Make A Choice

[sfox]

I'm Getting Old

Man, I'm getting old. Back in the old days, it was 800FLOWERS that started all the garbage that is happening today. They were the first to use their 800 number to gather the consumers orders on a national scale. They were the first to push for rebates for senders. That's what broke the bank at AFS. They were the first to start the direct ship concept with the public. Now FTD pushs it to the n'th degree

And now today, they are the good guys. They throw florists a few crumbs and florists memories have beeen cleansed. It's tough getting old because you remember how things came to be what they are today.

 

[lori042499]

I like Teleflora. They are the lesser of two evils IMO. If you are looking to go with a big guy with lots of coverage for sending. They do compete with you through fashion bug, sears and many other credit card offers. They do not dropship. They have wonderful education seminars and I would suggest getting on your local board. You meet many wonderful fellow florists with a strong business core. FTD does not do any of this...

Flower shop network is also very good for smaller shops, as long as where you need to send there is coverage. They are not huge so there may be some areas lacking. I get a lot of hits to my website from this organization. I have not sent through them simply because I do not recognize many names and I am scared of quality.

Bloom net is a receiving powerhouse. As long as you don't "bother" them about more money for this or that. They do punish florists who reject a lot, ask for more money and send questionable quality. You can send through them and most of the florists are either TF or FTD, also.

Hope this helps at all. I am a teleflorist and bloomnet florist. Any questions on either I will be glad to answer.

 

[Buzz]

I agree with TOTO.
This has been a hot topic all along. Which one is best? or rather the least worst?
I think the correct answer depends on your reason for having the wire service in the 1st place. Do you need a platform for sending outbounds to service your local customers? Do you want incomings to get your product in your neighborhood? Depending on the total cost of the WS, and overhead including product, time, and wages paid out, can you atually make money on an incoming discounted order? If your not making any money on them why would you want to fill them? This is a hot topic on FlowerChat but I really think there is no single right answer for everyone. Each one of us is resposible for managing our own business. It's up to us as business owners to take the time and crunch the #'s to see what the right thing to do is.

 

[Seasonals]

Thanks everyone

Thank you for the time you've put into answering this topic. My purpose in having a WS is to accomadate my customers sending requests. I would hope to get incoming orders, but my main concern is being able to send and make some $ at it.
I've checked out several of the sites you have mentioned in this thread and this is what I've come up with....fill me in on what I'm missing.

www.MyIFA.org $20.@month if you use them. Can't really see who belongs till you become a member. Doesn't say if you get anything for sending the order. I will call on Monday though for more info.

www.flowershopnetwork.com This looks very appealing. In the demo it showed total $ amount of the order including delivery. How do we know what the receiving florist will charge for delivery?

BloomNet...This is 1-800-Flowers Right?? Wouldn't that be better for receiving than sending? I'm unable to find a site about signing up as a florist with them, help!

With regard to TF vs. FTD you pretty much have me convinced that TF would be the preferred choice. As you can tell we haven't made a decision on a WS yet. I was choosing between these two for name recognition. You have opened my eyes to others. Keep the banter coming you have been very generous.

 

[Connie]

Just a quick note about IFA, since that is what we use. You can choose to send 100%-0% or 80%-20%. You may charge whatever service fee or sending fee that you decide, if you decide to charge any fee. We have never had any problem with finding a filling florist (actually, IFA has never been unable to find a filling florist). We send international orders via IFA also.

We also have our list of favorite florists whom we often contact directly by phone.

IFA is incorporated into our POS, so we don't have to use the phone unless we desire to do that.

We receive a good number of incoming orders through IFA, not a lot, but we are not dependent upon incoming orders. We have seen a marked increase in orders from our website, which has nothing to do with IFA or any other WS.

This post does not, in any way whatsoever, indicate that I am an expert on IFA. Nor am I a cheerleader for them. It is simply the system which works for us.