
• Opportunities to participate in special events
  cocktails, dinners, guest speakers, etc.

10
Strategies to Lock-in Customers

• Paycheck contribution
• Deduction from paycheck through corporate
  participants
• Give rewards to the contributor
• Discounts for family ceremonies
• Plant adoption programs
• Personalization of garden section by families
  through the adoption of a small plot.

11
Strategies to Increase Traffic

• Partnership with other botanical gardens
• Improve the contents of the websites
• Interactive game with the children
• Public announcements on related websites or other
  media.
• Partnership with travel agencies, example
  Expedia, etc.
• Add a Virtual Tour feature.

12
What Can They Do?
Peapod instant online registration
Missouri BG delayed online registration
13
Suggestions

• Improve site conditions. Some sites were having
  technical difficulties
• unable to process credit card transactions for
  online shopping membership fees
• Utilize targeted marketing
• Send email to members about upcoming events of
  interest.
• Create an online community for information
  exchange, compared to just communicating via
  email.
• Creative e-cards with garden snapshots to be sent
  to friends and loved ones.