Mobile Payments, Digital Tech Giving Real Christmas Trees New Edge

With Christmas now concluded for another year, and the tree in the parlor facing either disassembly and storage or an outright eviction from the house, the issue of whether or not to get a real or fake tree was likely on a lot of minds this year. There are a lot of advantages to a fake tree—like only having to buy one once and then being able to enjoy it for years as opposed to the one-and-done of real—but real vendors are fighting back by using digital technology.

Artificial trees have come a long way. Just check out some of those Balsam Hill trees sometime; you’d swear someone took an ax to them at one point. Yet there’s still plenty of preference for the real deal out there. In 2017, for example, consumers bought around 27.4 million real trees, at an average price of $75. Meanwhile, consumers also bought 21.1 million fake trees, at around $107. Given that a fake tree can last several years, this is no small feat.

Yet the live tree market has picked up some new tricks as well. The recent arrival of Amazon Prime shipping for trees will likely put in a big boost. Social media is kicking in, as is traditional advertising. Anyone else see that Ford Escape commercial where they talk about going into the woods and getting a tree? That’s dovetailing nicely with the millennial preference for experiences over things, and finding a Christmas tree in the woods fits. Throw in mobile payments and mobile point-of-sale and the end result is a modernized tree-selling operation.

Basically, the race will only get tighter as both sides improve simultaneously. The millennial preferences will only be valid so long as the greatly-different Gen Z steps up, and with both sides adding value to the process, it’s a safe bet that we won’t see either side exit the market. There’s too much at stake to not.

Admittedly, live trees have the edge here. They need replacing every year while we will reach “peak fake” eventually once everyone who wants one has one and only replacement sales take place. Still, with so much innovation on both sides, it’s a safe bet we’ll keep seeing plenty of action in this market.