How Hackney Nursery Solved the Problem of Sharing Plant Availability
Hackney Nursery, a 160-acre family business in Quincy Florida, wanted an easier way to share plant availability online with their customers.
They were using Flicker, and Google Photos, but it was hard to update and use on a constant basis. They could not alphabetize, customers could not search through 160-190 items, and it was difficult to put information on those sites and organize it.
They were sending availability on excel, the customer had to open, scroll, and hope they ran across the item they were looking for.
Hackney Nursery
Hackney’s primary market is southeast United States and Mid-Atlantic states.
They grow several different branded plants including Endless Summer Hydrangeas, First Edition Plant and Shrubs, Southern Living Plant Collection, Star Roses, Double KnockOut Roses, Drift Roses, The Gardener’s Confidence Collection, and Proven Winners.
Their primary customers are re-wholesalers, Independent Garden Centers, and landscapers. They mostly serve Southeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic states.
Hackney Nurseries is a family business started by their father and now run by three brothers and a slew of supervisors that are like family.
Problem and Solution
Rick Goff from Advanced Grower Solutions reached out to Martin at Hackney to discuss their needs. They told him the problem they were having, and Rick had an idea. Rick told them what he was creating, they gave feedback about what they wanted and GrowerOnline was born.
Now all of Hackney’s inventory is online and easily searchable on GrowerOnline.
They love that they can easily put real time product images in a user-friendly platform that is easily updated. Their customer sees the newest updates. This is the best and biggest feature for them.
Before, it was difficult and time consuming to send pictures in an excel, or Flicker account, it was always difficult to share images.
Now they easily put as many pictures as they want and easily share with customers and buyers. This has been a great sales tool for them since they started using GrowerOnline. They like the way it integrates with their program.
When first using the new platform, they learned that buyers did not use the site more than a few times a year and were forgetting their login and password. The AGS developers created a Guest login with a link on all outgoing email so the customer could just click on the link to see a plant list without needing a login.
Martin Hackney said he has never found anything so easy to post images, even putting images on his website, he must save the image to his computer, size it, log into website, add the image.
He loves the user compatibility. It takes three clicks with an iPhone.
He can be out in the field take, an image, click a link, you can be far away from the office, click the link and see it.
They quickly and easily showed customers how to use it and saw a positive impact on customers searching and ordering.
Customers can search by other names; it is a convenient way to display a large number of line items.
Next Hackney Nursery wants to use the online ordering function so their customers can create their own orders.
If publishing your availably needs to be faster and easier contact us to learn more about GrowerOnline.