1800 bloomlink members

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

ShaneS

New Member
Apr 26, 2003
33
0
0
Nampa, id
Visit site
Valentine's Day Early Delivery Incentive This Valentineýs Day, 1800flowers.com will be implementing an Early Delivery Program to encourage customers to place their orders for delivery between Monday, February 9th and Thursday, February 12th. Our desire in offering this Program is to maximize the utilization of these early delivery dates so as to increase our
Valentineýs Day delivery capacity and in turn generate more sales and increased revenue. The Program will focus on a select group of our products whose retail price exceeds $50.00 and will be available for purchase by customers at a discount of 20% off the advertised merchandise value. In the coming days we will announce the products involved in the Program. In the past,
most discounts offered to our customers have been absorbed entirely by 1800flowers.com. In order for us to remain competitive in the marketplace, we are asking our BloomNet members to share in the cost of this incentive by absorbing one-half of this discount. Please contact your BBC with any questions.

Just an FYI for any BLM buddies and thier thoughts on this.

Shane
 
Soooo....

Not Blm Link here as ya know... but I take it they are asking you to discount it another 10%, thus to 63%... do I understand that right....

If they get away with this, whos next...

Tis the KILLING of the RETAIL Florist BIZ !

F*** THEM !

Oppps... forgot, does not effect me, or does it in the loooong run ?
 
It effects all in this industry Birthday Boy! DEVALUATION into anything we try to DOO.

You and I can grow some Mean Pinnconning if ya know what I mean and never have to have a Cooler or OVERHEAD or Employees but how could we keep ourselves alert during the Harvest?. LOL! Bloomz?.......
 
I'll ROLL UP the MIDNIGHT shift Mikey!

Ain't got nothing better to doo than count SEEDS.

I LOVE ACCOUNTING!:bloomz:
 
Re: Soooo....

Originally posted by BOSS
Not Blm Link here as ya know... but I take it they are asking you to discount it another 10%, thus to 63%... do I understand that right....

If they get away with this, whos next...

Tis the KILLING of the RETAIL Florist BIZ !

F*** THEM !

Oppps... forgot, does not effect me, or does it in the loooong run ?
Click to expand...

Their cut is 30%.

I guess they are saying that if they sell a $50 floral arrangement for $40, they used to still give the florist $35. Now they want the florist to take only $31.50.

I think the quality of the arrangements produced under their name will go down proportionately. Again, the consumer is the one getting hurt. I'm sure the fulfillment centers are not going to fill the order the same way. Worse yet, they probably won't know which orders are discounted and which ones are not, so they probably cut back on ALL the orders from 800-Flowers. Big mistake in my opinion.
If this trend continues, in a few years most people will not be sending flowers as a gift.
 
Shane, are you a bloomlink filler? If so did they send this message to you direct? That took balls if they did.
So glad I talked the powers that be here to drop bloomlink about 3 months ago. We heard through the grapvine that another local struggling florist was thrilled to be getting the orders now. LOL!
 
Re: Re: Soooo....

Originally posted by George Simon
Their cut is 30%.

If this trend continues, in a few years most people will not be sending flowers as a gift.
Click to expand...

I have sent an inquiry regarding the "promotion", and will post once answer is recieved.

THing I see, is that 800's volume continues to grow, despite the fact that they have the highest cut in the biz where florists are concerned. And if not florists, the LFC's at the least.

LFC's if I have my numbers right, are TAXed the same as RealFLorists at the 27%, but also an additional 2% advertising TAX on top of that thus realizing only 71% overall.

I would imagine this "promotion" is MANDATORY for the LFC's as their intire order volume is dependant on the corperate offices of 800.

I do wonder if this would apply to orders from other BloomLink (regular florists) members going into the LFCs? If so, how do they then apply the additional 10% cut and who does it go to. Don;t see how this part could/would work.

Regarding 800 and the devaluation of the product, seems that their customers (since they are growing volume) don;t have a problem with their fulfillment side, and the product as delivered. If they did, they would not continue to grow as they are.

Look for more LFC's to open this year, as their business model shows, that if they can cover xxx area of the country in this manner, thus funneling the majority of their orders into the larger metro areas, and into the LFC's they remove the RealFlorist (complainers) from their model, and only use/need them in rural areas of the country.

Remember, 800 belongs to TFTD so coverage is not an issue, and they can continue to grow their model. Buying whole farm production, contracting containers, and being built on a model designed to get the most out of production durring bizzy times, and simply hibernating when theres nothing to do.

Employees are hired, with the knowledge that it will be slow in J-J-A and picking up in September.

Also, the fact that they have generally one or two LFC's per MAJOR Metro area, insures that they are able to keep the LFC's somewhat bizzy year around and orders first go to the LFC's then to the regular members. Thus eliminating the need for members in any area covered by an LFC again making ANY order completed in this manor a total "company order" from order taking to fulfillment.

And here too, 800 has seen that if they stock those GIFT items at the LFC level, they can offer same day delivery of candy, candles, and whatever they chose to put on the web or into those CC statements, and beating ANY OTHER web operator by ELIMINATING Fed/Ex from the mix, and moving HARD GOODS INTO THE SAME DAY DELIVERY ARENA !

The game has changed ALOT in the last few years, but I'll bet a years pay, that WE AIN'T SEEN NOT'N....YET !
 
Look for more LFC's to open this year, as their business model shows, that if they can cover xxx area of the country in this manner, thus funneling the majority of their orders into the larger metro areas, and into the LFC's they remove the RealFlorist (complainers) from their model, and only use/need them in rural areas of the country.
Click to expand...

How many new LFC's do you suppose they'll open if this is the new compensation trend? My understanding is that while being busy, many are not proving to be profitable at any notable level.

Theses LFC's obviously look to holidays to improve profits (as do we all.) With COGS higher, I see this as disasterous to 1-800's relationship with them.

It will also rock the entire retail flower sector by driving full-service prices lower. Some of the bigger OG's will likely try to match the offer which could wipe out those profits. They will be forced to 'eat' the discounts entirely. (Now that COULD be a good thing.)

Very interesting.....
 
I would think....

We'll see perhaps 5 or so in the next 12 months, maybe a few more....

Keep in mind, LFC's go into business designed to work on the 71% model, they are not trying to marry discounted work with anything else.

Designed, with drive in buildings and coolers, industrial tables, water plumbed, etc... perhaps designers paid over the industry average, with the knowledge they will go home when not needed.

I know of one for sure, that worked for the biggest and best in a city out east, only to relocate to an LFC for the pay and relitively short hours...cuz once the designs are done, for the day they can go home...

And with the product bought by combining several LFCs into one order COGS go DOWN and fast....

Will be interesting to watch.... I plan to visit one in the near future....
 
I've just been contracted by NYC's largest LFC to write an interface between 800-Flowers routing program and flowerSoft's delivery program. They expect LOTS of orders for the holiday and want to transfer the information from 800-Flowers server right into flowerSoft's route & receipt program.
This shop is long established and has a large customer base of their own. Their walk-in traffic has to be the fantasy of every florist out there. They don't need to do the 800-Flowers work, yet they welcome it.
I guess somehow they must make money.
:confused:
 
Yes George it is confusing.... perhaps in this case, and the other I am aware of, the COGS are already low enough that they can add in the discounted volume averaged against their "to die for walk in" thus combining the two into something that resembles a break even point of 85% thus netting a 15% profit (fictisous numbers, but you get the idea).

I have consulted on one, and may on more, and IF my numbers are correct, they should see a 10% profit margin at the LFC level.

Figure a LFC does lets say 2.7MM a year, that would be a 270K income for the LFC owner.

Keep in mind too, that LFC's are GUARANTEED a certain volume from 800, and that 800's projections are to more than double business in the next 3 years thus increasing the volume thru LFC's.

And unlike Georges example, most only have a Bloomlink terminal spit'n out orders, and a third party maping program.
 
BOSS, based on the fact that we are seeing companies outside the floral industry acting as OG's, as well as wire services and other florists acting as OG's. Now recently we see the added game of discounting. Order gathering operations over the internet willing to advertise FREE delivery or discount the floral arrangement out of the 20% commission for the added marketing edge. And now a WS <1-800> asking it's membership to discount even further to aid them in THEIR quest for more business. Does this make you pick up your social security statement that you get every year and wonder how many more years til retirement???
 
Every time it shows up....

Were seeing things in this industry that our forefathers never even dreamed of... the diminishing return for long hours of hard labor, coupled with rising costs and TAXes not just from the Government.

Now we see OGWS companies further erroding our potential profit in a game where we are the pawns. I wonder how long it'll be before they cook up a scenario where they pay consumers to shop their sites... wait...they already are...

and sadly... WE AIN;T SEEN NOT'N YET...

It's gonna get worse before it getts better. None of us can afford to compete for web biz against the likes of 800 or TFTD.com, ProFlowers, Hallmark or any number of other scammers... Until we control the flow into our markets it will just continue.

I for one am **** tired of working **** hard for little return on the investment... look for a major move on my part, sometime this year... we'll see who has the last laugh...
 
I'm wondering what the reason is for the huge drop in incoming WS orders that seems to be occuring in most shops, or at least the ones that I talk to on a regular basis. Do you suppose the consumer is getting wise? Any time you see a company as big as 1800.com discounting orders on a major a holiday, you know they are trying to get their numbers back up. Sure the press releases tell you how fabulous business is, but we all know that is only media hype.
Our current local and direct business for Jan is solid. Our incoming WS orders are nearly non existent. They are down 73% for the month. They were down similar to that for Nov and Dec. Yet our direct sales are up a bit. Which would leave one to believe that customers are finding more shops direct yet the direct sales are not comping with the decrease in WS orders.
My point is, it would seem that the WS's are trying to figure out a way to recoup those numbers and they are going to start doing whatever they can to drive sales.
 
Does seem to be the way it is in some areas of the country. Me, I was up 195% on incomings...but thats not saying much, total ins were 91 for December. 51% from Da Dot, and I made money on the orders, all 91. Personally dot.com orders are more profitable to me than florist to florist orders, as they tend to sell add ons like chocolate, teddy bears, Renesance Cards.... Avg in $71.49

Is the CONsumer getting wise? ... good question... I preffer to think so. BUTT at the same time they are getting wise to the .coms, they are getting wise to US too, and going direct to me not you and vice versa hence the total drop in wires both in/out (overall, not for everyone) for the majority of florists.

TO your point...I concur, they, like us are trying to figure it out, it's a NEW game as of January-1-4...I said 2004 was going to be what ?

Thing is, the florist to florist biz is dying, and with it the need for florists association with a WS. They CAN NOT survive with out us, but WE CAN survive without them. The CONsumer will not tollerate drop ship flowers for ever, once the same day delivery function we provide to any .com is eliminated totally, they go POOF.

Book 'em Dano
 
Jim, I agree with that one yes and no. I guess I have my own spin on it.

The drop ship items from FTD and 1800 have increase I am saying that only by the numbers they provide for the stock tickers. ( flws, ftdi )

1800flowers isn't dumb at all. There is so many reasons why this is a win win for them. 1 of which they don't want to feed a starving dog. You don't want someone to get to successful or profitable while you need to use them. Keeping as many florist as they can busy with orders also creates bottleneck in those shops while 1800 can keep picking up those phones and shops stop answering the only real way they have to make a living. I would almost bet 1800 hope's to break even on these 4 days while they create a volume and get more customer data. Looks good for wall street.

You have to remember, I don't believe in doing "cold calls" I am guessing they have a dept design for doing it or on slow days they have list to give to phone ops to call when no one is calling them. Push drop ship items first I bet

May have to change the way I look at everything.

-Shane
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back