Brigitte: 'Storecheck helps us make chrysanthemums more appealing'

Storecheck allows you to see how your plants or flowers are displayed in shops and provides valuable consumer feedback for shelf and product improvement. The Chryson Foundation has been using this Royal FloraHolland service since 2016. "Storecheck helps us make chrysanthemums more appealing."

The Chryson Foundation, established in 1989, is a partnership between Dutch chrysanthemum breeders and around 97 chrysanthemum growers (all of whom are also suppliers to Royal FloraHolland). Its aim is to strengthen the market position of chrysanthemums.

Thanks to the partnership, a larger promotional budget is available. This allows collective goals to be achieved that individual members of Chryson cannot achieve on their own. Examples include maintaining the flower's current positive image and improving the shelf position of chrysanthemums at florists and retailers.

Little innovation

"We started making the purchase of Royal FloraHolland's Storecheck service in 2016", says Brigitte Hagen, who has been working for Chryson for 19 years. "The reason for this was that exports of chrysanthemums to the United Kingdom were coming under pressure. We wanted to have a better overview of the shelf space there at several retailers."

With Storecheck, Chryson received photos and reports of the chrysanthemum shelf at their chosen retailers. It turned out that the shelf was rarely updated. "You want to surprise consumers with innovative combinations. If this doesn't happen, they may become bored with a product."

Consumers on the road

Chryson now uses Storecheck in the Netherlands and in its main export countries: England, Germany, France and Poland, and recently also in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ireland. Local consumer panels go out and visit retailers on a weekly basis for a certain period of time. Using the Store Check app, they take photos and provide feedback on the shelf based on a number of questions from Chryson. Brigitte and her colleagues then receive reports containing the photos taken and information about how consumers rate the shelf in question.

"The questions we ask consumers in advance include: would you want to buy the chrysanthemums you see here? If not, why not? The answers are very valuable and serve as input for discussions with retailers and exporters about possible improvements. In short, Storecheck helps us to make the chrysanthemum shelf more attractive."

Identifying trends

Chryson uses the Storecheck service every three years for research, over a period of about 40 weeks. Brigitte receives a comprehensive research report both during and at the end of the period. "We deliberately opt for repeated research so that we can identify trends on the shelf and respond to them."

The most important findings from the Storechecks are shared with Chryson members via presentations at national conferences. Brigitte and her colleagues go through the reports in detail with a number of large growers who supply large-scale retailers. "We look at the most important purchasing criteria for consumers, reasons why they don't buy, and, based on the photos, how the chrysanthemums look on the shelf. We then look at what we can learn from this and what action can be taken."

In conversation with suppliers and retailers

During discussions with suppliers and retailers, the consumer is always the focus. "Instead of “what do we want to supply”, it's much more about: what does the consumer want and how can we, as a sector, respond to this better?"

This vision is also clearly reflected in a number of Chryson pilots with supermarkets in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. By displaying chrysanthemums differently on the shelf, sales increased. And that is what we want to achieve with insights from Storecheck. "Listening carefully to consumers therefore has a positive effect on the entire supply chain, from grower to retailer", concludes Brigitte.