WFFSA partnering with Direct2florist.com

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clay

clay

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Aug 12, 2004
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This just came up on the WFFSA e-newsletter.....anybody heard any skinny on this partnership with WFFSA? I am wondering, what is in it for WFFSA?


1-8-08

Direct2florist.com and WF&FSA Join Forces to Support
Traditional Retail Florists
The profitability of traditional retail florists has been decimated by an over abundance of discounted orders and an increasing number of consumers going to the internet to purchase flowers.

Wholesalers, through WF&FSA, are taking action and investing in a program to help retail florists receive orders that are not discounted and to make them competitive on the Internet. The retail florist remains the key customer base for wholesale florists in the United States and Canada.

What is Direct2florist.com?
Internet Order Generator - Consumers worldwide place orders directly with a traditional local florist.
Instant E-Commerce - Any florist can be up and running in minutes.
100% Value on Every Order - Orders are not discounted.
100% Control - Each florist uploads their own products, sets their own prices and selects their own delivery area.

Founded by former British florist John Stirling and his son Simon, Direct2florist.com has been operating successfully for nearly a year. WF&FSA will manage the program in the United States and Canada.

"WF&FSA sees Direct2florist.com as an opportunity to help traditional retail florists," said Dave Garcia, WF&FSA President and President of the Pete Garcia Company in Atlanta, GA. "The fate of floral wholesalers is closely tied to that of the traditional retail florist. Direct2florist.com will have an impact on the profitability of retail florists. The risk to the retail florist is minimal and the potential gain is tremendous."

Direct2florist.com does not replace what florists are already doing. It is designed to supplement and enhance their current marketing efforts.

Consumer promotion will be industry guided.

Consumers will pay a nominal transaction fee with each order. The money from the transaction fees will run the operation and will be plowed into consumer promotion. The consumer promotion will be designed to drive more consumers to the site and to traditional local florists.

Cost to the retail florist is minimal. There is an annual membership fee. The introductory offer is $200 a year which is less than $17 a month. The 12 month membership does not start until the florist receives their first order.

Signing up is easy and straightforward. Florists can have their page up and running in minutes. Only traditional florists will be allowed to participate.

Learn more and play an active role in bringing Direct2florist.com to your customers by attending the WF&FSA Convention & Floral Expo, March 5-7, 2008, Tampa, FL.

Want to see how the program is working in England? Click here and enter "Bolton" to search.

Direct your questions and comments about Direct2florist.com to Jim Wanko at [email protected]

Action Steps for Wholesalers in Support of Direct2florist.com
Educate yourself about D2F.

Educate your sales people about D2F.
Introduce the opinion leaders among your customers to D2F. Meet with them individually or bring them in as a small group.
Distribute printed material provided by WF&FSA.
Put D2F stickers provided by WF&FSA on your trucks and vans.
Put up D2F window stickers and banners in your wholesale house.
Put D2F stickers on your boxes.
Link to D2F from your website. If you do nothing else, do this.
Add a Flower Gallery to Your Website
WF&FSA has created a Flower Gallery and a year long subscription for 2008 costs just $300.

The Flower Gallery is:
Generic and non-competitive.
Effortless - automatically updated monthly.
Unique - flower photos and information are provided by breeders worldwide.
Features over 2,200 varieties currently on the site. New varieties are added monthly.
Flowers can be searched by flower type, color, or variety name.

You can personalize the Flower Gallery with your company name and logo for an additional $100. In most cases we get you up and running in less than 48 hours!

Hook up today! Contact Ken Hess at [email protected] or call 888-289-3372.
 
Well it's about time somebody woke up!

Sounds like the wholesalers finally 'get' that WSs and OGs are eating their customers' lunches and their own now, too (with FTD and TF both urging florists to bypass their local wholesalers and 'order direct').

I looked at Direct2Florist.com a year or so ago and it seemed to have few listings. Time to take another look.

Clay - thanks for sharing the news. :)
 
Looks like a baloney site to me. You can order flowers still with no members - so how, or rather WHO gets the order and how do they get it fulfilled?

Never mind - it's a UK site.

Carry on...
 
Looks like same old BS to me

"Our site is different" so you go to it and guess what same old OG type site but not designed for US market. If it is true it rolled out way too soon for anyone to beleive that its for real. Why not if what you are doing is different say it up front and promote it to the consumer? It just looks like a crappy UK OG site. Everything is wrapped or done EU style, wont fly in US. Hey, prove me wrong!
OODR
(Opinions Offered Despite Requests)

Cheers,
Keith
 
How about Marketer of the Year at SAF?

I seem to remember that dude too.
 
Hi -

I just completed the sign-up and customizing process today and have some comments.

1) Getting started is easy. I filled out the form online and had a login & password in less than an hour. There's a 'how-to' video that explains the uploading and customizing process thoroughly. :)

2) Pricing your products. You must include the local delivery charge and local sales tax in the shown price. Note to the Direct2Florist Team - No One in the US displays prices including delivery and tax. 99.9% display the product price with delivery/service and sales tax added once in the shopping cart. IMO by placing everything (including tax and delivery) up front, this site will loose a lot of sales since the prices will appear to be very unfavorable compared to the way US buyers are used to shopping. If the site wants to be a serious contender here, it will need to present prices in the 'US/Canadian" way. (I know that would require more programming, but it's a reality you guys need to face.)

3) Uploading products. The process is easy enough although the server won't accept " as an abbreviation for "inches". I crashed a couple uploads since I included sizes in the product descriptions.

4) Delivery areas. The area defaults to a 10 mile radius from your store and you can check or uncheck boxes by city name, area name and hospital. For some weird reason, the list also included every trailer park in our area. (IMO no one searches to send flowers by the name of a trailer park.) I was also surprised that with such a lengthy list the delivery locations did not include local funeral homes or cemeteries and would strongly recommend they be added.

5). Products. There are two groupings; the pre-sets included by Direct2Florist (very UK-looking hand-tieds and sympathy pieces) and your own customizable selections. (IMO the UK designs are not well suited to what US consumers would expect from florists.)

I omitted the pre-sets and uploaded 16 of our own (out of the 20 permitted.) As I only leaned after I completed the customization and looked at the actual listing in a search of the site - the only products that will appear on your shop summary are the ones from Direct2Florist - so our summary shows zero selections right now. For a site promoting florists to show their own designs, IMO this is a serious mistake.

A feature to change the sort order of the custom designs is also needed. As it looks now, when I want to upload Valentine's Day products they'll be displayed at the bottom of the selections and not at the top where they're most relevant during that important holiday period.

6) Florist Lookup. The site searches by City Name only (without state) A search for 'Anaheim, CA' and 'Anaheim CA' both said "WFFSA & Direct2florist does not yet have a florist in this area." The only way I could get our shop to show was to just type in 'Anaheim' and then I was presented with list of links to every zip in Anaheim including the ones that are just Post Office Boxes. Note to Direct2Florist Team: US and Canadian consumers are used to searching using city with state/province abbreviations. I'm guessing every state in the US has a city called 'Washington' or 'Madison' or 'Jefferson'. When you present them with huge lists of zip code links to 50 different states - or worse yet 'no florist in the area' - they'll leave the site.

I thought I'd give the site a try since I really like the concept of a one-stop shop for real local florists. It's an OK start but needs the areas I've described above to be addressed before it can gain real credibility (and usability) with North American consumers and florists.
 
I don't understand CHR

CHR said:
Hi -

I just completed the sign-up and customizing process today and have some comments.

1) Getting started is easy. I filled out the form online and had a login & password in less than an hour. There's a 'how-to' video that explains the uploading and customizing process thoroughly. :)

2) Pricing your products. You must include the local delivery charge and local sales tax in the shown price. Note to the Direct2Florist Team - No One in the US displays prices including delivery and tax. 99.9% display the product price with delivery/service and sales tax added once in the shopping cart. IMO by placing everything (including tax and delivery) up front, this site will loose a lot of sales since the prices will appear to be very unfavorable compared to the way US buyers are used to shopping. If the site wants to be a serious contender here, it will need to present prices in the 'US/Canadian" way. (I know that would require more programming, but it's a reality you guys need to face.)

3) Uploading products. The process is easy enough although the server won't accept " as an abbreviation for "inches". I crashed a couple uploads since I included sizes in the product descriptions.

4) Delivery areas. The area defaults to a 10 mile radius from your store and you can check or uncheck boxes by city name, area name and hospital. For some weird reason, the list also included every trailer park in our area. (IMO no one searches to send flowers by the name of a trailer park.) I was also surprised that with such a lengthy list the delivery locations did not include local funeral homes or cemeteries and would strongly recommend they be added.

5). Products. There are two groupings; the pre-sets included by Direct2Florist (very UK-looking hand-tieds and sympathy pieces) and your own customizable selections. (IMO the UK designs are not well suited to what US consumers would expect from florists.)

I omitted the pre-sets and uploaded 16 of our own (out of the 20 permitted.) As I only leaned after I completed the customization and looked at the actual listing in a search of the site - the only products that will appear on your shop summary are the ones from Direct2Florist - so our summary shows zero selections right now. For a site promoting florists to show their own designs, IMO this is a serious mistake.

A feature to change the sort order of the custom designs is also needed. As it looks now, when I want to upload Valentine's Day products they'll be displayed at the bottom of the selections and not at the top where they're most relevant during that important holiday period.

6) Florist Lookup. The site searches by City Name only (without state) A search for 'Anaheim, CA' and 'Anaheim CA' both said "WFFSA & Direct2florist does not yet have a florist in this area." The only way I could get our shop to show was to just type in 'Anaheim' and then I was presented with list of links to every zip in Anaheim including the ones that are just Post Office Boxes. Note to Direct2Florist Team: US and Canadian consumers are used to searching using city with state/province abbreviations. I'm guessing every state in the US has a city called 'Washington' or 'Madison' or 'Jefferson'. When you present them with huge lists of zip code links to 50 different states - or worse yet 'no florist in the area' - they'll leave the site.

I thought I'd give the site a try since I really like the concept of a one-stop shop for real local florists. It's an OK start but needs the areas I've described above to be addressed before it can gain real credibility (and usability) with North American consumers and florists.
Click to expand...

I don't understand CHR why you jumped thru so many hoops. First, the website has plenty of faults as you point out. If WFSA was really interested in helping retail florists, don't you think they would have put more thought into their effort?

The company they partner with is from Europe which means that there are cultural differences that have to be overcome in order for this to work..example European designs. The website design is primitive to say the least.

My thoughts are this is are that WFSA is getting paid from part of the fees and that is why they put their seal of approval on it. If it was to be a serious attempt to help retailers, this whole program would have been better thought out.
 
I just completed the sign-up and customizing process today and have some comments.
Click to expand...

Cathy, why? IIRC, you're one of the loudest proponents of having a single focused web presence. This sounds like another website.
 
Interesting to read your comments CHR, there definitely ought to be a standard selection which reflects the US market.

I do like the d2f system, it's quite useful to me as I've not had time to sort out e-commerce on my own website so instead I just have a link to my page on the direct2florist website and so far, so good - I've had quite a few customers order this way.

I do totally agree with the point you've made about the product placement - any 'custom' items we list are shown at the bottom of the page. I hindsight this was a bit irritating at Christmas, for Valentines this is crucial.
 
sfox said:
I don't understand CHR why you jumped thru so many hoops. First, the website has plenty of faults as you point out. If WFSA was really interested in helping retail florists, don't you think they would have put more thought into their effort?
Click to expand...
WF&FSA getting behind a project to help consumers find locals is a HUGE step in the right direction, IMO. While SAF links to National OGs from their "About Us" page and AIFD links to OGs from the Home Page (and every other page on the site), I hope this is a strong signal from the wholesale supply chain that they will back Locals.

I'd rather give this kind of effort a chance, throw in a few bucks to see what's really there, jump through a few 'hoops', and add my .02 than just throw out reasons 'why it won't work'.

Why do millions of consumers go to 1800, FTD or TF? Wanna bet a bunch do so because it's a one-stop spot?

We have nothing in the floral industry comparable to travel sites like Travelocity, Orbitz, Trip Advisor & others where shoppers can see an array of real choices (not cookie-cutter 'in the unlikely event of substitution' pictures dreamed up by a corporate staff and under-priced by their marketing department to compensate for the $12-16 'service charges') with real prices and delivery fees that WE determine, read ratings and leave their own reviews.

If I'd had the technical expertise, time and $, this is the kind of portal I'd build to combat national OGs as a group. How many times have I said I wish we had the equivalent of an http://www.abebooks.com ? Yes, consumers are using search engines and Local sites to find us individually, but what about the the folks who just want a single place to go every time they need flowers? (Yes, I know we can wire them out, but the model is failing.)

Wouldn't you love it if 1-800 or FTD or TF showed your own products with our own prices and delivery charges and then let the customers choose to buy what you're ready to make? Well, that ain't gonna happen so the alternative is to build out a site that does.

The company they partner with is from Europe which means that there are cultural differences that have to be overcome in order for this to work..example European designs. The website design is primitive to say the least.
Click to expand...
There are much-needed refinements to make the site 'sticky' for sure. That's why I took the time to review the process and comment on the serious issues I see.

My thoughts are this is are that WFSA is getting paid from part of the fees and that is why they put their seal of approval on it. If it was to be a serious attempt to help retailers, this whole program would have been better thought out.
Click to expand...
Just because folks can make money doesn't make a project worthless or useless.

It's whether the project can be of benefit to help local florists sell more of their own flowers without having to coughing up 40% in commissions & fees. It will also give small shops with NO web presence a place where customers can order online.

I'm guessing the WF&FSA team didn't really grasp all the nitty-gritty uability issues that could hold back the site from being truly successful in North America. What they DO have is a working platform and a company with a track record in the floral industry (albeit the UK).

WF&FSA will need their wholesalers to actively promote participation and likely offer assitance to help some shops to get going.

Maybe wholesalers can go out with a digital camera and take photos of the stores, maybe they can have seminars on how florists can quickly and easily take pictures of their own designs - or they can offer to shoot them if the shops bring them in? Or even offer a slection of photos made from products the wholesaler has on special promotion.

The opportunities for successful partnerships are there. The site isn't a magic bullet ATM, but the opportunity, potential and direction deserve a very good look, IMO.
 
RJD said:
Cathy, why? IIRC, you're one of the loudest proponents of having a single focused web presence. This sounds like another website.
Click to expand...
I suppose it could be seen as 'competing' with my own site but I see it as a collective advertising opportunity via a different channel.

Like I said about travel consolidators - everything from the Hiltons to the Marriotts to the Holiday Inns to the small local motels are there because it gives them more opportunities to be seen by more potential consumers.

If the direct2florist.com page about our company ranks higher than our own company site, then shame on me.
 
An update since my Saturday uploads:

1. Direct2Florist.com no longer suggests searching the US by city and instead suggest using a zip code. Most people will have the zip code of the recipient except in the cases on hospitals, funeral homes and cemetaries. Perhaps a link to a zip code locator would help them?

2. Our shop summary now displays the first three images from our selections so it's no longer empty. (I'd still like the ability to easily change the sort order and it sounds like Leila would, too.)

Nice to see such a fast response from the Direct2 team. :)
 
Many thanks CHR for your input, it has been most useful and help get the product right for USA and Canada. In response to your email. We have done the following:
(1) Tax field for USA & Canada
(2) Fixed the """" bug
(3) included Cemetries and Hospitals in the areas database (could not locate funeral homes yet) But in addition florists will be able to add areas the database has not suggested. - we removed trailer parks
(4)USA products - WF&FSA are currently obtaining suitable product pictures
(5) we have now added a zip code look up
(6) Moving products around to suit you. This is certainly going to be a feature very soon, in addition florists will have their own diary system to cater for days closed holidays and early closing.

Once again, thanks for your input. Of course its always a challenge in a new market and every country is different, but with constructive input like this we can soon get it right.
 
Zoe@Florist2Florist said:
David, thanks for trying to buy D2F!
Sorry for the inconvenience we are awaiting AMEX to come on line with us. In the meantime all the other cards are accepted.
Click to expand...

I should have seen that. I have signed up. I also like your quick response to issues with the web site. One thing I did notice that even though I placed
MA in state the web site populated my email address.
 
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