E-Commerce Connect for Garden Centers Expands into Canada: LaPorte’s Nursery and Landscape Direct Lead the Way
- Apr 19
- 3 min read
E-Commerce Connect for Garden Centers is expanding into Canada, marking a major step forward for independent garden centers looking to sell plants online through our proven dropshipping program.
With the addition of LaPorte's Nursery as the first Canadian retailer in the network, and Landscape Direct as the Canadian fulfillment partner, E-Commerce Connect built for garden centers is now operating across country borders—connecting suppliers and retailers in a way that reflects how customers already shop today.
(Meet the owners of Landscape Direct, Evan, Blake and Conner.)
LaPorte’s Nursery represents what many independent garden centers are facing right now. Strong in-store business, loyal customers, and deep local roots—but increasing demand from customers who expect to browse and buy plants online with delivery to their home. Until now, meeting that demand required added inventory, added labor, and operational complexity that didn’t always make sense.
Through E-Commerce Connect for Garden Centers, LaPorte’s can now sell plants online without carrying the inventory. By leveraging a dropshipping model built specifically for garden centers, they can offer an expanded catalog of plants and garden products directly on their website, while Landscape Direct fulfills and ships those orders to the end customer.
The garden center always remains the brand.
The customer shops their website, completes their purchase, and receives communication directly from LaPorte’s. Behind the scenes, E-Commerce Connect moves data between our middleware directly to Landscape Direct who then handles the fulfillment, allowing the garden center to extend its product offering without adding operational strain.
For Canadian garden centers, this opens the door to something that has been difficult to execute—selling plants online at scale without taking on the risk of unsold inventory or the complexity of shipping logistics.
For suppliers like Landscape Direct, it creates a direct connection to a growing network of independent garden centers actively selling online. They now have a channel that extends their reach into e-commerce, powered by retailers who are already trusted in their local markets.
This is exactly what E-Commerce Connect for Garden Centers was built to do—create e-commerce infrastructure for independent garden centers that supports both retailers and suppliers. The program allows garden centers to choose their own platform (Shopify or WooCommerce), choose their suppliers, and choose the products they want to sell, all while maintaining control of their brand and customer experience.
The expansion into Canada signals something bigger.
The demand for buying plants online isn’t limited to one region, and the challenges around inventory, fulfillment, and logistics aren’t either. E-Commerce Connect is growing because it solves those challenges in a way that fits how garden centers actually operate.
Search behavior already shows this. Customers are actively looking for ways to buy and (support local) from garden centers, not just large national retailers. Independent garden centers have the trust and the brand—what they’ve needed is the infrastructure to support online sales without disrupting their core business.
That’s where E-Commerce Connect built for garden centers continues to gain traction.
LaPorte’s Nursery is the first Canadian garden center to join our program in Canada, but with Landscape Direct supporting fulfillment across the country, the foundation is now in place for more Canadian garden centers to follow.
The growth is happening because the infrastructure and the program works. Garden centers can now extend their reach, capture online demand, and sell beyond their physical footprint—all without adding the traditional burdens of e-commerce management.
And now, that opportunity isn’t limited to the U.S.
