Free Shipping (or not) in the Floral Industry
With the holidays rapidly barreling down on us, retailers everywhere are enticing customers in many ways to buy from them. 'Buy one, get one half price', 'Buy now, no payment until May', '50% off' or 'Free Shipping' are just a few that I've seen this week. Most of these are pretty straightforward. In the floral industry 'Free Shipping' is not free! 1-800-flowers is one of the companies I know of that offers 'free shipping'. Simply put, they can't promise this because 1-800 flowers doesn't deliver flowers! Florists do!! Let me explain a typical 1-800 scenario.
Let's say I was a consumer and wanted to send flowers to my sister in Boulder. I call 1-800 and give them the information. I tell them I want to spend $75 for a beautiful holiday centerpiece. $75 is a respectable amount of money, so I figure I'm going to get something decent for that. This is how it would break down however. Right off the top 1-800 is going to take $12.99 off for a 'service charge'. This is the amount of money they feel our short phone conversation is worth. From here, 1-800 will send my flower order to a real flower shop.
What the typical consumer does not realize is 1-800 is what we in the industry call an 'order gatherer'. They have hundreds of employees that sit in cubicles all day long taking phone calls. They don't work with flowers daily, and they don't know a stem of freesia from a gerbera daisy. They answer phones and take orders.
Back to the flower shop, by now all they have is $62.01 of my money to spend. They give the florist $62.01 for a beautiful holiday centerpiece. From here, the florist will now take their required delivery fee out, anywhere from $5.99 - $12.99 in some parts of the U.S. So let's take an average, $9.99 off. Now the florist has $52.02 to make my beautiful arrangement with. The florist is perfectly within their rights to take this fee off. It costs money for vehicles, insurance, payroll and gas to name of few expenses. The florist isn't the one offering the free delivery, 1-800 is. But since 1-800 doesn't deliver flowers - they can't make this promise!!
We won't fill orders any more for 1-800 flowers. In all my years of operation, the few years that I did fill for them were the years I received the most complaints on flowers we delivered. Customers just don't understand why when they give a company a specific amount of money for an order, the order isn't filled with all that money.
My best advice this holiday. Call your local florist - keep your money in the community you live in. Let Oak Hill Florist find you a reputable flower shop to fill your holiday orders across the country. We will tell you what your arrangement is going to cost, and charge you the appropriate fee for delivery.
As the saying goes 'there's no such thing as a free lunch' - or Free delivery.
Let's say I was a consumer and wanted to send flowers to my sister in Boulder. I call 1-800 and give them the information. I tell them I want to spend $75 for a beautiful holiday centerpiece. $75 is a respectable amount of money, so I figure I'm going to get something decent for that. This is how it would break down however. Right off the top 1-800 is going to take $12.99 off for a 'service charge'. This is the amount of money they feel our short phone conversation is worth. From here, 1-800 will send my flower order to a real flower shop.
What the typical consumer does not realize is 1-800 is what we in the industry call an 'order gatherer'. They have hundreds of employees that sit in cubicles all day long taking phone calls. They don't work with flowers daily, and they don't know a stem of freesia from a gerbera daisy. They answer phones and take orders.
Back to the flower shop, by now all they have is $62.01 of my money to spend. They give the florist $62.01 for a beautiful holiday centerpiece. From here, the florist will now take their required delivery fee out, anywhere from $5.99 - $12.99 in some parts of the U.S. So let's take an average, $9.99 off. Now the florist has $52.02 to make my beautiful arrangement with. The florist is perfectly within their rights to take this fee off. It costs money for vehicles, insurance, payroll and gas to name of few expenses. The florist isn't the one offering the free delivery, 1-800 is. But since 1-800 doesn't deliver flowers - they can't make this promise!!
We won't fill orders any more for 1-800 flowers. In all my years of operation, the few years that I did fill for them were the years I received the most complaints on flowers we delivered. Customers just don't understand why when they give a company a specific amount of money for an order, the order isn't filled with all that money.
My best advice this holiday. Call your local florist - keep your money in the community you live in. Let Oak Hill Florist find you a reputable flower shop to fill your holiday orders across the country. We will tell you what your arrangement is going to cost, and charge you the appropriate fee for delivery.
As the saying goes 'there's no such thing as a free lunch' - or Free delivery.
