Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series highlighting floral industry stories of change, grit and perseverance — and biggest lessons learned — during the pandemic.

The words “happy surprise” might not be used to describe much about guiding your business through COVID-19, but Molly Meulenbroek, general manager of Studley’s in Rochester, New Hampshire, puts the shop’s early investment in e-commerce in that bucket.

Studley’s had already put time and money into its e-commerce capabilities and “that really proved its worth, because that was the best way for us to connect with our customers and maintain our revenue ,” Meulenbroek says. “We put a lot of focus into the website, so knowing how much that helped us reinforces that we always need to be working on the website, updating and working on product development.”

Studley’s views the website as a storefront, she adds, and they make a concerted effort to align current in-store merchandise with what customers can see online. “When people aren’t able to get out and come into the store, if it’s not on the website we might as well not be trying to sell it, because nobody can see it,” Meulenbroek says. The shift to more online shopping also forced them to be more selective about their product mix for both fresh products and goods. By having their online and in-store product offerings match, they can more accurately track which items they’re selling through.

One segment of their business that saw a significant increase was their separate e-commerce site that sells plants. Studley’s greenhouses propagate their own foliage and starter plants, which they sell online and ship to customers. This year, as people connected through plants both with others and for themselves (a trend that SAF explored through The Great Big Plant Event, which is available on demand) that part of the business grew by leaps and bounds, Meulenbroek says.

What’s more, plants have driven a lot of in-store traffic as well. “We have all that inventory showing online, so people know what we have in store,” she explains. Over the winter, even with mask restrictions still in place, Studley’s saw a huge shift toward people buying plants, and they saw an uptick in people using a trip to the greenhouse as a respite and a day out.

Much of the country is opening up again, but that doesn’t mean things are back to the way they were pre-pandemic. Dollar sales and volume may have increased, but the industry is still experiencing delays when it comes to sourcing products, or in some cases, not being able to source certain products at all. Studley’s is tucking their COVID lessons under their belt and applying what they learned.

“It changes how you do things,” Meulenbroek says, “like having a longer lead time for ordering, and better management of products on the website that we have available.”

These days, she adds, things are a bit faster paced. And sourcing remains an issue. “The biggest obstacle is predicting how the volume has shifted,” she says. “It’s great that people know flowers are a great way to connect when you’re not connecting, but we’re still figuring out how to balance this increased volume of business, while still having supply issues.”

Staying adaptable, she notes, is key. It has served Studley’s well during its more than 100 years in business, and will guide its operations post-pandemic, too.

Molly Olson is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.