Following on from last week's blog, it was interesting to hear some views from readers about how the season is panning out.

Clearly it has been up and down for many, with the domestic side of things being particularly strange according to some accounts. Hopefully this warm weekend, following on from all that rain, should at least mean the grass is in full flow now.

One comment received last week, also made reference to how domestic sales are still being adversely affected by online retailers operating at an unfair advantage when to comes to price discounting. This is obviously an issue which isn't going away anytime soon.

Perhaps an indication that all isn't super rosy for those operating in the purely online sector though, came this week with the publication of the latest statistics from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.

The stats from the body who track online sales described the month of May as "the worst recorded growth since the e-Retail Sales Index started" - with a way below average growth of just +1.9% year-on-year. The analysts put this down to the poor weather and no Royal Wedding or World Cup, compared to the same period last year - but is there more to it?

Might it give an indication that for some consumers, for some products, online isn't as appealing as it once was? Are savvy consumers coming back around to the more traditional concepts of customer service and retailers with expertise? We can but hope!

In fact something dropped into my inbox this week, from an unexpected source, which might give garden machinery retailers another excuse to feel optimistic about the state of the market.

Bizarrely I received a press release from the major online electrical goods retailer, AO.com. Surprisingly, I found some of its content actually quite interesting!

It appears that the company has run a survey, I'm guessing amongst their own customers on their own website, canvassing opinions on lawn care. According to their poll, which they say comprised of 2,000 people, they assert that "32% of Brits claim they don’t know how to cut the grass in their garden properly".

They also claim that "more than half (52%) of Brits aspire to create football pitch stripes on their own garden lawn but have no idea how to go about it."

Finally they say their research told them that "lawn envy is on the increase" with people wanting their "lawn to look good for their Instagram (19%) or to keep up with their neighbours (42%)."

Now how reliable this information is, I am unable to attest to. However, if we give them the benefit of the doubt, at an anecdotal level I think all the claims are pretty positive from the point of view of a specialist outdoor powered machinery dealer.

Let's presume there is this lack of lawn care knowledge out there amongst the general public and alongside this a desire to learn more. Not only that, but a desire also to actually improve the quality of their garden surfaces.

If that's truly the case, who could be in the ideal position to fulfil this desire by providing specialist tools with expert knowledge aplenty?!

Getting your name known locally as the go-to lawn-care gurus is now entirely achievable due the buzz you can generate via your social media channels. With this warm weather hopefully encouraging people to get out into their gardens, make sure you are doing all you can to shout about the amazing service and advice you can offer.

Let's be positive and take this survey at face value. If more than half the population is after a football pitch surface in their back garden, that's a huge customer base to aim at. And one which is going to require machines more sophisticated than they can purchase on AO.com.