Vegetation Destination
In the Spring of 2022, Audrey competed in the UNR Sontag Entrepreneurship Award Contest. Her business idea, a multivendor marketplace for houseplants, earned its place in the semi-finals. Audrey designed all of the brand materials for the project using Canva and Procreate.
Logo and Brand
Audrey created original brand illustrations for her business plan project. She did research on her competitors and created a design different from the rest. Her competitor's logos featured green fonts and leaves in the logo. Vegetation Destination is about creating an ecosystem of entrepreneurs through their local community. The logo featured the roots of a plant and the slogan "let your roots grow here"
The Business Plan
Audrey is skilled at technical writing and wrote a detailed business plan. The business, Vegetation Destination was a multivendor platform for plant enthusiasts and small nursery owners. Audrey identified a problem within the industry and identified supplier shortages that continue to drive up the price of plants. This price surge has stagnated the growth of small nurseries despite the industry's recent bloom in consumer popularity. Audrey's service increased biodiversity at the local level by allowing independent houseplant owners to sell to each other and to small nurseries.
Business Strategy
Audrye's strategy was simple but effective. The surge in plant ownership has caused a strain on the industry due to the time it takes to grow a plant to maturity. The wholesalers take several years to adapt to the demand, and as a result, prices surge across the industry and threaten the success of small nursery businesses. With so many new plant owners and the ease of propagating (cloning) a plant, there was an untapped source of plants ready to be sold to other consumers, or businesses. This allowed plant nurseries to bypass the controlling prices set by wholesalers by tapping into the supply from their community members. It increased price competition through the threat of substitute products.
Strategic Advantage
Vegetation Destination created a sustainable competitive advantage because of its ability to connect independent houseplant owners to small nursery businesses. Though there are existing plant trading platforms, none connect independent plant owners with nursery owners, they only facilitate transactions between plant owners. These websites reduce the number of consumers shopping at local nurseries and make the issue worse for the industry players. Vegetation Destination created a two-sided market of independent plant owners and small businesses and fostered the success of both parties.
