Virtual garden centre

The operators of garden centres in the United Kingdom are bringing together their online activities and, since the end of March, have been offering their products on the web at www.theonlinegardener.com. They can select their individual online range from a database of around 14 000 products. Which also means that prices paid by consumers are the same throughout the country. But garden centre operators can also take special regional preferences into account and are still in a position to maintain existing relationships with suppliers, as Steve Easton of The Online Gardener affirms. Any customer wanting to place an order is automatically directed by means of his postcode to the range offered by the nearest garden centre, which will then deliver the items. So far the online service covers 30 per cent of the country. All other areas are supplied through a normal mail order service from the Azure Garden Centre in Cramlington, Northumberland.