FlowerAdvisor is building a million dollar business in flowers and gifts
FlowerAdvisor works with partnering florists around the world to send flowers and gifts to customer in over 100 countries. The company recently hit revenues of over US$1 million and is looking to do more in the online florist space.
FlowerAdvisor was founded in 2007 when the founders spotted an opportunity in the market for a trusted, 24-hour delivery flower site which customers could rely on to send gifts to their friends and families around the world.
FlowerAdvisorは世界中のフローリストと提携し、100カ国以上の顧客に花とギフトを届けている。収益が100万USドルに到達したばかりの同社は、オンラインフローリストスペースの強化を進めている。
FlowerAdvisorは、信頼できて24時間いつでも世界中の友人や家族に花とギフトを贈れるサイトに市場機会を見出した設立者が2007年に立ち上げた。
FlowerAdvisorは、100以上の国々においてフラワーショップと提携、花やギフトを顧客に配送するサービスに取り組んでいる。同社は最近、100万米ドル以上の収入を記録、さらにオンラインフラワーショップ業界でより多くのことをしようと考えている。
FlowerAdvisorは2007年、世界中にいる友人や家族に贈り物を贈る上で顧客が頼ることのできる、24時間配送対応の信頼できるフラワーショップサイトを市場内で立ち上げるチャンスを創業者たちが見いだした時に創業された。
FlowerAdvisor delivers flowers and gifts to over 100 countries, with the option of same day or next day delivery. FlowerAdvisor’s head office is located in Singapore with its operations office in Indonesia.
FlowerAdvisor recently launch a redesign of their website in preparation for the Christmas festive period. e27 interviewed Willy to find out more about operating, and working with, a global network of florist to cater to customers worldwide.
Tell us the story behind FlowerAdvisor.
FlowerAdvisor was founded in 2007 and officially launched in 2008. The idea came about as a result of a prominent absence of a single strong brand in Asia for international flower delivery. Online users found it a struggle to discover a trusted, 24-hour delivery flower site which can be relied upon to send flowers, hampers and gifts to their loved ones anywhere in the world.
Although there are plenty of talented local florists, most are not keen to spend millions on infrastructure to build a stable and secure site that enables and manages e-commerce transactions. To make matters worse, Asia and Europe have one of the highest number of e-commerce fraud cases which made customers very skeptical of small sites.
How do you handle all the countries? Do you work with local partners? How hard is it to set up the distribution network?
We work with local florists in every country. The nearest florist to the recipient location will be selected to deliver the order as this will make sure that the flowers will be fresh upon delivery.
Its quite difficult to set up the distribution network when we started as we operate in more than 100 countries to make it difficult we are very selective in choosing our partners and we only work with local florist to make sure our prices are competitive locally. Furthermore, every country has their own culture and own way of doing delivery therefore we have to adjust to their requirements accordingly.
How do you think the e-commerce trend is working for florists? Given that most customers would prefer to be able to personally choose their orders.
Due to the busy routines and e commerce revolutions, the way we shop has transformed compared to the old times where we need to see and touch before we purchase. Nowadays, people are looking for something that is convenient and hassle free. With purchasing flowers or gifts online, they do not have to go to the shop to select the items and deliver the item directly to the recipient.
Thus, it will save them a lot of time therefore I can say that the trend for online florist is very promising as floral industry is a billion dollar industry, The US floral market alone is worth US$32 billion.
Tell us more about Flower Advisor’s traction?
Our customers are located globally and we serve individual and corporate customers. Our revenue is more than US$1 million dollar last year and it is expected to increase this year.
How does Flower Advisor stay on top of the competition, both online and offline?
We do a regular SWOT analysis to identify our strength and weakness compared to our competitors, We also update our site regularly to ensure our prices and products are competitive. Other than that, we also do a lot of marketing online and offline such as online advertising, EDMs, brochures, flyers and others.
Last but not the least is to listen to our customers and providing their needs.
通常のSWOT分析をおこない、競争相手と比較して我々の強みと弱点について確認しています。さらに我々はサイトを定期的に更新し、価格と商品が競争力のあるものとなることを確認しております。それ以外にも、我々はネット広告、Eダイレクトメール（EDM）、パンフレット、チラシなど、オンラインとオフラインで多くのマーケティングに取り組みます。
最後に述べることになりましたが、我々の顧客が必要とするものについて聞き出し、それを提供することも決して軽んじるべきものではありません。
