Move over fur babies – indoor plants are rapidly becoming the new baby of choice for maturing millennials with disposable incomes to spend and a diminishing
desire to have kids.
A cocktail of influencing factors – sky-high house prices, looming climate change, and disillusionment with the
traditional nuclear family unit, to name a handful – are driving more people in their 20s and early 30s to delay having
kids, or abandon the idea altogether.
But the nurturing instinct remains strong, and where pets are not practical – often the case in apartment-dense cities
like Melbourne and Auckland – plants are stepping in to fill the void.
New businesses are popping up to capitalize on the trend – one shop, Stem and Soul, even offers an in-home plant care service, offering to feed customers’ plants while they’re away on holiday.
While large operators such as Bunnings are aiming to cash in on the trend, the market is open for rising online
retailers. Plant delivery services are becoming popular – in the age of online grocery shopping, Uber Eats and even alcohol delivery, ordering
plants online is likely to become to preferred shopping option.
The shift towards indoor plants as ‘plant babies’ – and the ways in which millennials are shopping for these products –
is typical of a wider transition occurring as the buying power of millennials grows over the next decade. Large
retailers who fail to take note may struggle to hold on – the recent closure of 119 retail stores around the world by
audio tech giant Bose should be the writing on the wall for companies who are not embracing the online shopping and
delivery trend.