lunes, 1 de diciembre de 2014

1-800-Flowers competes using fruits against florists

1-800-Flowers our beloved wire service, has been delivering edible fruit bouquet since some time ago. 

That is a good alternative to real flowers, but it is against real brick and mortar florist. Anyway, my aunt (real florist) was called from fruitbouquets.com branch of 1-800-Flowers owner or Bloomnet, they told her about the great opportunity to sell fruit bouquets yada, yada, yada; she answer them that this is not very compatible due to the well known Ethylene effect of the fruits  over the fresh flowers. Then, They replied telling her that this is not an issue; but ,if she cannot do the fruit bouquets at least she should give them a referral of any person willing to do that, does not matter whether or not the person is a florist.

Our beloved 1-800-Flowers wire service again is competing in another front against florists.


I wonder how many freelancer designers are doing fruits bouquets for fruitbouquets.com…. hummmm?




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viernes, 3 de octubre de 2014

Again, cyber thieves targeting flower shops using Wire Services

“The fake website pops up when you search for the business on Google. The site includes a false phone number that does not lead to the store.”

“The owners say they've lost a lot of money this way, and it appears that they're not alone.”

“The order came to her via a wire service. She had no idea she was an unknowing participant in this scheme"

viernes, 25 de abril de 2014

What is better for a florist, Responsive design or Mobile development?

The true is that if you get your web services from a third party… doesn't matter if your mobile presence is made by responsive design or mobile optimization. The issue is for your web services providers.


First we have to define responsive and mobile.

Mobile:

The mobile optimization is in plain English an optimized copy of the website, where the server does the work to deliver an optimized web page which fits in any device (phone, tablet etc).

Mobile is faster and has more features than a responsive. . (Advantage for a mobile customer)

Mobile is easier to develop than mobile. (Advantage for a web developer)

Mobile is more complicated to maintain, any change on core code on the web has to be made on the mobile site. (Disadvantage for a web developer)

Old myth, Google will penalize the mobile site because double index contend due to Google has to crawl and index multiple versions of the same site. Today mobile standards don’t allow this, it only redirect to the correct mobile page according to the device, also allowing that Google only index the web desktop version of a page. SEO also is optimized in favor of main web site. More tech info. (Neutral point)

Data and information on mobile is easy to maintain, any change of data on the web is automatically reflected on mobile. (Advantage for florist)

Responsive:

The responsive design makes a device (phone, tablet etc) work to automatically adjust the webpage according to a device’s screen size.

Responsive design is more complicated to develop than mobile. (Disadvantage for a web developer)

Responsive is easier to maintain, any change on core code on the web is automatically reflected on mobile. (Advantage for a web developer)

Data and information on responsive is easy to maintain, any change of data on the web is automatically reflected on mobile. (Advantage for florist)

Responsive will use the same URL and SEO that is used on main web site. (Neutral point)

Responsive is slower than Mobile and do not handle efficiently the same features that are present on main website which requires a powerful equipment like a laptop. (Advantage for a mobile customer)

In my opinion Mobile has a slim advantage over Responsive. Mobile gives to the customer more features and faster webpage loading speed for his device than responsive does.

Imaging a customer with an average phone, or browsing with a 3G connection… on responsive site he will spend a lot of time trying to reach the site; meanwhile on mobile optimized site, everything will be faster. Responsive is fantastic for a site that does not need many features like a blog; but, on an eCommerce site… mobile is better.

Important sites that prefer mobile over responsive:

  1. Apple
  2. Amazon
  3. BBC
  4. Huffington Post
  5. Walmart USA
  6. Alibaba 
  7. YouTube
  8. Carrefour
  9. eBay... and more!.




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jueves, 27 de marzo de 2014

Jim and Flower importers were very smart on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day  is over, for many florist was a good day, good volume of sales and so on, but the real winner here were the flower importers due to they have more clients besides only florist. More flowers were sold this year than last year. (According to statistics from Colombian flower producers).

Among the importer clients, there are the usual grocery stores, supermarkets, convenient stores etc. But this time also special clients were present: big retail stores and many individuals who saw the opportunity to make extra bucks.

To bring some examples:

1800flowers works directly with Kohl’s.


Wal-Mart was selling dozen of roses for $15.


But the best part, is that a lot of people had sold roses using craigslist and Facebook. After one month, finally I have the opportunity to talk with one of them, and the fallowing he said:


I’m Jim, first year on Miami College, I started last year with this flash business, the idea is to buy roses at discount price on the importer warehouses in Miami; also, in nearest dollar store, get adorns, you know…  colored papers, balloons, adorns etc. I Advertise on Craigslist and Facebook, sell the flowers at a cheap price, accept payment by Paypal or cash, and make delivery. All the communication is by text or Whatsapp; Easy money

What was your cost?

For example, a dozen of roses with delivery we charge 17.99. The cost was $5 per dozen of roses, $1.5 in adorns (paper, green foliage, card etc) optional balloon $1, Delivery $3. The total cost was $10.5 for a first class dozen of roses with balloon and delivery; nobody could beat our prices not even Wal-Mart. For something similar the cheapest price in a florist was $29.99 without delivery, balloon or ornamental foliage. We did not have competence. My profit was $7.5.

How many dozen did you sell?

About 1027

How was your operation?

I went early to buy flowers, with the help of my sister, we started to prepare the bouquets, I had planned and made ready the orders that the clients made days earlier or moments earlier. I hired one friend from college and three others that my friend brought. I paid $3 per delivery, was a good deal for them because at the end for 2 days of work they made each one $700 to $800, plus tips, my friend told me that he and his van partner make $1.500, he is anxious waiting for the next year.

Each driver has to deliver at least 8 orders per hours, which was not complicated because almost all orders were destined to the same area, South Broward and North East Dade, Fl. The day started at 6 AM until 9 PM, some of the drivers had partners who help then during the deliveries.

So your net profit was $7.500?

Well, I have to pay my sister $1000. So my profit  was around $6.500, and everyone was happy, my sister, my drivers, even my father who was so proud of us. Next year we will sell almost the double.

How was your promotion or advertising?

That was so easy it started on Facebook groups, all related to Broward, Miami, Dade, celebration of Valentine's Day  on South Florida etc. all the promotion start there, also 5 days before Valentine’s we started on Craigslist, you know a lot of people use that, looking for something cheap.

Our promotion was… don’t spend your hard ear money on overpriced products from florist. Also, why spend on ice cold  flowers from the grocery store…. you can have delivery, balloon, card etc for only $17.99…. we place a lot of sentences of the same sense.

How was the logistic?

It was not complicated, everything was in our garage; we put the MAX AC, also we use a portables AC from my uncle’s house helping to preserve flowers, also the weather was child, so… 

We use my father van; the balloons were inflated in the garage using a pipe of helium…. No worries at all in the logistic area.

How about payment?

The payment was so easy, people can pay using Paypal, or by phone; Paypal has a service to make order by phone, so the clients called my sister and  she processed it. No problem at all.

Any Complaints?

Four, the reason was that the roses died fast, we promise them free roses for the next Valentine's Day. They were happy with our offer. And two of this complainer told us that they will make more than two orders for that day.

Plans for your flash business?

Yes, now I’ll bring stuffed animals from China, at cheapest price ever, at 86 cents, the same are sold here at discount for $7. Ill add those stuffed animals to the roses, for almost a symbolic price, ill made more advertising, maybe get more drivers etc, next year I will sell more than double of this year. But for now, I'm doing the logistics for the upcoming Mother's Day.

Finally, I did thank Jim for his time chatting with me.

My question… why do Jim, Wal-Mart, FTD, 1800FLOWERS, tend to sell cheaper than real brick and mortar florists?


Should be nice that florists only make business with an importer or wholesaler that only deal with them (exclusivity). 






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lunes, 17 de febrero de 2014

Why florist owners still prefer Wire Services

Florists under the Umbrella of Wired Services

The wire services came to USA in 1910 and have existed ever since. Teleflora, 1800flowers and FTD have a firm grip in this segment and continue to provide a stable service since a long time. On those years, the florist did not have the option to venture into anything else other than the available wire services due to lack of competency and capital, thus, making the wired services, the most desired one. Now, when a first time florist decides to choose the florist wired service, he gets the details of the available sources and naturally ends up in choosing the most advertised service, especially if it is by companies with decades of presence.  The most advertised service is naturally from the one with deepest pocket and may or may not be the best available.  The florist later continues to suffer due to this wrong decision.

The current lack of Transparency
The detailed information related to the POS software and web services are not easily available to the florists due to the lack of transparency among the leading wire services who prefer to keep the information hidden on their websites and only reveals it in person to get the benefit, judging the florist’s capacity to pay or their budget and it keeps differing at every part of the city from florist to florist. Also, whatever information available is often not clarified by the right authority over phone or mail. This leads to a situation that florist has to get educated from various sources inclusive by word of mouth and paid advertising. It is quite natural that the lack of transparency among the larger players like Teleflora, FTD or 1800 flowers is overlooked while taking the decision to acquire the best software to run their business; the smile and sweet talk of the vendor rule and convince. see  Lack of Transparency from Florist Wire Services.

Fear to face the new technologies
The “advanced” age of the florist owners results in a number of hurdles. The florist is unable to establish the emotional connect with his customers due to the generation gap. They are afraid to try and adapt to new technologies and services. They get attached to the legacy system and want to continue with it. Also they apprehend that if they try to set up a new system, it might take time to stabilize and this would create issues and may result in losses. Also to decide to scrap the existing wire service in favor of something which they have experienced is tough for this age group, Young People do not want to be a Florist. The florists are afraid that the new system would need skill sets which they do not posses. They wish to continue with what they have mastered over the years. Like every other businessman, the florists fear that new social trends would bring instability.


Florist as a profession is losing its appeal due to Order Gathers that have started to reap benefits through their small websites and a low pay to the local florist. In fact 90% of the people attending a florist congress are over 45 years of age. They may not have detailed knowledge of the latest software and hardware but they have their expertise and yet due to the various hurdles try to remain under the umbrella of these wired services. They have a tendency to accept and move on rather than experiment and aim for better success and better revenue.



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lunes, 6 de enero de 2014

One Page Checkout is not a must on these days

We live in a rapidly growing society where we want the things to be as easy and quick as possible. In the earlier years (2002 – 2009),  it was seen that the One Page Checkout process was the most attractive system to get through the checkout online process. The Internet and World Wide Web was not that technologically advanced and the connection was too slow to sustain nicely a multiple page checkout process. The trend was to setup a system where every single detail was incorporated into just one page to get through the checkout process.

Gaining Popularity of Multiple Page Check Out


Today, web pages load faster than they did six years ago. Currently the web speeds standard and the loading time of the web pages have improved a lot. The Experts on the big ecommerce websites are thankful today to the internet speeds, they have created checkout systems which are more like a GPS which guides the customer step by step with the multiple checkout process and it is preferred rather than a One Page Checkout which was in the past a must feature on any other ecommerce site.

The multiple page checkout system is gaining popularity again with each passing day and most of the top 500 Fortune Companies are utilizing the multiple page checkout process in their daily transactions online, also focusing on the conversions through their web pages. The Multiple Page Checkout guides a customer through every step he takes, while making any purchase online or form fills ups for banks or insurance with detailed information. It acts like a GPS guiding a customer through the process, holding his hand so that he won’t have any problem in understanding the points to be filled in. It is always better to have multiple page checkouts than scrolling through the one page cluttered of fields to be filed that often makes it a lengthy and confusing process; multi page GPS step by step checkout process try to avoid customer filling processes a confusing one, making an easy task the checkout process.

The One Page Checkout process has been relegated by the well known multiple page checkout that is even simpler and the online form fill up or web pages are clearly understood and well implemented making the multiple page checkout process potentially lead to more conversions in the form of customers and traffic increase on a website which indirectly leads to more money. For instance, the Online TurboTax which has a multiple forms and fields works as a GPS, leading the customer step by step through all the process. The inquiries are made in plain English and his replies are put on the right tax documents. Then the only thing remains to do is the e-filing or the print of the tax return. It's that trouble-free and effortless. It is always simpler to complete four easier steps than completing one big, cluttered and confusing step.


There is no doubt that the one page check out was a great process in the early years but with the highly developed technologies and fast speed Internet connection, today, the multiple page checkout process have taken the center stage with all the leading high end companies taking up multiple step checkout to control all their transactions in rapid and simple steps. As a whole, to make the customer’s checkout process easier, potentially  including on each of the steps additional cross offers, tips, and features that reinforce trust that  on One Page Checkout could be difficult to do; it is always better to go with the multiple page checkout system.






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lunes, 2 de diciembre de 2013

Florist Marketplace, yes or no?

Lately a new form of flower’s commercialization had been implemented; is akin to eBay or Etsy service does. This marketplace is supposed to be an internet platform that allows a local florist to upload his products, local zip codes of delivery coverage; setup his own prices, even, the florist can create a storefront on this market place. 
On the process, the customer arrives to this web marketplace; there he buys flowers that will be fulfilled by his chosen florist. The marketplace gain between 10% and 20% for administration, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and transaction fees on every order; the rest of the money goes to the fulfilling florist. This model is very good for the Filling Florist, but at the same time this service is comparable to an Order Gather (OG) service with the difference that the Filling Florist roll is very active here, rather filling florist profits are very attractive; but, on other hand, the clients that should go directly to the Filling Florist website are getting attracted to the Marketplace website.



Some of the percentage of the money made by the Marketplace in each transaction is designated to a Search Engine Optimization leaving the Filling Florist website hooked in some sort of disadvantage when a customer performs a search in any web search engine; so when a potential customer wants a floral arrangement from a  florist on the area, guess what?... the customer will end on the marketplace, the new middle man, The Florist Marketplace.

As time passes the website of the Florist will fade off from search engines or have to compete very hard against the marketplace trying the get relevant positions on the search results.

“When you feed your product descriptions to marketplaces you give them the ability to use that content. If your product feed contains the same descriptions that are on your site, the marketplace could receive primary credit, and search engines could label you as a copycat.

In a long run the Florist will lose the branding benefit of selling to the customer directly; the florist website fades off in favor of a new middleman, called Marketplace.  The main advise for florist is to maximize revenue growth on the web store and develop a long-term strategy for it before making marketplace selling a priority; marketplace should be a secondary resource of revenue not the main one.

Many times  Order Gathers and freelancer floral designer join the marketplace services only using the incorporation information (or not at all), but not necessarily having a brick and mortar presence.


Winners:
  • Anyone who is willing to make and sell flower arrangements. Easy setup, my high school neighbor can sell flowers from her parent’s garage.
  • Order gathers, can gather order from market place.
  • Supermarkets who sell flowers to anyone willing to make and sell flower arrangements.
  • Market Place, who is the middleman who take profits on each transaction.
Losers:

Brick and mortar florist, who has to compete against order gathers, and freelancer designers like my neighbor aforementioned before. Also in the long run, they have to compete against market places on search results positions on Google. 


Direct2florist marketplace and Bloomnation marketplace are some examples of Florists marketplaces.



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