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Digital Catalogs Extend Pflanzen-Kölle’s Inspirational Garden-Center Experience

Location: Germany
Industry: Garden, Floristry & Home Living Retail
Website: https://www.pflanzen-koelle.de/

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“Publitas helps us translate the emotional atmosphere of our garden centers into a digital experience. With interactive, mobile-first catalogs, we can inspire customers on their phones, tablets, or desktops and keep them engaged long after their store visit.”

— Koray Altintas, Head of Marketing, Pflanzen-Kölle

About Pflanzen-Kölle

Pflanzen-Kölle is one of Germany’s most iconic garden-center brands, with more than 200 years of family history, 13 large garden centers, two production nurseries, and a growing online shop. Known for its deep plant expertise, high product quality, and sensory in-store experiences, the company attracts customers seeking inspiration rather than just products.

As consumer journeys increasingly start online, Pflanzen-Kölle looked for a way to bring its unique in-store atmosphere (colors, scents, ideas, moments of inspiration) into digital channels. Publitas’ mobile-first digital catalogs provided exactly that: an interactive, engaging, and measurable way to inspire shoppers across all devices.

The Challenge: Translating Emotion Into Digital

A visit to a Pflanzen-Kölle store is an experience. Customers wander, explore, discover, and imagine how plants, décor, and accessories will transform their homes.

But online, this inspirational journey wasn’t quite as powerful:

  • Flat images don’t create the same multi-sensory experience
  • It’s harder to tell a story with static images
  • It’s harder to direct customers to take action
  • With PDFs, there’s not a lot of data

To stay relevant and meet modern customer expectations, Pflanzen-Kölle needed a digital format that could capture attention, spark emotion, and support measurable engagement.

“Without emotional storytelling, digital flyers become functional but uninspiring. We wanted a format that brings our brand values of inspiration, atmosphere, and quality to life online.”

— Koray Altintas, Head of Marketing, Pflanzen-Kölle

The Solution: Publitas Digital Catalogs With Rich-Media Storytelling

Pflanzen-Kölle adopted Publitas to create responsive, mobile-first digital catalogs that feel as immersive as their garden centers.

Key capabilities include:

  • Responsive digital catalogs that adapt across devices
  • Product hotspots that connect inspiration directly to action
  • Motion content and animated covers that increase opens and clicks
  • Integrated WhatsApp subscriptions to grow the community
  • Seasonal guides, recipes, and lifestyle content
  • Data insights such as reading time, CTR, bounce rates, and page performance

Data-Driven Performance

Pflanzen-Kölle’s digital catalogs significantly outperform industry benchmarks:

  • 74.9% read rate: more than double the DIY and Home & Living benchmark*
  • Animated catalog covers drive up to 50% more opens
  • Animated catalogs achieve:
  • 167% higher click rate
  • 75% lower bounce rate
  • 7% more page views
  • 3% longer reading time

*Publitas Internal Benchmarking Data

These results confirm that rich-media storytelling increases attention, engagement, and user retention.

Aligning with Key Retail Trends

Pflanzen-Kölle’s digital strategy strongly aligns with 2025’s most important retail drivers:

1. Inspiration & Emotion

Digital catalogs bring the garden-center experience to any device.

2. Attention Economy

With attention spans down to 8 seconds, motion and interactivity help win focus — and drive sales (+10% focus = +17% revenue, McKinsey).

3. Omnichannel Behavior

Customers move seamlessly between digital touchpoints and physical stores.

4. Measurability

Publitas enables detailed insight into opens, clicks, reads, and customer behavior.

Results: Strong Engagement & a Continuous Inspiration Loop

By integrating Publitas catalogs across channels, Pflanzen-Kölle has:

  • Strengthened customer engagement with interactive content
  • Achieved exceptional reading time and click performance
  • Reduced bounce rates significantly
  • Built a digital experience that mirrors in-store inspiration
  • Connected inspiration directly to action (product links, WhatsApp, guides)

Conclusion: From a Garden Center to a Digital Destination

Pflanzen-Kölle has evolved its communication strategy from traditional print to a fully measurable and inspirational digital model. With Publitas, the brand successfully bridges the gap between offline and online experiences, positioning digital catalogs as a strategic channel for engagement, discovery, and commerce.

“With Publitas, our digital publications have become growth drivers delivering inspiration, interaction, and measurable results.”

— Koray Altintas, Head of Marketing, Pflanzen-Kölle

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