Middletown, Ohio–based Berns Garden Center
sells a variety of products on its website, from
Christmas accessories and lawn tools to water gar-
dening supplies and bird feeders.
was a need for an online merchant
that sold larger materials than the
traditional mail-order companies.
After the Internet bubble burst and
companies like garden.com failed,
there wasn’t much online competi-
tion for live trees and plants.”
Dinslage says the company’s ship-
ping practices continue to improve
each year, and each generation of
packaging is better than the last.
One consideration when shipping
live goods is making sure the media’s
moisture is just right. “Not too wet,”
Dinslage warns, “but the challenge
is that the plant can’t dry out during
the different transit times to various
parts of the country.” Other potential
problems include package damage
from the carrier or a missed staple
from a packager. Product selection
is challenging as well, he says, as
different plants react differently to
being boxed and shipped across the
country. Many company- and state-
enforced rules help prevent dam-
aging items during transit, too, such
as state agricultural restrictions and
oversize and weight rules.
Nature Hills is confi dent in their
packaging and UPS’s shipping prac-
tices: The company doesn’t have a
return policy for live plants. “We
are vigilant to send out the best
product available, so we have very
few complaints versus the volume of
packages that are sent every year,”
he explains. Nonetheless, if a plant
does arrive damaged or in poor
condition, Nature Hills ships a new
plant immediately.
Set Up Shop
Nature Hills uses a customized
version of dashCommerce, an open-
source e-commerce platform. Din-
slage says the company initially used
a local contractor to help customize
the application but now contracts
with an offshore ASP.net consul-
tancy called UruIT, which helps
maintain the platform and makes
ongoing enhancements.
However, there are many types
of e-commerce solutions you can
use for your website, from hands-
off, shopping cart–only compa-
nies that allow you to build your
own site to full-service partners
that take care of everything, from
ordering to shipping.
Write in 807
24 Lawn & Garden Retailer November 2009 www.lgrmag.com
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