Should Florists have a Website?

[Tom Carlson]

Saturday morning I came into the shop and wondered if something had gone amiss on our FAS.

There were 7 orders from our website in our laser printer and 7 coordinating acknowledgements on our dot-matrix printer.

Yes, they were all legit, all from the same person
PLACED BETWEEN 2:05 AM AND 2:40 AM.

That says something for having a 24/7 store.
We do not have a wire service website

Our website is managed by MEDIA99.

Any florist using a wire service website should seriously consider changing to their own, unique website. That does not mean you have to design your own.

Back about 10 years ago I thought I had to have a custom website. Without checking into florist [non-wire service] websites I went with a local ISP who had a website design service. $18,000 later and less than 100 on-line orders, I went with MEDIA99.

Between 7 and 8% of the visits to our website are converted to on-line orders. I hear the norm is 3 to 4% converstion. I can't begin to say how many people phone in their orders while viewing our website. Those would not be part of the 7-8%.

Tom Carlson

 

[lori042499]

Saturday morning I came into the shop and wondered if something had gone amiss on our FAS.

There were 7 orders from our website in our laser printer and 7 coordinating acknowledgements on our dot-matrix printer.

Yes, they were all legit, all from the same person
PLACED BETWEEN 2:05 AM AND 2:40 AM.

That says something for having a 24/7 store.
We do not have a wire service website

Our website is managed by MEDIA99.

Any florist using a wire service website should seriously consider changing to their own, unique website. That does not mean you have to design your own.

Back about 10 years ago I thought I had to have a custom website. Without checking into florist [non-wire service] websites I went with a local ISP who had a website design service. $18,000 later and less than 100 on-line orders, I went with MEDIA99.

Between 7 and 8% of the visits to our website are converted to on-line orders. I hear the norm is 3 to 4% converstion. I can't begin to say how many people phone in their orders while viewing our website. Those would not be part of the 7-8%.

Tom Carlson

Tom,
I believe that in the coming years it will be more essential to posess a working and complete website than a store front....This is the way the world is going...Look at how much business 800-flowers, fu flowers and flowers sent today do, it is almost all website busines and online marketed...

The shops that do not have websites, especially in bigger metro areas where people work 15-16 hours a day just to pay for their apartment, will be going out of business...In Boston, you hardly find any kind of business that isn't open alternate hours, late hours or doesn't have a website...we even are able to make grocery purchases online and have them all delivered. It is the way of the world and it will continue in that direction...

Not sure that you have to have a indy website, but if the ws website is the choice it must be pimped a bit to make it look different that the others in the area...

 

[avflorist]

A majority of our business is either via the internet or the phone, and most of the phone orders say they're looking at the arrangement on our website. Most local flower buyers now go to the grocery store and so, there's very minimum walk-ins specially during hot summer days after the proms and graduations. I have a very basic website, but I'm happy with it because it's easy to administer and it reflects what we are - a small flower shop - a Mom and Pop, friendly, unassuming and efficient place to do business with.

 

[inferno63]

Just had this conversation with a sales rep from our local tv station. He told me that internet has now topped radio and newspaper in marketing reach. I am still adding to my website daily. I track hits and see what the customers are looking at. I don't know the percentage of sales generated but I will put together the numbers so I know, but as I offer more on the website, I get more orders every day. Also, since I do not use any wire services I do lookups for my customers and find that I end up referring florists with websites more often than not. I am also a strong believer in putting your own designs on your websites.

 

[RJD]

I believe that in the coming years it will be more essential to posess a working and complete website than a store front

This is a statement you could make five years ago. Those "coming years" have passed, and it's now time for every florist to have a website. If not, the next set of "coming years" will see a reduction in the number of florists who didn't understand the business end of the industry.

 

[lori042499]

This is a statement you could make five years ago. Those "coming years" have passed, and it's now time for every florist to have a website. If not, the next set of "coming years" will see a reduction in the number of florists who didn't understand the business end of the industry.

True, true and yet there are still so many without one or with one that they never ever look at or maintain...and so many that are not computer savvy at all....

 

[bloomz]

This is a statement you could make five years ago. Those "coming years" have passed, and it's now PAST time for every florist to have a website. If not, the next set of "coming years" will see a reduction in the number of florists who didn't understand the business end of the industry.

True, true and yet there are still so many without one or with one that they never ever look at or maintain...and so many that are not computer savvy at all....

Yup and about 70% of those at yesterday's how were in that group.

It was a bit like watching well intentioned zombies.

If you ain't there, I do think it's too darn late - takes too long to catch up.

 

[bloomtastic]

I agree. Do not use the websites providd by the wire services!!!!!!! For one thing, they way overcharge. Second, they look just like everyone else's and we are told all the time by clients they chose us b/c our site didn't look like everyone else's.

We also use Media99, now, they only handle our shopping cart website while my husband designed and maintains the main/home page. No flash, no fancy stuff, just the basics and it account for about 20% of our sales. We rank as high as 1 on google when you run a search for columbus oh florist, so we must be doing something right! The site was even recently featured in an article for web developers.

 

[lori042499]

I agree. Do not use the websites providd by the wire services!!!!!!! For one thing, they way overcharge. Second, they look just like everyone else's and we are told all the time by clients they chose us b/c our site didn't look like everyone else's.

We also use Media99, now, they only handle our shopping cart website while my husband designed and maintains the main/home page. No flash, no fancy stuff, just the basics and it account for about 20% of our sales. We rank as high as 1 on google when you run a search for columbus oh florist, so we must be doing something right! The site was even recently featured in an article for web developers.

I have a TF website and I hear that all the time because I purposely change mine on a regular basis to be different that other peoples. I also add content. Not quite as much as I want because I am only one person. But it is better than leaving it all up to TF to do. I agree that they over charge, but I get done what I need to get done and it is all integrated into my pos system...There is something to be said about the ease at which the WS website work and if you get way busy they still update them and change them, they are a good benefit for a one man show..

 

[Joe Mioux]

Between 7 and 8% of the visits to our website are converted to on-line orders. I hear the norm is 3 to 4% converstion. I can't begin to say how many people phone in their orders while viewing our website. Those would not be part of the 7-8%.

Tom Carlson

I have a dedicate toll free line that is only published on my website. combining the web stats with the toll free charges gives me an accurate conversion rate.

Joe

 

[MANORVILLE]

Smart move Joe ! Thanks for the idea !

 

[clay]

I have a dedicate toll free line that is only published on my website. combining the web stats with the toll free charges gives me an accurate conversion rate.

Joe

I find that more than 50% of my website "call in" orders are local in my area code. Just wondering, you do not have a problem of all of your local calls calling in on your toll free number?

 

[Erlene]

I have a TF website and I hear that all the time because I purposely change mine on a regular basis to be different that other peoples. I also add content. Not quite as much as I want because I am only one person. But it is better than leaving it all up to TF to do. I agree that they over charge, but I get done what I need to get done and it is all integrated into my pos system...There is something to be said about the ease at which the WS website work and if you get way busy they still update them and change them, they are a good benefit for a one man show..

You're right about the integration aspect, for a shop that receives a large volume of web orders the labor savings is great. Media99 sites integrate with several POS systems and cost about half what a WS site does.

Good points regarding the automated changes.

Regardless of how it is achieved, every florist should have a web presence.

 

[Connie]

My daughter worked on our site all of last week. She's young enough and savvy enough to make some wonderful changes. What a blessing!

If you look at our site, you will find a mix of the new John Henry images and our own. Please know that we're trying to get the home page, which we cannot change by ourselves, updated.

More and more often our call-in customers tell us that they are looking at our site, and want to order an arrangement that they see there. I cannot imagine running a successful shop without a website.