FTD.COM's order volume decreases

[12BucksFor2Dozon]

.... I can bid high.....you get no commission from me!! I like that plan, but don't tink it will fly either!

I think a baseline of 5-10% would be built in (and remember your sending fee), but if those of you so mired in the past WS model cannot get you heads around a new paradigm, so be it. Over time, a FREE and OPEN system will ENEVITABLY crush your proprietary, expensive one. It's human nature. Infinite here on this board *loves* to talk about "web-services" as the future, yet he fail to ever mention OSS as the true driver in the software world today. Look at IBM's, GOOGLE, and even, egads!, Microsoft! All have come to understand that this paradigm has to power to destroy their current monopolistic business models. FTD, TF, and ProFlowers would all feel the same threat over time as these companies are right now.

Plenty of existing WS fillers-zombies would at first chuckle at our small, seemingly innocuous system...great let em laugh. Time is our greatest ally and their worst enemy.

 

[Jerry]

I love your thinking Mark, and I feel your lure to get people involved is the bidding part of the commision. I feel the bidding on orders will be way to time consuming. Most orders to the florists or florist gatherers are same day or yesterday type orders. The NOW generation is here to stay. Is there time enough in the same day delivery model to spend the time bidding on an order?

 

[12BucksFor2Dozon]

Jerry,

Yes, my partner brought up the same concern...I don't see why, depending on the time frame, that different models could be used. The sender could send "for immediate fill", with no bid, or "for tomorrow fill", with bidding until morning next day, with time frames in between.

Everyone is right...there are 14.3 million ways to peck holes into this idea, and right now the biggest problem is that there is no system. I have started to work on it, but i have A LONG way to go. Free, open source systems have a way of catching fire, but many die a lonely death. If nothing else I will able to look any other florist in the eye and say "AT LEAST *I* TRIED!". That, in the end, is all any of us can do.