The Signal: Our original report on the online plant business, released in June 2019, was among the first to uncover the industry’s massive upside.

Americans spend ~$50B a year on plants — the vast majority of which are purchased at big box retailers like Home Depot. But the online plant business is ripe for expansion.

Since the pandemic, one of the biggest DTC players, The Sill, has been experiencing “days that look and feel like Black Friday,” Eliza Blank, the company’s co-founder and CEO, recently said. Sales increased by more than 50% from March to April 2020, while website traffic of competing sites also spiked from January to May, according to SimilarWeb:

  • The Sill: +84%
  • Bloomscape: +111%
  • Leon and George: +150%