Ifa Rfi Fsi

[MaryClarksFlorist]

IFA - Independent Florist Association
RFI - Retail Florist Association
FSI - Floral Source International

These are alternative wire services to the TF and FTD? Are there any others? Does anybody belong to one of these services? Or do you have past experiences with them, good or bad? Can you recommend one of them?

TIA!

 

[CHERYL BAKIN]

Hi:
YOu may want to PM TOTO regarding IFA. He can fill you in on all the good stuff....and it is very inexpensive also.

Floral Source has gotten both good & bad raps. Depends upon who you talk to.

Do not currently know of anyone who is directly using RFA at the present time. There was a big push several months ago, with the unveiling of their new/improved website. have not heard much more since then.

Lastly, use a CC and go direct, of your wire out business is not that great.

Cheryl

 

[wildflowerschicago]

Lastly, use a CC and go direct, of your wire out business is not that great.

Not to hijack the thread, but I totally agree!!!! This is what I have been doing for the past 2 months and it has worked like a charm!!! I opened a second checking account at my bank and got a debit card for that account. That is what we use to send all our orders. I check 2~3 times per week to see how many orders/how much money has been sent out/charged and simply transfer it over. This way, I am not paying credit card interest nor am I letting it build up for a month before I have to pay it off (I am budget challanged...I know it!!) I wrote a very simple excel spreadsheet to keep it all organized. We have our resale certificate in a folder above the fax machine in case anyone needs it, and instead of taking a percent of the order, I just keep the $11 relay fee (and give the other florist the whole amount). I know others do it differently, but this is what works for us.

 

[LJVF]

I have a sort of an indirect question in relation to this thread. What do you do for international orders if you are not FTD or TEL?

 

[wildflowerschicago]

I have a sort of an indirect question in relation to this thread. What do you do for international orders if you are not FTD or TEL?

We have only had 2, but I used the internet. I looked up a florist and did it online. I looked very carefully to see if they were an OG or an actual florist. I don't think we send more than 10~15 orders overseas in a given year. And now I would ask Carrington or post it here to find a real florist.

 

[LJVF]

We have only had 2, but I used the internet. I looked up a florist and did it online. I looked very carefully to see if they were an OG or an actual florist. I don't think we send more than 10~15 orders overseas in a given year. And now I would ask Carrington or post it here to find a real florist.

We probably have about 20 to 30 international orders per year. Do you know if the non-english speaking florists are english friendly?

 

[MaryClarksFlorist]

Hi:
YOu may want to PM TOTO regarding IFA. He can fill you in on all the good stuff....and it is very inexpensive also.

Floral Source has gotten both good & bad raps. Depends upon who you talk to.

Do not currently know of anyone who is directly using RFA at the present time. There was a big push several months ago, with the unveiling of their new/improved website. have not heard much more since then.

Lastly, use a CC and go direct, of your wire out business is not that great.

Cheryl

I filled out an app for IFA a few weeks ago, but have not yet heard back from them. They don't have any contact info on their site, so I emailed the FAS site (I believe they are part of FAS).

I contacted FSI and they faxed me some info. After reading some complaints about them (I think it was on flowerchat), I sent the rep a LENGTHY email with a LOT of questions. She called me the week of Easter but I haven't gotten back to her yet. She seemed pretty convinced she could satisfactorily answer all of my questions. It was a long email, she has a lot of 'splainin to do.

I saw the big discussion thread on RFA and I visited their web site. I wasn't comfortable with them taking 23% of an order so I put that idea on hold.

We've been going the CC route as much as possible. Especially when we get orders on our website that are out of our delivery range. When we first took over the shop (last October) I didn't understand why we didn't do that with all the wire out orders until I saw the low reciprocity fee

 

[fairfield]

Another alternative is flowershopnetwork.com.

Our representative's name is Amy. She will answer any questions you may have about the services they offer. Their number is 800-858-9925.

 

[harmeet anand]

We probably have about 20 to 30 international orders per year. Do you know if the non-english speaking florists are english friendly?

In India, most of the florists speak English. So you will not have this problem if you call any florist in India. But if you try to find any florist in India on the web, you will mostly find OG on first few pages. This is because in India, most florist's do not have websites and few who have, the ranking is not so good. OG on other hand are quite active and show up in good positions on search engines.

 

[Hollywood]

Not to hijack the thread, but I totally agree!!!! This is what I have been doing for the past 2 months and it has worked like a charm!!! I opened a second checking account at my bank and got a debit card for that account. That is what we use to send all our orders. I check 2~3 times per week to see how many orders/how much money has been sent out/charged and simply transfer it over. This way, I am not paying credit card interest nor am I letting it build up for a month before I have to pay it off (I am budget challanged...I know it!!) I wrote a very simple excel spreadsheet to keep it all organized. We have our resale certificate in a folder above the fax machine in case anyone needs it, and instead of taking a percent of the order, I just keep the $11 relay fee (and give the other florist the whole amount). I know others do it differently, but this is what works for us.

Hi Amy,
We are doing this too in our shop.
But we are starting a new trend... another way even better.
Very recently talking on the telephone with the receiving florists we have come to an easier and inexpensive way to pay them or to be paid.
PAYING BY CHECK.
A check is in the mail TODAY.
No % to pay on the CC only a stamp and a check.
No real risk to not be paid because it would happen only ONCE .
We assume and 99% of the time it's true that we work with honest people.:headbang:
It starts to work very well for us.
Using the CC can be a big bill at the end of a cycle (month) paying each time is much easier, and we have an immediat record looking at our check book.
Best regards.
Hollywood :jester

 

[TOTO]

We are IFA and RFA.

IFA - Independent Florist Association
RFI - Retail Florist Association
FSI - Floral Source International

These are alternative wire services to the TF and FTD? Are there any others? Does anybody belong to one of these services? Or do you have past experiences with them, good or bad? Can you recommend one of them?

TIA!

We're still using IFA to send out all of our REAL FLORIST 2 REAL FLORIST orders. IFA is not a wire service, per se. Rather, it is an order transmission system between two real florists.

IFA can also service your International Floral Order needs, as well.

Once you're a member, you simply log into the IFA website, select the florist you want your order to go to, fill out their online F2F floral order form, and your order is sent through the FAS NET network.

Some filler shops get your order via FAS-NET, others receive it via their FAX, and for some, IFA/FAS-NET operators phone it into those shops.

Membership in IFA is FREE for FILLERS and SENDERS only pay $20 per month with NO PER ORDER TRANSMISSION CHARGES.

We use the 80% net to filler formula and the filler does not pay any incoming order transmission charges. The filler gains a full 9% more per IFA order versus through a WS who discounts their order by 7% plus another 2% on average for transmission charges. The filler uses our company credit card (the one which gives me da most points) and they get our money in their bank account within 48 hours, not 45 days.

www.myifa.org

Here's a link to contact any of the IFA Board of Directors:

http://www.myifa.org/about/di.php

Here's their link to their online Membership Application Form:

http://www.myifa.org/users/signup.php

We are also a member of RFA (Retail Florist's Association) recently renamed from the ETFA (Extra Touch Florist's Association)

RFA is not a wire service. It is an Independent REAL FLORIST trade association. RFA currently offers website hosting with several options. The prime objective of RFA is to assist Independent Florists in their efforts by PROMOTING THEMSELVES and their own FLORAL SHOPS.

For more information, you can use this link for RFA:

www.etfa.org

Both of these organizations are optional tools for many small mom and pop shops who have had enough of the OLD WS's BUSINESS MODEL or simply CAN'T AFFORD THEM ANY LONGER.

While there are NO MAGIC BULLETS on our Horizon, at least these two associations help a REAL FLORIST service their customer's out of town needs via IFA and compete with the OGs with their own websites via RFA.

Perhaps others can post other options they have had personal experiences with, as well.