--- title: "Assortment for garden centres: the space stays, the season goes | Spreat" description: "Assortment and seasonality in garden centres: why the off-season is a space problem, which additional range works without tying up capital - and where the limits are." url: "https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/assortment-for-garden-centres" language: "en" --- [Back](https://spreat.com/en/stories?tag=industry) - Retail & insights # Assortment for garden centres: the space stays, the season goes From November to February the same space stands there that makes the turnover in May. What sits on it in those months decides a quarter of the year. 16 December 2025 Translated from German [Read the original version](https://spreat.com/stories/industry/sortiment-gartencenter) ![A year in which the space stays the same and the turnover does not](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/sortiment-gartencenter/cover-en-800.webp) A garden centre has a problem no other retailer knows in quite this form: the space is as large in January as in May, so is the rent, and the turnover is not. Anyone wanting to fill the off-season has to buy for it in autumn - exactly when the money from the main season is already sitting in spring stock. ## The off-season is a space problem, not a demand problem People come in winter too, they just buy something else: decorations, gifts, candles, bird food, tools, ceramics. Those are categories a garden centre could carry and often does not - because they are a three-month bet paid for in September. What a metre of that space has to earn does not change in the meantime. The maths is in [what a square metre of retail space has to earn](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/what-a-square-metre-must-earn). ## What changes when the seasonal goods are not yours If the goods stay the brand's until they sell, the winter space costs nothing up front in September. What is left in February goes back instead of into the sale - and in a seasonal business the sale is the real loss, not the slow seller. In practice: you can try three categories instead of one, because an attempt costs space and not capital. What a single misjudgement costs otherwise is in [what a bad buy really costs](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/what-a-bad-buy-costs). ## Three limits we know about - **Plants are not the case.** Living goods need care, have no shelf life in the usual sense and cannot simply be boxed up and sent back. This is about the dry range beside them. - **Outdoor space is harder than indoor.** Goods belonging to the maker should not stand unprotected in the rain. If you do not want to settle responsibility for weather damage, start inside. - **The season sets the term.** There is no minimum term: Christmas decorations stand from November to January and go back afterwards, and a three-week promotion works the same way. Whatever is left after the season goes back to the brand - you pay for the return, not for the leftovers. No. Living goods need care and cannot sensibly be sent back. The model targets the dry range: decorations, gifts, ceramics, tools, accessories. Anything people come for anyway and that keeps - Christmas decorations, candles, bird food, regional gifts, home accessories. Footfall is lower in winter, but it is not zero. Possible, but weather damage has to be settled first. If you do not want that in a contract, start with the covered area - there the question does not arise. Especially there. The more square metres stand idle over winter, the bigger the difference between an empty space and one that cost nothing. Work out your winter space. Commission per product, per month and per year - with your numbers. [To the store calculator](https://spreat.com/en/stores/pricing) Written by [Mattis Klöpperon LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattis-kloepper/) Co-founder and managing director Share this article ## More stories - [![Weeks instead of months into physical retail, and what a brand's risk really costs](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/schnellster-weg-in-den-einzelhandel/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## The fastest route into physical retail - and what it really costs a brand With Spreat, the brand carries the stock risk. That is true. But how big it is can be put in euros - and set against the routes where the retailer takes on the risk and gets paid for it. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/fastest-route-into-retail) - [![Four steps instead of buying stock: how much work the brands' goods take in a store](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/aufwand-fremde-ware-im-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## How much work the brands' goods take in a store Space, staff time, return shipping: the brands' goods do not come for free. Here is what a store really does for them - and which work falls away in return. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/work-brand-goods-in-store) - [![Eight questions from Reddit and forums on consignment, commission and stock without buying it](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/reddit-fragen-kommission-marktplatz-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## The marketplace in the store: what retailers and brands ask on Reddit and in forums Eight questions about consignment, commission and stock without buying it, as they appear on Reddit, in German seller forums and on gutefrage - with the community's answers and what Spreat made of them. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/reddit-questions-consignment-in-store-marketplace) ## And how about you? Store or brand - the way in is a different one. Tell us which side you are coming from. [I have a store](https://spreat.com/en/stores) [I have a brand](https://spreat.com/en/brands)