Keep FSN?

[rob429]

We are assuming ownership of a small flower shop in January.(Yes, I am in fact having my head examined ) I plan to have my own e commerce site; the wire services are gone baby gone as of Jan. 1. I obviously won't need the FSN site anymore, but should I keep the service to send out of town/overseas orders or am I better off just phoning the receiving florist direct and charging it on a company card?

Thanks, it's all so confusing....

Robert

 

[bootcampguy]

I would keep them as a sending alternative. From time efficiency you can send at the luxury of your time and not when all the shops are open. There are still people who want to use you for the service of flowers by wire. Now, if you doing 5 orders a month, no. My cost/profit standpoint would be 25 orders a month (average).........

 

[Flowermomma]

Congratulations on getting your shop!!!
I have them for overseas and to the US. But I don't use them for sending with in Canada.

Overseas the time difference and language issue are a problem (I send A LOT to Germany at Christmas time) and for me It does the exchange on US orders so thats helpful.

It is by no means a money maker for me but its handy to have! Edit to say I also have a site with them that does well . For me it works, but its not as personal as I could make it I guess

 

[jamie]

Take a look a how much incoming work FSN has produced for the old owner and decide if it is worth it. FSN pays for itself in my shop, the orders are from other real B&M florists and 90% of them are either designer's choice or classic arrangements (dozen roses etc). So far, FSN has done a pretty good job of keeping OGs out.

 

[anytimeflowers]

I agree with Jamie. Do you know when the current membership expires? I joined in June, 2004 or 2005 so mine expires end of May. I have gone several different routes with them over the years including their website. I now have an indy website and I like it a lot better for personalization.

I still like to keep my listing with them though, the listing sends a good amount of traffic to my website. I seldom have to wire anything out but it is nice to have when I DO need to, I participate in the 90/10 split when sending an order out but still accept from florists at 80% to fill for them.

Is Google Analytics attached to the current website? Do you know? I would see if I could get a hold of this info, including the FSN expiration date. If it's far enough out, you would be able to get some good data from the analytics to see how much traffic it sends your way. At $300/year, I find it to be a good paid listing because the traffic they send my way is already somebody looking to buy flowers but you need to determine that yourself.

 

[flst4evr]

I wondered about FSN when it came up for renewal this year. I never use them for a wire outs and receive relatively few ins from them as well, though I do notice that is increasing. They do however send a lot of business to my website. These are customers I would not have found otherwise. Their local funeral home listing and hospital listing were directly responsible for $1,200 in incoming web orders in the past 12 months. Not a huge amount but combined with the SEO their link ads to my site and the incoming orders I do receive, their low cost, I find it profitable to stay with them, for another year anyway.

 

[duanermb]

I wondered about FSN when it came up for renewal this year. I never use them for a wire outs and receive relatively few ins from them as well, though I do notice that is increasing. They do however send a lot of business to my website. These are customers I would not have found otherwise. Their local funeral home listing and hospital listing were directly responsible for $1,200 in incoming web orders in the past 12 months. Not a huge amount but combined with the SEO their link ads to my site and the incoming orders I do receive, their low cost, I find it profitable to stay with them, for another year anyway.

Emphasis Mine:

Google considers FSN to be a very trusted citation. It appears only now and then, but reviews from there sometimes show up on our place page. It's certainly worth a few hundred dollars per year.

 

[rob429]

Thanks for the advice, I hadn't even considered the web traffic and SEO aspects of it. The yearly fee does seems fair enough; I will definitely keep them around this year and see how it goes.