Wire IN's 12/1-12/16

BOSS

BOSS

FlowerChat Administrator
Oct 31, 2002
19,394
8,269
113
68
Midland
www.smithsflowers.com
State / Prov
MI
Just for the heck of it I thought I'd take a look at a few numbers, something I don't normally do until the EOM... but anyway...

Wire IN's... DOWN 76.4% for the month.... Hmmmm a telling number, depending on what you believe is going on.

What are you all seeing?

Overall business this year is gaining on last years totals... for the range of 12/1-12/8 I was off (down) 30.2%, today, 12/1-12/16 it has improved to 16.1% and factoring out sympathy sales get's me close to 10%...I can live with that.

Rock on folks...8 days to go...
 
  • Like
Reactions: conchandler, TOTO and roysecityfloristand gifts
We tend to focus on decreased sales a lot, understandably. Has anyone run numbers that tell the more important story ? I have been known to show a better profit on a slow year because my expenses go down and I have enough time to stay organized and buy carefully. It's definately harder than ever in this economy, but total sales do not tell the whole story. I won't miss 2009 no matter how my bottom line turns out. Working harder than ever, and trying to work smarter.Wishing us all a better 2010!
 
  • Like
Reactions: marigold, CRICKETS FLOWERS, KABERS and 3 others
My wire ins are down by 45% This is good for me because in the past my wires were about 50% of my overall business(just starting out)

My wire outs are up by 25%

and local business is up by ready for this, now no one fall off your chairs---


3452% holy cow!!!!!

I need to do a comparison to the last few years and will when I have the time....This has been a break through holiday...I am finding more and more people buzzing about the shop, more and more referrals...The mayor and chamber are urging people to shop local in the newspapers and banners downtown...

My cc are down but cash is up, up, up!!!

I have been booking partys and corporate gifts like crazy....I have gained a few affluent consumers in the area that had given up on local shops because they wanted more of the big city floral selection, I went after them and got them, stole one account from Winston's, yay me!!! Now I am getting people in my shop because I do different than the regular round mound, people are actually seeking me out because of design....in my small town....this makes me darn happy!!!


Now my numbers are still from a growing shop so this is not neccessarily a huge amount of money we are talking about....but is is huge in terms of growth...

I would suspect that you more established shops will see a flat year, here's to hoping that things pick up over the next few days for you all...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tuberose
Mark said:
Wire IN's... DOWN 76.4% for the month.... Hmmmm a telling number, depending on what you believe is going on.

What are you all seeing?

Overall business this year is gaining on last years totals... for the range of 12/1-12/8 I was off (down) 30.2%, today, 12/1-12/16 it has improved to 16.1% and factoring out sympathy sales get's me close to 10%...I can live with that.
Click to expand...

Here, we're showing a 26% decrease in wire ins, and only 3.5% increase in direct sales over last year so far this month. Hoping things will improve more each day, as you noted.
Mark, I didn't realize you were associated with a wire service?
As for what might be going on...I get spam-mails from 1800Flowers every day, so far almost every promo this month has been for drop-shipped items, leaving the florists out of the picture completely.
 
I wish I had real numbers to share with you all, but this being my first Christmas season at Carolina Pottery, I would have to view this Christmas season as a success in terms of sales - we are close to ninety percent of our Christmas product sold.

Now, at the beginning of the season, we did recieve a letter from our buyers that due to the economny, they were not buying as heavily as they had done in past years, but I think all of us pretty much followed that idea and not bought as much.

 
Mark said:
Agree'd!!!!!

And yes, my NET is looking better than it has in the last 3 years...
Click to expand...

This IS the MOST important functionality of decision making these last few years...it's ALL abot "net", and really, NOT anything else.
It's surprising/NOT...how you CAN be so very much more successful, even with fewer sales, or turnover, if you "know when to fold 'em".
Adjustments to cog's, expense over-runs, inappropriate wire service costs, emotional wish lists, have hurt many shops, and taken down a whole bunch more, and we are FINALLY talking turkey with what we are discussing here.
We are running AHEAD of last year, almost 9%, our wire OUTs have risen almost 5%, and our wire INs, are running sideways.
Walk in traffic is sporadic, but, our web related business is wayyy up,but strangely, as 'call ins".....
Here's the kicker, though our numbers indicate we are "ahead" the actual NUMBER of transactions is far higher than in the past, which indicates, that more people are spending wayyy less money, and we have acquired almost 35% MORE transactions, to do the same amount of business.
Our "net"....has risen 16%...that's MY ONLY magic number!
 
  • Like
Reactions: CHR
Our incoming wire orders are up this holiday season. We believe its due to top placement on the list of DOVE shops for our town. The best part of this is that they are mainly from real florists, with reasonably priced orders for products we actually carry.

Haven't received any IFA orders yet. Usually get a few of those as well, but its early.
 
Local orders are up, wire-ins are down, our toll free orders are up, our internet orders are consistent with last year (but they were up a lot last year).
 
My numbers are very strong and I just check my books and I am running at my 2006 numbers thru the 16th and its noon here and we already have the total days business for the 17th last year in.

Orders +12.5%
wire ins Even
wire outs +15%
Local business +17%

We were having a single digit increase in business until this week when we drop our flier vs no flier a year ago and that has put us on a very fast track. The flier also would be reason for my wire outs to be up can not explain why I am even on the incoming thou.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HeatherTuckey and CHR
As of yesterday.

2009 December 1 Through December 17 Down 11.98% Total Sales
2008 December 1 Through December 17 Postive 5.66% Total Sales
2007 December 1 Through Decmeber 17 Down 20.56% Total Sales.

2007 Was just hard. Its just continuing to decline at this point.

Today we have been open for 3 hours and have had three orders. So we know what today is going to look like.

Sorry no need to mention incoming. Nothing since 2005.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HeatherTuckey
Wire Ins 12/1 thru 12/14 - depends on the w/s!
FTD - up 5%
TEL - down 11%
BLM - up 100% ...didn't have them this time last year :) and probably won't have them this time NEXT year ;-)

As far as the rest, have had no time to run numbers. Sadly, Merc X doesn't have a decent Sales Comparison report - yet...told one is due in April :-(

November, we were up 3.8% overall - totally excited about that. For us, Nov sales is a good indicator of C-mas sales... Not sure why, but it is pretty consistent for our biz...

Keep on selling! As of today, have over 300 Poinsettias to get rid of - er, mean SELL... Greenhouse is TOTALLY beautiful...


- H.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HeatherTuckey
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back