BBJ said "one that consumers can relate to as being paid to take flower orders without actually delivering the goods."
Hmm who would fit that exact definition.... Oh YEAH! A florist wiring out an order via FTD/TF. lol
I like what Ten said.. a Call Center and what mlou said telemarketer... so maybe a telemarketing call center for flowers
Just my 3 cents, in general online customers don't care who is taking the order, the OG, a teen age punk or a convict. An online customer cares about.. how easy was it, was the price right and did it do the trick. Sure you might dislike how an OG works and your customers who walk in and buy from you might also tell you the same thing, but John, are you or those customers a target market for online flower businesses?
In the late 1800's the farms sold the flowers, then the original OGs, OOGs, the retail flower shop started taking business away from some farms by offering it in more convenient places, like in town, and not out at the farm. @@@@ those retail florists. Now evolution is taking a big jump and we complain that OGs out smarted us, use our own WS against us and make a lot of money by doing it, but know 0% about flowers. lol I'm sure some farms in the late 1800's thought the same about retail florists and their "Knowledge" of flowers.
I say to OGs, if you are honest and let the customer know what you are doing, then good for you for thinking about something before me, if they deceive, then they can rot in hell and this is where I drawn the line and start calling them a dot con. A con is about deception. If an online customer goes online to buy flowers and ALL the OGs were gone, does it benefit you at all when they go to Proflowers or 1800flowers? At least the retail florist is making some of the money. Do you really think an online customer is going to say... wait, let me get off the internet.... let me call my local shop to be the middle man instead of an OG? The real problems are not about OGs and WS, the real problems are we are losing a huge chuck of our market to corps who know who to hit the online consumer, which grows by the billions of $ a year. The only brand that we can stand behind that people know retail shops by is FTD or TF, and they have screwed us big time. The WS know that a lot of these big shops can't survive without them and could care less and this is proven by businesses such as butterfieldblooms.com. What is Ironic is, if one of the WS dropped all their OGs, how much you want to bet they'd be out of business within 3 years? If FTD dropped all their OGs, you think those OGs would disappear? TF would scoop them up or FSI, OR some new named WS. Even if all WS said no to OGs, they’d just hire a call center and have the wire them to florists, like national floral was or any Phone book OG. OGs aren’t the enemy, ignorant florists are.
The above paragraph proves that capitalism is about the bottom line and it doesn't care what you feel or think. You either get bought up or run over. Here is a prime example of how my capitalistic mind thinks, and a lot of you are going to hate me for saying this, but, I don’t buy from wholesalers. I buy 90% of my product direct from the farm. Cheaper, lasts longer, not beat up from the wholesaler, etc... You can hate me for doing this, but my number one goal is customer satisfaction. My prices are less and my product lasts a lot longer. Maybe some of you already do this and maybe not. Maybe you are thinking.. how could a farm sell to a florist? That's not fair. Once again, a lesson in capitalism, that farm has product to sell, a lot of farms are going out of business, this brings cash flow to pay their bills or get the upper hand on their competition by buying more land. GOD I love capitalism, it'll surely be our downfall. lol
Ok one more thing, I think you'll like this. Mom and Pop hardware shops have been put out of business by Home depot. My friend's business, who is funding my eipflowers project, is improvementdirect.com. He runs a small business that by passes Home depot on home improvement items. This is his 3rd year and they just did 30 million. His sites offer a lot more selection, 30% lower prices, no lines, no waiting around for help, no leaving the house, no parking problems, free shipping, etc... I find it ironic that the lil guy, using new business models with technology it now hurting the big boys!
I feel in a lot of businesses in the future, the middleman and retail will evolve into one. There will only be the person who makes it and the person who sells it and this I because we live in a new era of communication where there is no need for a middleman. You might say, no a floral wholesaler is good for when you need specific colors for weddings and such. This is true, but the farms I use have evolved passed that problem. I will tell you what local wholesalers are good for, or trucks who deliver... they are GREAT for that last minute order.
John I commend what you are doing, but I think it is 100% more important that you spend your time and resources educating other florists about OGs rather than customers. We have the power to stop OGs, not the customers. Like I said before, online shoppers don't care as long as it does the trick.
The only real thing I know a lot about in this industry is online flower buying, the rest I am learning from you guys.
Sorry if this post is a hijack, I have A.D.D., my mind wonders and am very tired. If you made it this far, you have too much time on your hands
