S.Malik Intro

[Carrington]

Clarification

Chrissy, the difference is, you are a florist... Mr. Malik is not.

V

As a point of reference: iflorist is NOT a florist ... it is an order gathering site that then transfers orders out to florists who have agreed to service them.
C

 

[Victoria]

But Carrington, according to Chrissy, she is a florist, having worked all over the world teaching and the like. That's what I meant when I referenced her as a florist... plus that's what she has in her profile.

V

 

[Carrington]

Background

V ... I have read what they said but this is my take on it.

Given they are regular advertisers with us I can assure you that iflorist is a web based operation that gathers orders centrally and then passes them on.

It is headed up by a chap called David Price who used to work with Flowers Direct and I have to say that I do admire their marketing skills and technology skills greatly.

I believe they have found a way to get round the restrictive practice rules by contracting florists to do their orders but I am equally aware that there have been a couple of complaints on floristnews about slow payment. In terms of numbers they may have 1400 florists prepared to carry out wrok but that is not the same as 1400 florists paying a monthly membership fee.

Therefore yes it is free to florists but obviously iflorist have to make money and I suspect that is as a result of taking a percentage - not sure how much but susepct it would be in line with others in the Uk of circa 30%. Not sure however how it works from there ... ie do contracted florists have to make up to full value like they would with an Interflora or Teleflorist order or does the selling price reflect the transmission charge.

I have nothing against iflorist as such (although they know I would prefer consumers to ring florists direct) but I do want to clarify that while Chrissy may be a florist handling the companies design and boxed items but iflorist as company is a web based operation, not a traditional flower shop.

C

 

[LJVF]

Is iflorist in the UK affiliated with the iflorist in the US?

 

[Carrington]

I've looked at the ifloist.com site and there appears to be no connection. That one looks like a florist who nationally promotes as they are memebers of both FTD and Teleflora.

 

[theRKF]

A Malik recap, just because I find this personally interesting My curiosity is peaked.

I am trying to tie up with local florist websites so that I could send orders to them.

dear mam, i start a website - i look for REAL FLORISTS in REAL AREAS, i tie up with them, market my website online and turn the orders to those REAL FLORISTS

I am ready to do business on your terms which is to say that the Modest fee that you charge your customers would remain as it is. I will use your names and telephone nos on my website. I shall just add a very minimal fee to your modest fee (may be $10 per order). The orders will be sent to you. You would be doing the sales, delivery and the post-sales.
I am just acting as your outsourced Marketing Department.
Again, I plan to use your names as per the respective areas that I mention on my website. So if someone from you is a florist in London Ontario , Canada, my website shall clearly mention that XYZ florist located in London Ontario Canada shall hand-deliver your flowers (with your names and addresses written on it)
I will use YOUR floral designs on my websites and YOUR description of the designs with whatever flowers you say.

So, he's putting up a website listing real florists, using their images and contact info, and receiving a surcharge.

Am I wrong?

Ryan

 

[LJVF]

Looks like he has affiliates in the following areas:

Not a very long list, but it's interesting to me that one is San Diego. I wonder which competitor of mine it is? Another is in Minnesota, isn't Phillip Murphy based there?

 

[Rhonda]

generic order gatherer site, looks to be.
I wonder who in Bangor, Maine he thinks he's going to use...
I'll have to ask around. Erlene, are you his choice for Portland??
As I said once before, I determine who I am "affiliated with".

 

[BOSS]

A Malik recap, just because I find this personally interesting My curiosity is peaked.



So, he's putting up a website listing real florists, using their images and contact info, and receiving a surcharge.

Am I wrong?

Ryan

Looks like it to me!

 

[bloomz]

Exactly what it looks like to me also.

Before everybody flew off the handle and got their panties all bunched up - what I got from his stuff was that he used or is usng flora2000 to get off the ground and is open to using us - florists.

He did mention a surcharge - which is about what zillions of florists pay TFTD to do for them as well.

That would have to be negotiated - with me before he was allowed to use my info.

 

[JimW]

This site was created for real florists with real businesses doing business WITH EACH OTHER. This is not a one way street. You are a ONE WAY STREET, going out of town! By, by. JimW

 

[bloomz]

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[Sher]

"IMO order gatherers are already well represented here. And honestly, I don't recall any of them sharing 'secrets' of how their doorway pages do well in so many city-targeted SERPs."

AMEN! But one told me they were doing me a favor by listing my shop....I checked all of my wireins over a period of 6months and not one order had come from them...but they were listing my shop without even so much as a "are you interested" and then got annoyed when I asked them to remove it....
If you are posting here then IMHO it is a two way street of sharing...not just using....
Sher

 

[LJVF]

AMEN! But one told me they were doing me a favor by listing my shop....I checked all of my wireins over a period of 6months and not one order had come from them...but they were listing my shop without even so much as a "are you interested" and then got annoyed when I asked them to remove it....
If you are posting here then IMHO it is a two way street of sharing...not just using....
Sher

What listings are you referring to? If your shop is on a free listing, wouldn't the customer contact you directly and not via the OG via wire-in?

 

[Rhonda]

What listings are you referring to? If your shop is on a free listing, wouldn't the customer contact you directly and not via the OG via wire-in?

There have been some in the past who have listed a shop and then the default to order goes through their site, not the listed shop.....

 

[LJVF]

There have been some in the past who have listed a shop and then the default to order goes through their site, not the listed shop.....

I never thought that those in particular used the wire services, I thought they were supposedly the "broker" dealing directly with the shop.

 

[CHR]

What listings are you referring to? If your shop is on a free listing, wouldn't the customer contact you directly and not via the OG via wire-in?

Sher's talking about the way some OGs place the names and addresses of local flower shops on their city-specific doorway pages (usually at the bottom of the pages). It provides more spider food for search engines.

Of course, the OGs don't include phone numbers or links to the florists' whose companies they use as bait. That would 'rob' them of business. :tongue

Some of the OG pages have been around so long, Google actually adds the Map Plus Boxes for the local stores, helping make the pages look like they belong to real B&M shop.

 

[LJVF]

Sher's talking about the way some OGs place the names and addresses of local flower shops on their city-specific doorway pages (usually at the bottom of the pages). It provides more spider food for search engines.

Ok, now I get it. Thanks! The word "listing" is what threw me off.

 

[FlowersM]

Iflorist & Florists

Hi,

I Just wanted to clarify how iflorist operate, and also my role as the lead designer for www.iflorist.co.uk . I think there are several things to concider within the industry that can be emotive, but which are important for all florists and flower shops.

iflorist is an online floral & gifting platform that enables florists to receive orders that have been generated by our range of websites, customers, business clients and partners.

I design and photograph all the photographs that appear on our websites and that are featured in marketing and promotions, so I would say that it is fair to call myself a florist!

Hopefully the 400 designs I have created, show that I have a little bit of experiance

I believe iflorist is quite unique, in that we have created gifting platform that enables customers to choose gifts that cater for there exact requirement, if that is a 'a thankyou bouquet for under £20' , a designer bouquet for £100 or funeral arrangement.

Our bouquets are sold as different ranges, and the reason for this is to be able to compete with online only retailers that have a 'mass produce' courier service.

So our Florist range is delivered by florists and our courier ranges are created by central floristry business and dispatched by courier in the UK , Canada, Holland and Australia.

We find that our customers will buy regular 'cheaper bouquets' but also come back for that special occasion when an individullay created bouquet from a local florist is required.

We do not charge supscription fees, sign-up fees or any other charges, and have over 1400 florists that reguarly deliver work for us in the UK, and now that we have good coverage in the UK, are looking to recruit florists in other countries.

Over the past six months we have been extremly hectic, and have invested over £100,00 in our new web site and ecommerce platform, in order to enable orders to easily sent to our suppliers in several currencies and in four languages.

I would say that we have a good reputation in the indsutry, especially for our understanding of web and how to market ourselves online and also how we treate our florist suppliers.

What I think is of the upmost importance is to provide a reliable service to a customer, so that they become long term customers, equally important is to ensure that the relationship with a supplier is good so that it also long term.

So I would also say that iflorist is a florist business, in that we design bouquets and sell them, our suppliers who are florists create and delivery them for us.

I belive that iflorist can play an important role within a florist shop's business, in that we create good value orders for our florists using our own designs, and work hard to develop relationships with companies to encourage customers to buy from florists.

A good example of this was 'PS I Love you' the movie released by Momentum films, in which we sent posters to every florist in the UK, and encouraged them to use our design for themselves, whilst promoting the movie and ourselves.

So I think it is fair to say we do more that use web tricks to create orders, we are a business that has embraced the internet, whilst fully supporting and helping local florist shops, whithout burdening them with monthly fees, and sign-up costs.

We strongly believe that by being fair to all our suppliers and customers together with investing in technology, we are creating a business that will grow from strength to strength and compliments and helps local flower shops around the globe.

Chrissy

 

[bloomz]

Just curious - what percent (or service fee?) do you take for transmitting the order to the fulfillng shop?