Shopping by Occasion

[Palms]

When people shop on the internet for flowers, do you really think they shop by occasion.

If anyone would be kind enough to look at my site, please let me know how you would shop for flowers if you were a flower buyer.

The reason is that i think the occasions strip takes up quite a bit of room on my home page and i would like the information pages to be more visible on the home page without scrolling down.

Any comments welcome...

www.about-flowers.co.uk

 

[BOSS]

When people shop on the internet for flowers, do you really think they shop by occasion.

Um YES!!!

Birthday is the number one search term last I heard...

 

[sandytf]

Could you do a drop down menu so that it doesn't take up so much room? I do think the occasions are important, if you're wanting to get orders on from your site. I think most people who go to a website to order flowers probably do so because they are sending flowers for an occasion.

 

[blumen]

Interesting question...

My gut reaction is to skip the occasions. My site is set up mostly for product: www.ludwigflowers.com, except for sympathy and new baby.

This is the way I have always done it, and I know that I do it differently from most floral sites.

Our website does very well.

I'd be interested in hearing more hard statistics...

Linda

 

[Hal Conklin]

Ask for reports from your Website Host... If your POS doesnt give you this...

 

[Palms]

Thanks for all your input.

I have my site set up so that there are sections for;

gift bouquets, sympathy, something modern, baskets and posies, weddings, chair covers etc etc.

I would personally have just chosen to go into gift bouquets but maybe i am too involved and i accept i cant think like a customer.

Ryan, if you are reading, are there any stats to suggest which is the prefered way?

ps, i dont mean searching on google.

 

[concord]

I think people do shop by occassion, or so I'm told. I am working on a new site and the guys doing it said they definately shop by occassion because they have no idea what is approriate and want to have the choices narrowed down for them. Your site is looking good though. I wonder if all the angst we florists go through for our web sites makes any difference. I'm kind of sick of thinking about mine at this point!

 

[Flore]

Hi Palms- When I clicked on your site, I was immediately drawn to the visuals and probably wouldn't have even noticed the occassions tabs on the left if I wasn't looking for them. So maybe add a visual with a title of shop by occassion??
Nice site, BTW

 

[Missy]

I would leave the occasions, but perhaps only feature holiday ones( Mothers Day etc) during the actual season for them. Some of the information about delivery etc could be behind one of the links across the top rather than showing on the main page, then your pics of arrangements could be larger. I would definately leave occasions.

 

[Palms]

Missy do you mean you would leave the occasions in take them out. Sorry i am having a dumb moment and not sure what you mean.

 

[Missy]

Leave them in, but for instance, this time of year, take out Valentines, Mothers Day, Christmas and only show those occasions when the time comes for them. It will shorten your list and make the side bar easier to scroll through.

 

[spellham]

Don't Remove Holidays

Leave them in, but for instance, this time of year, take out Valentines, Mothers Day, Christmas and only show those occasions when the time comes for them. It will shorten your list and make the side bar easier to scroll through.

From a search engine standpoint... I wouldn't recommend taking the holiday pages off of your site. You would essentially be destroying a page that was previously indexed in the search engines, and possibly linked to from other outside sources.

You could lose precious backlinks that are often very difficult to come by. Once a site finds that dead link... they may choose not to link to you again.

You're probably think "I don't want online customers to order from the Mother's Day / Christmas / Halloween page all year round - I don't carry that product all year round".

That is when it would be helpful for your site to have a feature to simply turn off ecommerce for a particular page instead of removing it from your site altogether.

You would still enjoy the hard earned links you may have to those pages, have a site full of product that is left in the search indexes, without having to reintroduce a page at 'just the right time' before the holiday.

The FSN platform allows ecommerce to be turned of at the page level and even at the product level. Not trying to advertise Ryan, just pointing out that is a very helpful feature for our members.

 

[BloomingFlorida]

As I'm still very new to the whole floral industry, I think I still look at this as a consumer would. I (consumers) are not educated (even though we believe they are), and I would certainly leave the occassions in. I agree with Missy, and would remove seasonal occassions that do not apply. That, to me as a consumer, makes me think the web manager is too lazy to keep it updated, so it leaves me questioning the 'up-to-date-edness (no, not a real word) of the site and the store. But, overall, I really like your site!!! I love how they are all your own designs (or appear to be). I hate the fact that ours is all stock photos. We're working on that tho.

One suggestion, I was really drawn to the bouquet for 'Wedding Designs', and wanted a better look at it. But it is not shown in the actual wedding design section. It's a beautiful bouquet!

 

[Johan]

Paula I agree with Missy. If you leave in occassions that are out of season it makes your site look like it is not up to date. Alot of florist seem to make the same mistake - you are not alone even the big players and order gathers do it. I have my site set out abit differently - I still have all my occassions etc down the side but I keep the front page quite simple with less going on so you can easily focus on each section. I would be tempted to change your top bar - get rid of your about us page and split the details onto other pages. On your contacts page you should have all your contact info, not just an email section. Put on your address, telephone number, opening times, location map.
I would have a weddings page on the top bar and place all those wedding related items into that section. At present you are heavily duplicating info.
On your how to order info page you could put this info simplfied on the top of each page and on the contact page. If the order process is easy you shouldn't by rights really need this section. I order on line alot and I have never looked how to order page.
Think simplicity. This is the key to a good site. I am told by my customers that my sight is really easy to navigate. I would give the customer info about you on the home page maybe with the picture of your shop front or put that picture on your contacts page. On your delivery page put on all delivery, collection, national and international delivery info - at present this is again on your about us page. I would then give myseif a funeral page with all the relievant. By streamline this first page and weeding out your duplications you will have one mega site that you will be able to add to in a much more coherant way.
It took me ages to get to this stage after talking to loads of people. And I'm still working on it. And I try to change the site regularly.
Good Luck.
Jo x
PS I hope this has made some sense - you know I ramble alots.

 

[BloomingFlorida]

I don't think I would remove the 'About Us' page. I saw a statistic (no, I don't remember where) that said that 85% of shoppers check out the 'About Us' page. If for no other reason, it helps to solidify the fact that you are a true florist, and not an order gatherer.

One other note; your thumbnail photos look great, but once you click on them, the actual photos are HUGE! I think most people don't like to have to scroll around a photo to see it, and it looses the ability to see the overall arrangement. You should be able to set the image size to a max of 100% of screen size, but I think somewhere between 80-90% is a good size, if you want BIG pictures.

 

[theRKF]

From a search engine standpoint... I wouldn't recommend taking the holiday pages off of your site. You would essentially be destroying a page that was previously indexed in the search engines, and possibly linked to from other outside sources.

You could lose precious backlinks that are often very difficult to come by. Once a site finds that dead link... they may choose not to link to you again.

You're probably think "I don't want online customers to order from the Mother's Day / Christmas / Halloween page all year round - I don't carry that product all year round".

That is when it would be helpful for your site to have a feature to simply turn off ecommerce for a particular page instead of removing it from your site altogether.

You would still enjoy the hard earned links you may have to those pages, have a site full of product that is left in the search indexes, without having to reintroduce a page at 'just the right time' before the holiday.

The FSN platform allows ecommerce to be turned of at the page level and even at the product level. Not trying to advertise Ryan, just pointing out that is a very helpful feature for our members.

F20 (Paula & Missy are both clients) can disable occasions from appearing in the menu out of season without destroying the page. This means you don't lose link juice and you can still direct link to the occasions (great for pre-season promotion, SEO, and alternate sorting - be creative!).

Ryan, if you are reading, are there any stats to suggest which is the prefered way?

ps, i dont mean searching on google.

I just checked on one of our busiest F20 sites, and the most popular page is the Birthday occasion, followed by the Rose page (search by flower), and the Under $40 segment.

I would always leave the occasion cats in, as it gives a strong thematic indication to the search engines and will likely be your landing page for occasion-themed searches.

Ryan

 

[Johan]

I don't have an about page but I have plenty of info on my front page about my business. I also have info on where we are etc in the contact us page. I have a news and promo page which I do need to do serious work on as it is abit crap to say the leased but it will get there. I have managed to make it personal but what I'm trying to saying is this info could be relocated to other sections so that Paula's site groups info on the about us page onto other pages that they hold relevance with. This will streamlining the whole look of the site and giving her the space she would like to be able to create her vision and add new sections.
I'm not so good on technical stuff so I can't make any comments to that but I am seeing the site from an ordinary punter looking to buy flowers/ or getting married not as a florist. This site has lots of wonderful things on it (beautiful pictures and I love the clean sharp look) but they appear lose and dis-jointed in places because of where they're placed on the site or are duplicated which gives an overwhelming feeling when on the home page. I personally don't know what to look at first. Maybe its just me but there is too much visual info and stimulation on this main page.

 

[PYork]

my opinion - we as florists would probably not be shopping "by occasion" but my understanding is that this is how most regular folks would shop for flowers. So I think you're on the right track w. your site - lots of choices too which is good. Out of curiosity - is a "posy" bouquet in a bowl or container of some kind? They're very attractive, and your hand-tieds are beautiful too.

 

[CHERYL BAKIN]

Paula:
In the US at least, people tend to shop by Occasion first -- anniversary, birthday, sympathy, new baby, etc.
Second method would be by flower type -- roses, (high search word), seasonal flowers, fruit baskets, plants.

I would de-activate the holiday categories that shouldn't be there, as was stated above. having them on there only makes you look like your site is not tended to with care.

I would consider arranging your categories alphabetically so that the consumer has an easier time finding the category quickly.

I would also consider placing some general pictures on the home page, instead of pictures of product categories that were clickable. In my mind, and with my consumer hat on, it seemed duplicated to have categories on the left side, and also repeating in pictures on your home page -- I would do one or the other -- but not both.

JMHO,

Cheryl

 

[Johan]

F20 (Paula & Missy are both clients) can disable occasions from appearing in the menu out of season without destroying the page. This means you don't lose link juice and you can still direct link to the occasions (great for pre-season promotion, SEO, and alternate sorting - be creative!).



I just checked on one of our busiest F20 sites, and the most popular page is the Birthday occasion, followed by the Rose page (search by flower), and the Under $40 segment.


Ryan

Thank you Ryan for that as I have always de-activated any unused designs and occassions but reactivated them when needed. I was panicing thinking I had distroyed loads of hard work.