There is a difference between lack of vision and being....
blind to the future. This thread started out as an announcement about an alliance of vendors. Well, I've already said my piece about that. But it looks like the "dancing" has already begone for 2005.
It doesn't matter whether some florists only understand 20-80 or they feel they are going to lose too much money if they do anything differently. It doesn't matter whether florists understand why other florists are willing to send orders 0-100 and not worry about getting incoming. There is only ONE PROGRAM out there that is truely independent and has room for both commission programs. As for the comments about the sending and receiving systems not being compatible, I'm sorry but it is really those florists' problems and it is not the responsibility of the rest of us to solve it for you. This is no different than buying a Gillette razor and wanting Shick blades to work with it. Or buying track lighting from Home Depot and wanting to buy fixtures from Menards or Lowes. These companies did it to keep you as THEIR customer and so did the WS do the same thing. The problem is, as time goes on you will have less and less florists to send to with those systems as the costs continue to rise with the WS. The is only ONE INDEPENDENT reputable program that allows order transmission and may require double entry, but it is better than nothing right now.
For those of you that think that florist to florist transactions will gradually come to an end, you may be right. But with a little imagination and a communication system created just for florists, there is a way that real florists can provide a service superior to what is currently available and continue to service and charge for this service to there current customer base that will make it advantageous for them to continue to use the local florist. This will also be better for our industry that adding non-floral drop ship items no matter what the current profit margins are because as you help those companies grow, the first thing they will do is reduce those margins!
So you can continue to sit here in the back room with your feet up on the cracker barrel and discuss how you would change the world or you can continue to talk about how a life raft with a handleful of individuals floating around an open sea could possibly be your salvation or you can get behind the only program that has any chance to pull the industry back together again. For $40 you can join and you can list yourself as a 20-80 florist or a 0-100. If you don't send or receive 5 orders or more per month it doesn't cost you anything. The joke is, many of you are willing to spend up to $300 a month and have no idea how many discounted orders you are going to get or spend x dollars on a directory and again have no idea the volumn or lack of volumn that will result. The good thing is, the more florists you put into the data base the better the overall system is.
Again this year the internet authorities confessed that only 3% of all retail transactions are done over the internet. Yes Christmas was a busy internet holiday, but for the whole year we are still talking about 3%. That means tht 97% is still done at the local level and therefore florist to florist transactions will be around for some time to come.
blind to the future. This thread started out as an announcement about an alliance of vendors. Well, I've already said my piece about that. But it looks like the "dancing" has already begone for 2005.
It doesn't matter whether some florists only understand 20-80 or they feel they are going to lose too much money if they do anything differently. It doesn't matter whether florists understand why other florists are willing to send orders 0-100 and not worry about getting incoming. There is only ONE PROGRAM out there that is truely independent and has room for both commission programs. As for the comments about the sending and receiving systems not being compatible, I'm sorry but it is really those florists' problems and it is not the responsibility of the rest of us to solve it for you. This is no different than buying a Gillette razor and wanting Shick blades to work with it. Or buying track lighting from Home Depot and wanting to buy fixtures from Menards or Lowes. These companies did it to keep you as THEIR customer and so did the WS do the same thing. The problem is, as time goes on you will have less and less florists to send to with those systems as the costs continue to rise with the WS. The is only ONE INDEPENDENT reputable program that allows order transmission and may require double entry, but it is better than nothing right now.
For those of you that think that florist to florist transactions will gradually come to an end, you may be right. But with a little imagination and a communication system created just for florists, there is a way that real florists can provide a service superior to what is currently available and continue to service and charge for this service to there current customer base that will make it advantageous for them to continue to use the local florist. This will also be better for our industry that adding non-floral drop ship items no matter what the current profit margins are because as you help those companies grow, the first thing they will do is reduce those margins!
So you can continue to sit here in the back room with your feet up on the cracker barrel and discuss how you would change the world or you can continue to talk about how a life raft with a handleful of individuals floating around an open sea could possibly be your salvation or you can get behind the only program that has any chance to pull the industry back together again. For $40 you can join and you can list yourself as a 20-80 florist or a 0-100. If you don't send or receive 5 orders or more per month it doesn't cost you anything. The joke is, many of you are willing to spend up to $300 a month and have no idea how many discounted orders you are going to get or spend x dollars on a directory and again have no idea the volumn or lack of volumn that will result. The good thing is, the more florists you put into the data base the better the overall system is.
Again this year the internet authorities confessed that only 3% of all retail transactions are done over the internet. Yes Christmas was a busy internet holiday, but for the whole year we are still talking about 3%. That means tht 97% is still done at the local level and therefore florist to florist transactions will be around for some time to come.
