How Florists Ride the Guofeng Wave to Stage a Comeback

In today's fast-paced era, the charm of traditional culture is becoming ever more prominent, and the enthusiasm for intangible cultural heritage keeps heating up, becoming a cultural trend that cannot be ignored. Amid this wave, many industries have seized the momentum and achieved new breakthroughs and development.Taking advantage of the traditional Spring Festival holiday, major flower shops and online platforms haveboarded the guofeng express and successfully seen orders explode. Let's see how they found business opportunities in the fusion of intangible cultural heritage and floral art.

Intangible cultural heritage, as a treasure of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, carries the memories of history and the wisdom of the nation. From exquisite embroidery and brilliant printing and dyeing to rustic wood carving and lively paper-cutting, every intangible cultural heritage craft contains a unique artistic charm. Floral art, as an art form that beautifies life, likewise pursues the combination of nature and beauty. When intangible cultural heritage meets floral art, a wondrous chemical reaction unfolds.

Some flower shops keenly captured this trend and cleverly integrated intangible cultural heritage elements into their floral designs. For example, embroidering traditional embroidery patterns onto floral packaging instantly makes an otherwise plain bouquet refined and full of charm; or using paper-cutting art to create unique flower holders, adding a distinctive flair to fresh flowers. These creative designs not only attract consumers' attention, but also let them feel the charm of traditional culture.

Today, more and more young consumers show a strong fondness for new Chinese style and guofeng.“I think the new Chinese style has both the heritage of traditional culture and the beauty of modern design, which fits my aesthetic very well.” said Xiao Li, a 95 post-95s who works at an internet company. She often buys items with guofeng elements, and new Chinese style bouquets are her favorite.

Besides integrating intangible cultural heritage elements into floral design, some flower shops have also used online platforms such as Meituan to embark on a new journey of online sales. Meituan data shows that since 2 month, searches for the keyword “Valentine's Day flowers” have increased by 50% year on year; the new Chinese style theme is especially popular, and in the week after Spring Festival, searches for the keyword “new Chinese style flowers” increased by more than 4 times year on year. Many flower shops have listed new Chinese style bouquets rich in intangible cultural heritage and museum elements on platforms such as Meituan, such as the Summer Palace co-branded bouquet launched by Meituan, which integrates classical cultural elements into the design and is deeply loved by consumers. Since the May promotion, as of Qixi, total sales of new Chinese style bouquets on Meituan Instashopping have exceeded 150 million orders.

“My girlfriend loves visiting Chinese gardens and museums and is a guofeng enthusiast, so I gave her a Summer Palace co-branded bouquet for the Lantern Festival.” Mr. Xu from Guangzhou ordered a “Summer Palace co-branded Yimeng Liuguang” new Chinese style bouquet from the “Youyang Forest” flower shop on the Meituan platform to give to his girlfriend, and joked that since he saw the delivery flower shop had listed new guofeng element flowers again, he planned to collect the whole set for his girlfriend. Feedback like this is not rare; more and more consumers like Mr. Xu's girlfriend, who love guofeng, are driving the sales of guofeng bouquets on online platforms to keep rising.

A member of a guofeng 00 post-00s club said: “Today's new Chinese style bouquets are not just a bunch of flowers, but an expression of traditional culture. Every time I go out holding such a bouquet, it attracts a lot of attention, which gives me more confidence to spread guofeng culture.”

Besides launching special bouquets, some flower shops have also introduced intangible cultural heritage themed floral art courses. They invite inheritors of intangible cultural heritage into the flower shop to teach the craft on site, so that customers can personally experience the charm of intangible cultural heritage while learning floral art. This edutainment approach is deeply loved by consumers, and the courses are often in short supply.

Driven by social media, these flower shops full of guofeng charm quickly became popular. Exquisite photos and videos spread widely online, attracting a large number of netizens' attention and likes. Many young people rush to check in, buy these bouquets with intangible cultural heritage features, give them as gifts to relatives and friends, or use them as decorations to adorn their living spaces.

The intangible cultural heritage boom has brought flower shops not only growth in orders, but also cultural inheritance and innovation. By combining intangible cultural heritage with floral art, flower shops not only provide consumers with more unique, high-quality products and services, but also open up new paths for the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage. They let more people understand and love intangible cultural heritage culture, and let traditional culture radiate new vitality and vigor in the new era.

Of course, in the process of integrating intangible cultural heritage with floral art, there are also some challenges. For example, how to ensure that intangible cultural heritage crafts remain authentic, how to innovate without damaging the connotations of traditional culture, how to cultivate more professionals who understand both floral art and intangible cultural heritage, and so on. These issues all require us to keep exploring and solving them in practice.

Flower shops riding the guofeng wave to explosive orders under the intangible cultural heritage boom is a vivid example of the perfect combination of traditional culture and modern commerce. It lets us see the infinite potential and value of intangible cultural heritage, and also provides a useful reference for other industries. It is believed that in the future, more industries will join the ranks of inheriting and innovating intangible cultural heritage, letting our traditional culture bloom with even more brilliant splendor in the new era.