Plus CHR, those look like 40cm roses, so a florist has to lower their standard to meet their profit margin and in the long run, makes the local florist look like a hack, while the FTD site, in a way, looks good, because they match PF prices. In the end, in my opinion, it is the local florist that loses.
Great post Blue! If there was only a network online that wasn't controlled by the big corps that when customers online could see the flowers in real time 3000 miles away before they bought them. I'm not sure about your customers, but I know all of mine have been jacked up before because they didn't get what was in the picture. Maybe this would change the way flowers were bought online, instead of looking at an OG site, FTD.con, etc... Maybe this could put creditability back into the local florists hands and kick online corps/OGs in the groin. Or maybe this convenience would raise your local sales over your competition? Give the online floral buyer the choice of looking at a static pic that hardily ever ends up that way, vs a dynamic image that they see as if they were in your shop, I wonder which one they would choose? Or they had a chance to watch and design as they went. Hmm I wonder.
Florist A: But my shop isn't set up for that and the logistics of when my flowers go out won't work.
Wanna know whose shop will be set up for this? The young ambitious person living in your neighborhood and the 1800 filling centers.
Wow I wish I would of thought of this 3 years ago, but I guess it is still ahead of its time.
Right now there are no online florists, in how I think of what a florist is and should be. A florist is one where people can come to, see what you have, have a personal relationship with a designer , etc.... These so called "online florists" and OGs offer static images and customer service people who don't a tulip from an Iris. Could you image if someone came into your shop, look at just static images and there order was taken by someone who didn't know a tulip from an Iris? You call that a florist? Anyway.... in the future, there will be true online florists and I will help see to it. The sad thing is, corps will rein supreme, not because they are trailblazers, but because florists, in general, are ignorant and will keep following the piper.
I wish I could draw well, because a good floral political cartoon would be a florist bent over in pain with a hand holding a knife that said WS on it. In the second frame, you find out, it is the florist's hand hold the knife, pushing it in even further. Down in the lower right hand corner, there would be a small pic of a cat with it's front leg broken. The cat is telling the mouse, yeah I need you to pay for my medical bills and the mouse is reaching for his wallet.
Like I have said many times, the only way to beat the OG and WS, is to offer the customer something they can not offer.... aka, up the anti. Agree with me or not, but I'm hear to say right now that in the future, they way online flowers are bought will evolve to the model I've created and tested at my local shop over 3 years ago. Customers drive our market and how well WE adapt to that will depend on our survival. Hand a person hamburger or prime rib, most the time they will choose prime rib. Or another analogy is, why would a customer go through a WS and not get an arrangement filled at 100%, let alone something they didn’t ask for? Our grand children will laugh when they hear the word substitution. lol In 2007, Forresters projects Online flowers, gifts and cards to reach 5.5 billion. Will you be ready for some of that pie? I'll tell you who will be... Prof, 1800F and the WS. I got wind that ProF is working on something like this at there farms. Why tell my secret? I havn't, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
P.S. - So much for NDAs, had several ip pings from FTDs hometown, Miami and other places. (
http://www.arin.net) Got-ta-love human nature and the lack of its integrity. The funny thing is, I spaced out who I told on purpose to find the rats in the group.
