Our annual Observatory dedicated to the “Google reputation” of Italian garden centers is back. This year, the good reputation of our garden centers is confirmed again, with a national average rating of 4.49 stars. The results for stores in central and southern Italy are excellent.

Google Business Profiles, previously known as Google My Business, are useful for retailers to provide specific information to potential customers, such as opening hours, address, or website, both from the search engine and from applications like Google Maps. At the same time, they are useful for final consumers to read the ratings (in stars) and reviews from other customers, which are – in theory – the result of real purchasing experiences. Market studies tell us that 80% of customers read reviews before choosing a point of sale and 70% consider a profile with few or no reviews to be “suspicious”. A profile with a high number of reviews, that is to say, with greater statistical reliability and a good reputation, for example 5 stars versus 3, can guide a consumer’s choice between two competing stores.

Google itself provides three suggestions for retailers to achieve better results: claim their business profile; personalize it with details (opening hours, correct address, services, exterior and interior photos, etc.); and manage the profile, to update information and respond to reviews, especially negative ones. We would add: do not create two profiles for the same store, as it penalizes the visibility of both.

How and why we record the Google reputation of garden centers

Since 2021, we have launched the Garden Google Reputation Observatory, with three main goals:

• to annually measure the customer satisfaction rate of garden centers, both nationally and in the different regions of Italy;
• to highlight virtuous examples;
• to stimulate the attention of Italian garden centers towards their online reputation.

As we have already had the opportunity to clarify in previous editions, this analysis considers the difficulty of standardizing the star rating expressed by users with the total number of reviews. That is to say, a province (or a store) with a 5-star rating given by 1 user cannot be compared to a 4.9-star rating given by 300 users.

In this edition, we analyzed the Google reputation of 687 Italian garden centers, an increase compared to the 547 analyzed in 2024. In reality, the analysis considers a larger number of stores, but we excluded those that do not have any reviews.

In 2025, garden centers rate 4.49 stars

Despite having increased the panel by 140 stores, the national average rating for garden centres confirmed the same result as last year: on average, Italian garden centres have a rating of 4.49 stars.

This is a highly valuable result, as Google uses a scale of values composed of only 5 stars: Facebook, for example, recently introduced a rating out of one hundred (from 0 to 100), which allows for better profiling of reviews. We indicate a rating with two decimal places (4.49), which is the result of the average among thousands of votes and 687 analysed stores, but users can only express a vote from 1 to 5 stars: this means that to improve an average of 4.49 stars, we can only count on the maximum rating (5). This is far from an easy goal, as it is not uncommon to come across comments such as “excellent store” with a 4-star rating. By doing so, despite the positive review, the 4 stars inevitably lower the average.

Over 230,000 reviews

The 687 garden centers analyzed collected a total of 233,403 reviews, an increase of 25.7% compared to the 2024 survey. This growth does not imply a positive trend but reflects the increase in the number of stores analyzed: up 25.6%, from 547 to 687.

Compared to the sample of 687, few garden centers have collected more than 1,000 reviews: they represent 7%, equal to 52 stores, an increase compared to 44 in 2024. Those that have collected more than 2,000 reviews account for 3%, with 22 stores compared to 19 in 2024.

The national average is 340 reviews per store, identical to that of 2024, but 78% of the points of sale are below this threshold.

80.7% of the total reviews are expressed in the northern regions of Italy, despite representing 67.8% of the sample. They are higher in the North-West (45.9%) where we find 38.4% of the panel’s garden centers; the shops in the North-East, equivalent to 29.4% of the sample, collect 34.8% of the reviews.

Conversely, the regions of Central Italy represent 19.8% of the sample with 13.8% of the reviews (an increase compared to 11.3% in 2024). Meanwhile, the South + Islands area receives 5.5% of the reviews (up from 4.4%) with 12.4% of the shops.

However, it must be said that the shops in the Central and Southern regions recorded the largest increases. Compared to the national average of 340 reviews, we note the peak in the North-East with 403 reviews per shop (down from 416 in 2024), followed by the North-West with 406 (down from 412 in 2024), the Centre with 236 (an increase compared to 219 last year), and the South with 150 reviews (up from 115).

Shifting the focus to individual regions, those that collect the largest number of reviews are Lombardy (78,513, +15%), Veneto (44,937, +18%), Emilia (28,714, +24%), Piedmont (26,743, +40%), and Lazio (14,235, +64%): these are also the only ones that exceed 10,000.

However, the percentages should not be misleading: the regions that collected the most reviews in the last year are Lombardy (10,214), Piedmont (7,694), and Veneto (6,937): together, they collected 52% of the total new reviews.

If, however, we analyze the regional average reviews, compared to the national average of 340 judgments per shop, the performances of Umbria (482), Veneto (463), Lombardy (436), Emilia (416), Piedmont (377), and Sardinia (346) stand out: these are the only regions that exceed the national average.

Reviews: Milan, Verona, and Turin in the top spots

Confirming their top spots in the ranking of cities with the most reviews are Milan (24,788), Verona (15,702), Turin (13,413), and Bergamo (11,624). Rome (10,725, from 9th to 5th place) and Padua (7,472, from 11th to 10th place) performed well.

In the central regions, in addition to Rome, the results for Perugia (2,251), Latina (2,158), and Terni (2,089) stand out. In the South + Islands area, the top spots are held by Sassari (1,926), Lecce (1,580), Cagliari (1,569), and Palermo (1,172): the only ones that exceed the 1,000 review threshold. It’s striking to note that the garden centers in the city of Milan have almost double the number of reviews of the entire South + Islands area: 24,788 versus 12,751.

The cities that gathered the highest number of reviews in the last year are Milan (+4,162), Rome (+3,107), Cuneo (+2,962), and Padua (+2,633).

The most reviewed garden centers on Google

Centro Verde Caravaggio in Bergamo is confirmed once again this year as the most reviewed Italian garden center on Google, with as many as 7,974 reviews (up from 7,347 a year ago).

The result for the Flover chain is excellent, as they occupy the rest of the podium with the Bussolengo (VR) store having 6,325 reviews and Il Villaggio di Natale with 4,200.

In the top 20 we find as many as 5 out of the 10 Viridea garden centers: these are the stores in Rodano (MI) with 3,983 reviews, Arese (MI, 3,464), Cusago (MI, 2,494), Collegno (TO, 2,485) and Rho (MI, 2,197).

The garden centers that have collected the most reviews in the last year are, in order: Flover in Bussolengo, Agricola Legnaia in Florence, Steflor in Paderno Dugnano (MI), and Centro Verde Caravaggio in Bergamo.

Garden centers in central and southern Italy are doing well

As we wrote at the beginning, Italian garden centres have a very high satisfaction rate, with an average of 4.49 stars nationwide, and 62% of the analysed stores, equal to 426 stores, exceed this threshold: an upward trend compared to the 61% of a year ago. 1% boast 5 stars: these are 8 stores, a sharp decrease compared to the 17 of a year ago.

This year again, garden centers in the South + Islands area are the most highly rated, with an average score of 4.61 stars (down from 4.63 a year ago). These are followed by those in Central Italy, with an average of 4.50 stars. Meanwhile, the northern areas are slightly below the national average: the Northeast performed better with 4.48 stars, followed by the Northwest with 4.45 stars.

The regional breakdown highlights the strong performance of garden centers in Apulia, achieving 4.66 stars (an improvement over 4.63 a year prior), and Molise, holding steady at 4.65 stars. These are followed by Campania (which saw a drop from 4.65) and Sicily (stable), both registering 4.60 stars.

In order to compare the cities, we had to select only provinces with at least 10 retail outlets, to prevent the performance of a single location from influencing the result. This year, the garden centers in Naples jump into first place with 4.582 stars, followed by Cuneo (4.558 stars) and Bergamo (4.543).

Among the cities with at least 10 retail outlets, only 5 improved their rating. In order of growth, these are: Como, Udine, Bologna, Verona, and Varese. There are 65 provinces with a rating above the national average; last year, there were 59.

“Star-rated” garden centers

To identify the ‘virtuous’ garden centers from the analysis, we adopted more stringent comparison parameters to group sales points with similar characteristics. As we mentioned, it’s not feasible to compare the performance of a store with 5 stars based on 1 review with one that has 4.5 stars and over 1,000 reviews. While seemingly 5 is better than 4.7, the second result actually has greater statistical reliability and is destined to last over time. In the first case, however, a single user giving 1 star is enough to lower the final rating to 3.

As in previous editions, to be able to compare similar points of sale, we removed from the panel the stores that had gathered fewer reviews than the national average of 340. From a total of 687 stores, we thus moved to a sample of 161 garden centers (up from 128 in 2024). This may seem like a drastic reduction, but it should be noted that these 161 stores collected 175,480 reviews, accounting for 75% of the total ratings. We then divided these 161 garden centers into two groups: those with over 1,000 ratings (52 stores; 44 in 2024) and those below this number (109 stores, compared to 84 last year).

In the “under 1,000” category, Garden Cavinato in San Giorgio delle Pertiche (PD) confirms its first-place position for the fifth consecutive year with 4.8 stars and 801 reviews. It is joined, as it was last year, by Vivaio Roma Garden with 476 reviews and Roagna Vivai in Cuneo.

Following these are 8 garden centers with a rating of 4.7 stars: in order of the number of reviews, they are Sassi Garden in Villa Cella (RE), Cellilli Garden Store in Pomezia (RM), De Antoni Garden in Camisano Vicentino (VI), Garden Center Le Serre in Piobesi Torinese (TO), and Daveli Garden Center in Carmagnola (TO), all of which confirm last year’s result. Dolomiti Garden in Belluno, Primaverde Vivai in Rome, and Fioreria Garden da Penna in Arzergrande (PD) have been added to this group.

In this category (from 340 to 999 reviews), we would like to highlight the reputation improvements over the last year for (in alphabetical order): Ciceri Garden in Albavilla (CO), Fioreria Garden da Penna, Floral Garden in Palermo, Maxi Garden in Osimo (AN), Roagna Vivai, Sebino Garden Center in Provaglio d’Iseo (BS), and Vivai Le Georgiche in Calvisano (BS).

In the “over 1,000” category, we find Savini Vivai of Cotignola (RA) in first place with 4.8 stars and 1,318 reviews. Following are Scarpellini Garden Center of Cesena and Il Mulino dei Fiori of Lozzolo (VC) with 4.7 stars. Then, with 4.6 stars, there are some confirmations from last year. In order of number of reviews, these are: A&A Mazzini Garden of Reggio Emilia, Flordenny of Granarolo dell’Emilia (BO), Rosaflor Garden Center of Vicenza, and Garden Bulzaga of Faenza (RA).

In the “over 1,000” category, only Giardineria of Olgiate Olona (VA) improved its reputation on Google.

Why an Observatory on the “Google reputation” of garden centers?

The Garden Google Reputation Observatory, dedicated to the reviews expressed by users on the Google Business Profiles, was created in June 2021. Each year, it monitors a panel of Italian garden centers.

The purpose of the analysis is to measure the evolution of the satisfaction index for Italian garden centers, identifying trends and strategies useful to all our readers.

This year, the analysis considered 687 garden centers. This number is constantly increasing, as our goal is to catalogue all of them.