Florists (United States) — NAICS 45931

1. Overview

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code 45931, "Florists," is the retail industry made up of local flower shops and online floral retailers — businesses that sell cut flowers, floral arrangements, and potted plants they buy from growers and wholesalers rather than grow themselves, and often arrange and deliver those flowers for weddings, funerals, and holidays.[3]

This is a rollup level: in the NAICS hierarchy, the 5-digit industry 45931 contains exactly one 6-digit national industry, 459310 (Florists). Because there is only one child, this level's economics, scope, and structure are effectively identical to it. This page gives the top-line federal figures for the level and then points you to the full 459310 primer for the detail — the value chain, the investable universe, unit economics, demand drivers, regulation, consolidation, and risks are all covered there and are not repeated in full here.

The short version for investors: flower demand is durable and gift- and ritual-driven (Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, weddings, funerals), but the dedicated-florist channel has been losing share for decades to supermarkets, mass merchants, and online gifting. There is essentially one meaningful U.S.-listed play centered on flowers; the rest of the industry is a fragmented world of owner-operated shops, private-equity-owned wire services, and venture-backed delivery startups.[13]

2. What's inside — and why this level equals its one child

NAICS is a nested system: each 5-digit industry is divided into one or more 6-digit national industries. Most 5-digit codes split into several children; a few, like this one, have a single child that carries the entire code.

Because 459310 is the only child, NAICS 45931 is a pass-through: every florist counted at this level is counted in 459310, and the two share the same definition, the same scope (storefront and online-only floral retailers, following the 2022 NAICS revision that migrated the industry from the old code 453110), and the same exclusions.[3] The most important exclusions to keep in mind — because they explain why the "florist" numbers understate total flower spending — are supermarket floral departments (NAICS 445110), garden centers and nurseries (444240), flower growers (111421 / 111422), and floral wholesalers (424930). For the full scope, value chain, and structure, see the 459310 primer, Sections 2–4.

3. How big it is (this level's rollup figures)

The federal ground-truth file for NAICS 45931 carries the 2022 Economic Census receipts and concentration data. Because 459310 is the sole child, these figures are identical to the child's:

A concentration ratio is the share of industry receipts held by the largest firms (CR4 = the top 4, and so on). The pattern here — CR4 near 31% but CR50 still under 40% — signals a "barbell": a few large national online and wire-service players sit above roughly 12,000 mostly tiny independents. The HHI, another standard concentration measure, is suppressed in the federal data, so we report no value.

Our level file does not carry establishment, employment, or payroll counts; those come from a different federal dataset (County Business Patterns) and are documented in the 459310 primer — roughly 11,834 establishments, 55,143 paid employees, and $1.387 billion in annual payroll in 2023.[1] Average receipts run about $845,000 per firm, but that mean is pulled up by a handful of national players; a typical independent shop does roughly $200,000–$250,000 a year.[14]

Undercount caveat (important at this level too). These figures count dedicated, payroll-paying florists only. They deliberately exclude the supermarket floral aisle, warehouse-club and mass-merchant flower tables, and much of the online gifting channel — even though those channels now sell the majority of stems Americans buy. They also miss the large tail of nonemployer florists (sole proprietors and home-based businesses with no paid staff), which our file does not count. So the ~$10 billion "florist industry" is a shrinking slice of a larger flower economy — broader third-party estimates put U.S. floral gifting near $12.2 billion in 2024, growing to roughly $16.8 billion by 2030.[6] Read the ownership and undercount detail in the 459310 primer, Section 3.

4. Where value concentrates across the children

With only one child, there is no cross-child allocation to make: 100% of this level's receipts sit in 459310. Within that single industry, value concentrates in a few places rather than being spread evenly across the ~12,000 shops:

• A small top tier of national brands and order networks — 1-800-Flowers/BloomNet, Teleflora, FTD, and online-delivery startups — captures the roughly 31% of receipts reflected in CR4.[2]
• Event and sympathy work (weddings and funerals) anchors the profitability of many independents.
• Customer ownership and delivery density — repeat customers and tight local delivery routes — matter more to shop-level economics than national flower demand does.

The one meaningful U.S.-listed play centered on flowers is 1-800-Flowers.com (Nasdaq: FLWS); the rest of the concentrated value is held privately (Teleflora under The Wonderful Company, FTD under Nexus Capital) or by venture-backed platforms. Full investable-universe detail — public tickers, private owners, and platforms — is in the 459310 primer, Section 4.

5. How the money works

Florist economics are specialty retail with a perishable, hand-assembled product: high gross markups on flowers (often 60%+ over wholesale) offset by spoilage, skilled designer labor, and delivery costs, which compress net margins to thin single-to-low-double digits. Revenue is extremely seasonal — Valentine's Day and Mother's Day together drive close to 40% of annual purchases at leading florists, and Mother's Day is often the single biggest day of the year.[9] A defining feature is the wire-service model, in which order-gathering networks (FTD, Teleflora, BloomNet) relay out-of-town orders to a local "filling" florist and take roughly 25–30% combined.[13] Because this level is identical to its child, the full treatment — unit economics, product mix, peak-day pricing, and the operating metrics that matter — is in the 459310 primer, Section 5.

6. Demand drivers

Demand is occasion- and ritual-driven, not everyday: Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, weddings, funerals/sympathy, anniversaries, and "just because" gifting.[9] That makes the category emotionally resilient in downturns but concentrated on a few dates and sensitive to consumer confidence and delivery convenience. See the 459310 primer, Section 6, for the holiday-by-holiday figures and channel-shift dynamics.

7. Regulation

Florists are lightly regulated as retailers. The notable points, all covered in the 459310 primer (Section 7): Louisiana was the only state to license retail florists and removed its mandatory exam in 2024;[17] imported cut flowers are subject to USDA APHIS plant-inspection rules and U.S. Customs processing;[16] trade/tariff policy directly moves input costs (a 10% tariff on Colombian flowers took effect in April 2025);[15] and general FTC mail-order, FTC Funeral Rule, and Fair Labor Standards Act rules apply as they do to any retailer. There is no flower-specific federal regulator of retail florists.

8. Consolidation

The dominant dynamic for 30+ years is share loss from dedicated florists to supermarkets, mass merchants, and online gifting; storefront counts have more than halved since the 1990s, and floral-designer employment is projected to decline about 6% from 2024 to 2034.[7][12] The top-heavy-but-fragmented structure (CR4 ≈ 31%, CR50 < 40%)[2] is a classic setup for roll-ups of small local shops and platform aggregation by marketplaces. FTD's 2019 bankruptcy and sale to private equity was the emblematic shakeout; BloomNation's 2025 acquisition of Floom shows consolidation concentrating in technology, procurement, and delivery rather than in fleets of identical stores.[16][12] Full detail in the 459310 primer, Section 8.

9. Risks

The main risks apply identically at this level (see 459310, Section 9): structural channel erosion as everyday buyers drift to cheaper channels;[12] import concentration and supply-chain fragility (roughly 60% of U.S. import value from Colombia, ~25% from Ecuador, ~90% entering via Miami);[15] trade and tariff risk on thin margins; seasonality and perishability (inventory and labor committed before peak demand is known); execution and service risk on the two days that make the year; platform dependence; and, for the one listed play, company-specific risk (FLWS is a micro-cap, founder-controlled turnaround that posted a ~$200 million net loss in FY2025).[13] Finally, a data limitation worth repeating: employer-based federal statistics can make the industry look smaller and more concentrated than the full operating universe.

10. How to invest and outlook

Public-market routes are thin: essentially just 1-800-Flowers.com (FLWS) as a direct play — a micro-cap, founder-controlled, no-dividend turnaround that is part flowers and part broader gourmet gifting — plus indirect exposure through grocers, mass retailers, delivery/marketplace platforms, and, upstream, floriculture growers and importers.[13][15] Private-market routes are where most of the real activity is: buying or building a shop, small local roll-ups of the ~12,000 sub-$9M-revenue independents, and venture/growth positions in online-delivery challengers and florist software/marketplaces.[2][4]

Outlook: a flat-to-slightly-declining florist channel inside a flat-to-growing total flower economy, with growth accruing mostly to grocery, mass, and online channels rather than to traditional shops.[6] The swing factors to watch are trade/tariff policy, consumer discretionary strength into the Valentine's/Mother's Day peaks, delivery-platform economics, and whether roll-ups and marketplaces can profitably aggregate a famously fragmented, thin-margin base. For the full how-to-invest playbook and forward view, see the 459310 primer, Section 10.

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This is a rollup page. NAICS 45931 contains one child, 459310, and is economically identical to it. For complete detail on every section above, read the [459310 Florists primer].

Sources

Sources are drawn from the child (459310) primer; numbering is kept consistent with it.

1. U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns (2023) — NAICS 459310, Florists (establishments, employment, payroll). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
2. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 Economic Census — Concentration and Comparative Statistics, NAICS 459310 Florists (firms, receipts, CR4/CR8/CR20/CR50; HHI suppressed). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
3. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 NAICS Definition — 459310 Florists (scope; migration from 453110). https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=459310&input=459310&year=2022
4. U.S. Small Business Administration. Table of Small Business Size Standards — NAICS 459310 ($9.0 million). 2023. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
5. Arizton Advisory & Intelligence. U.S. Floral Gifting Market 2025–2030 ($12.18B in 2024 → $16.81B by 2030). 2025. https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/floral-gifting-market-in-united-states-2025
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook — Floral Designers (−6% employment 2024–34). https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/floral-designers.htm
7. Society of American Florists / Bloomberg Second Measure. Mother's Day floral statistics (Valentine's + Mother's ≈ 40% of purchases). https://safnow.org/aboutflowers/holidays-occasions/mothers-day/mothers-day-floral-statistics/
8. Living Flowers / Breakwater M&A. Florist storefront decline (~27,000 in 1992 → ~14,000 in 2012 → <12,000 today). https://www.livingflowers.com/florist-shops-are-closing-how-to-understand-the-trend-and-succeed-in-the-new-world/
9. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2025 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results ($1.69B revenue; ~$200.0M net loss). Businesswire, 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250904202543/en/1-800-FLOWERS.COM-Inc.-Reports-Fiscal-2025-Fourth-Quarter-and-Year-End-Results
10. MatrixBCG / SEC filings. Ownership and control of 1-800-Flowers.com (dual-class; McCann ~77% voting; micro-cap; no dividend). https://matrixbcg.com/blogs/owners/1800flowers
11. CNBC. Flower delivery company FTD files for bankruptcy (2019 Chapter 11). https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/flower-delivery-company-ftd-files-for-bankruptcy.html
12. BloomNation. BloomNation Acquires Floom (2025 marketplace/platform acquisition). https://www.bloomnation.com/join/newsroom/bloomnation-acquires-floom-us/
13. Hana Florist POS / Little Bird Bloom. Floral wire services and order gatherers explained (commission and transmission-fee mechanics). https://www.hanafloristpos.com/blog/what-are-floral-wire-service/
14. RetailOwner.com / ValuAdder. Florist benchmarks and flower-shop valuation (typical shop ~$200K–$250K annual sales). https://retailowner.com/Benchmarks/Other-Specialty-Retail-Stores/Florists
15. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service / WLRN. Colombian flowers and the U.S. market; 2025 tariffs. https://www.wlrn.org/business/2025-01-26/trump-trade-tariffs
16. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. How To Import Plants and Plant Products into the United States. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-imports/how-to-import
17. Reason / R Street Institute / Institute for Justice. Louisiana florist licensing and its 2024 reform. https://reason.com/2024/05/30/louisiana-finally-fixes-americas-dumbest-licensing-requirement/