Save The Florists!

Over the past few months I am hearing from more and more retail florists that they are sick and tired of losing business to "order gatherers" and "flowers in a box" companies. Many are also finally realizing that their wire service is also a competitor. Social Media is lighting up with facebook groups and tweets on Twitter where florists are sharing their stories and strategies to take back the business that has been lost. Many are severing their relationship with a wire service and putting more marketing into their own websites and networking to drive business to their shops. They have come to understand that they will not be able to survive when they have to deliver full value and only get back a small percentage of the sale. Many accepted this so that they could take advantage of other services provided like POS systems and credit card processing but being held hostage is not a good place to be and fortunately there are other options for these services that are more competitively priced.

I believe that the consumer is also beginning to understand the difference between a LOCAL retail florist and a "flowers in a box" company and why the LOCAL florist is their best source for freshness and value. We (individually and as an industry) need to continue to educate consumers on this. There is power in groups and so be sure to use tools like social media, small business groups and industry associations to network and exert your flower power!