Answer Every Plant Question Before They Drive to the Big Box
Your customers come to you because you know plants. Your website shows photos and prices. Mika puts your growing knowledge into every conversation so customers buy the right plant the first time.
Plants die when people buy the wrong ones. Every dead plant is a customer who blames your store and does not come back.
The Garden Centers & Nurseries Website Problem
Growing Zone Confusion Kills Sales and Plants
A customer wants a Japanese maple but lives in Zone 5. Your website lists it without context. They buy it, plant it, and it dies in the first winter. They blame your store. A 30-second conversation about hardiness zones would have steered them to a better choice.
Seasonal Timing Questions Need Expert Answers
'When should I plant tomatoes?' depends entirely on your region's last frost date. 'Can I still plant bulbs in November?' depends on where they live. Your website cannot answer location-specific timing questions, but these are the questions that drive spring and fall traffic.
Landscape Project Customers Need Consultation, Not a Product Page
A homeowner wants to redo their front yard with native plants. They need to discuss sun exposure, soil type, deer resistance, and budget. A product catalog cannot have that conversation. These are your highest-value customers, and your website gives them the same experience as someone buying a single pot of herbs.
Pest and Disease Questions Are Urgent
A customer notices spots on their tomato leaves or holes in their hostas. They need an answer now, not in two days. If your store cannot help immediately, they drive to the big-box store's garden section and buy whatever the employee points at.
What Mika Does for Garden Centers & Nurseries
Every feature is designed for how garden centers & nurseries customers actually shop and buy.
Growing Zone Guidance
Configure your region's hardiness zones in the knowledge base. Mika checks plant hardiness against the customer's zone and warns them if a plant will not survive their winters. Better to lose a sale than lose a customer.
Seasonal Planting Calendar
Add your region's planting calendar to the knowledge base. Mika tells customers when to plant vegetables, when to divide perennials, and when to start seeds indoors based on your local growing season.
Sun and Soil Matching
Mika asks about the planting location: full sun, partial shade, or full shade? Clay soil, sandy, or loamy? It recommends plants from your inventory that will thrive in those specific conditions.
Landscape Consultation Booking
For customers planning larger projects, Mika captures the details (yard size, style preference, sun exposure, budget range) and books a consultation. Your landscape team gets a brief before they even call the customer back.
Pest and Disease Identification Help
Mika shares common pest and disease identification info from your knowledge base. 'Yellow leaves with brown spots on tomatoes could be early blight. We carry copper fungicide that can help.' It does not diagnose, but it guides customers to the right product.
Care Instructions After Purchase
Mika shares watering schedules, fertilizing timing, and pruning guidance from your knowledge base. Customers who keep their plants alive come back to buy more. It is the simplest customer retention strategy in garden retail.
Real Questions Your Customers Ask
These conversations happen on garden centers & nurseries websites every day. Without Mika, every one ends with the customer leaving.
"I want to plant a privacy hedge, what grows fast in full sun?"
Project-based question with specific requirements. Mika asks about the desired height, length of the hedge, and their hardiness zone. It recommends fast-growing options from your inventory like arborvitae or privet with spacing guidance.
"My hydrangeas are not blooming this year, what am I doing wrong?"
Plant care question that builds trust. Mika shares common reasons for hydrangea bloom failure from your knowledge base (pruning at wrong time, wrong soil pH, too much shade) and recommends products like soil acidifier if relevant.
"I am in Zone 6, can I grow a fig tree outside?"
Hardiness zone question. Mika checks fig tree cold tolerance against Zone 6 conditions and shares overwintering tips from your knowledge base. It can recommend cold-hardy fig varieties you carry.
"Something is eating my hostas, what should I use?"
Urgent pest question. Mika asks about the type of damage (holes, slime trails, chewing) and suggests likely culprits from your knowledge base. It recommends specific pest control products from your catalog.
"I want to start a vegetable garden but I have never grown anything before"
Beginner customer who needs a complete plan. Mika asks about space, sun, and what they want to grow. It builds a starter list from your catalog: soil, containers or raised bed supplies, easy vegetables, and basic tools.
"We want to landscape our new home with native plants, can we set up a consultation?"
High-value landscape project. Mika captures yard details, sun exposure, style preferences, and budget range, then books a consultation. Your landscape team walks in prepared with plant suggestions ready.
Conversations Informed by Psychology Research
Mika is not a generic chatbot with your product list attached. Every conversation is informed by psychology research on how people make purchasing decisions, continuously refined to guide shoppers from browsing to buying without ever feeling pushy.
Reads Shopper Intent
Mika identifies whether a visitor is browsing casually, searching for something specific, or ready to buy. Each conversation adapts to where the shopper is in their decision process.
Builds Trust Naturally
Shoppers buy from businesses they trust. Mika builds trust through helpful, honest recommendations instead of aggressive sales tactics. Visitors never feel sold to, they feel guided.
Guides to Action
Every conversation has a natural arc that moves shoppers from curiosity to commitment. Whether the action is sharing contact info, booking an appointment, or visiting your store, Mika creates a path that feels organic.
Mika's conversation strategy is developed with psychology research and continuously refined. Visitors interact with an AI that feels genuinely helpful, not a script disguised as conversation.
Garden Centers & Nurseries: Before and After Mika
The same customers, the same questions, completely different outcomes.
Garden Centers Win When Customers Keep Their Plants Alive
The independent garden center's biggest advantage is expertise. Your staff knows that impatiens need shade, that clay soil needs amending, and that the customer should wait until mid-May to plant peppers in Zone 6. That knowledge is the reason someone drives past Home Depot to visit your nursery. But on your website, that knowledge is invisible.
Most garden center websites are photo galleries with prices. The customer who visits at 8pm with a question about their dying tomato plant sees a product grid and a phone number. The phone goes to voicemail. The customer Googles the answer, finds a Reddit thread, and orders the recommended product from Amazon. Your store had the product on the shelf and the expertise to recommend it. Nobody was there to say so.
Mika puts your growing expertise into every conversation on your website. It answers planting questions with your regional calendar. It matches plants to growing conditions. It captures landscape project details that make your consultations productive from the first minute. The customer who chats with Mika feels like they talked to your most knowledgeable staff member, even at 9pm on a Tuesday.
Retail Pricing
Plans built for retail stores with product catalogs. AI product search with photo cards, lead capture, and appointment booking included.
Starter
For stores getting started with product search in chat.
- ✓~100 conversations/month
- ✓Up to 500 SKUs
- ✓Product search in chat
- ✓Product cards with photos
- ✓Lead capture + email alerts
- ✓8 languages
Core
For growing stores with larger catalogs.
- ✓~250 conversations/month
- ✓Up to 2,000 SKUs
- ✓Everything in Starter
- ✓5 team members
- ✓Staff booking + waitlist
- ✓Custom brand colors
- ✓Auto follow-ups
Pro
For large catalogs and high-volume stores.
- ✓Unlimited conversations
- ✓Unlimited SKUs
- ✓Everything in Core
- ✓25 team members
- ✓Multiple locations
- ✓Full widget customization
- ✓Priority support
*Conversation estimates based on average usage. Actual capacity depends on conversation length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Mika identify plants or diseases from photos?
Mika is a text-based chat assistant. It cannot analyze photos. However, it can help identify issues based on descriptions: 'yellow leaves with brown edges on my tomatoes' or 'white powder on my rose leaves.' It uses your knowledge base content to suggest likely causes and solutions.
How does Mika know about my local growing conditions?
You configure your regional information in the knowledge base: hardiness zone, average frost dates, local soil conditions, common pests, and seasonal planting windows. Mika uses this info to give region-specific advice. A garden center in New Jersey and one in Texas will have completely different knowledge bases.
Will Mika tell customers to use chemicals I do not sell?
No. Mika only recommends products from your catalog and information from your knowledge base. If you are an organic garden center, configure that in your knowledge base and Mika will only suggest organic solutions.
Can Mika handle questions about indoor plants too?
Yes. If your catalog includes houseplants, Mika recommends them based on light conditions, watering needs, and pet safety. 'I need a low-light plant that is safe for cats' gets a filtered recommendation from your inventory.
How does Mika handle seasonal inventory changes?
Update your product catalog through the dashboard as seasons change. Remove spring annuals when they sell out, add fall mums when they arrive. Mika always references your current catalog, so it never recommends plants you do not have in stock.
Can Mika book landscape design consultations?
Yes. Mika has built-in appointment booking. It captures project details (yard size, sun exposure, style, budget) and books the consultation. Both you and the customer receive a calendar invite with the project brief included.
Explore More Retail Solutions
Mika adapts to every type of retail business.
Flower Shops
Most flower shop websites show arrangements in a grid and hope someone calls. Mika asks what the occasion is, what they like, and what they need it by. That conversation is the difference between a bounce and a sale.
Learn moreSalons & Spas
New clients check your website before they call. If your site cannot answer their questions or book an appointment right now, they move on to the salon that can. Mika handles both while you focus on the client in your chair.
Learn moreJewelry Stores
Jewelry purchases involve trust, education, and emotion. A product grid with prices does not build any of those. Mika has the conversation that turns a browser into someone who walks through your door ready to buy.
Learn morePut Your Growing Expertise on Your Website
Your knowledge keeps plants alive and customers coming back. Let Mika share it 24/7.
You Paid for This Traffic. Make It Count.
Every visitor that bounces is ad spend wasted. Mika turns your existing traffic into leads and revenue. Plug and play. Live in 5 minutes.