Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
Online > Online State of the Industry > Heartland

Title of entry: 
Garden Center 2024 State of the Industry Report: Focusing on Success

Issue or Publication date:
Dec. 18, 2024

Publication name: 
Garden Center magazine

View Website home page:
https://www.gardencentermag.com/

Links to entry URLs

Please note: These URLs are only required for entries in the Online division categories, or digital entries in appropriate Overall Excellence, Design or All Content division categories.

Entry URL(s), if applicable:
Please enter a URL that will direct judges to the entry: 
https://giecdn.blob.core.windows.net/fileuploads/garden_center/2024soi/index.html
Additional URLs, if needed:
https://www.gardencentermag.com/article/2024-state-independent-garden-centers-industry-report/

Entry Essay: 
Garden Center magazine’s mission is to provide our readers — independent garden center owners, operators and managers — with the business management tools and comprehensive industry insight they need to run a profitable, efficient retail store. Until March 2023, the magazine produced 12 print issues a year. After March 2023, the magazine became a digital-only publication. After producing print State of the Industry reports for 12 years, the 2024 State of the Industry Report marked our first in-depth online project. We conducted a survey of more than 100 garden center owners, operators and managers in the U.S. and Canada via a SurveyMonkey survey in September. I then compiled the answers and data in October and November and wrote extensive analyses to explain the data to our readers. The industry saw booming growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people picked up a hobby they could easily do at home: gardening. But that growth has started to slow, and in 2024, we found the industry began refocusing on its core business — selling plants. With that core summary in mind, we decided on a “focus” theme for the report, with corresponding graphics and design elements. Art director Katelyn Mullen created an interactive report, separated into easy-to-digest sections to make it easy for readers to digest and understand a huge amount of data.