Internet came to Toronto as a public media and started gaining public acceptance, circa 1997. Lots of writing and wild predictions accompanied Net’s arrival in newspaper, magazines and books. It is interesting to look back more than dozen years later and compare what we see about Internet today with the predictions, at the beginning. Internet and shopping on the Net was primarily associated with new efficiencies of doing business leading to better pricing for products and services for the benefit of customers. Internet gurus predicted massive and almost compulsory adoption of Internet as a main merchandising media, in all sectors of the economy. Those businesses not willing to adapt the Internet fast enough were in business jeopardy.
Gift and florists retailers in Toronto were deemed to be pioneers of the change. Lots of enthusiastic Toronto florists jumped on the bandwagon of the change and looked for ways to establish a quick presence on the Net. Majority of florists did not know, what they were doing. What was the right thing to do? Many florists were scared to a hasty action by listening to the predictions and web designers canvassing Toronto florists for the sake of getting their business, while using scare tactics. Many design companies were pointing to the facts, how flower delivery business has been already shaped by large organizations, using central processing, a national 1-800 number and large advertising budget. These florists’ national organizations provided convenience to the consumers and advantages of sending flowers to the loved ones, anywhere in the world. If you do not join the Internet, you are taking a chance as Toronto florist being left behind, just to handle smaller and smaller sizes of the florists’ pie.
Other than smelling the roses and purchasing flowers for themselves or taking them home, people were expected to rush to the Internet and do all flowers ordering and paying online. Clear efficiency of doing our shopping online 24/7 would lead to the lower prices and the online florists were expected to adjust their pricing to the new conditions. After all, flowers and gifts belong to the categories with one of the highest retail mark ups in the service economy.
When you shop from the Net, your selection is based on the image and the text description there presented. It is an impersonal shopping and not all people are comfortable doing purchases that way. It is a convenience for many people to be able to select and pay online 24/7, but most first time shoppers on a florist’s website require additional customer services.
That was the blue print for florists in Toronto, but how does it match with real live execution and experience that local florists gained over the years? Definitely there was a dramatic shift to the Internet shopping in Toronto and GTA for flowers and gifts, when more people gained their confidence in safety of online shopping. Some traditional floral retailers in Toronto have moved out of their retail stores to the more economical locations in industrial parks and concentrated their business entirely on the web. Majority of florists in Toronto kept their retail location and just added a website to complement their traditional way in retail business. First were brochure type websites soon to replaced with new websites providing full automated shopping basket and credit cards processing. Secure transmitting of credit card information to the merchant for a manual bank approval is more preferable to the florists for number of reasons.
Billed flowers and gift prices might be changed due to number of reasons. An ordered product might not be available on a given day due to the market conditions. After all, we are dealing with perishable items and substitutions necessary sometimes. Shoppers placing orders for other people often provide incorrect information, requiring second or substitute delivery.
Toronto florists have come to a conclusion that floral business online is not exactly as painted in the beginnings. Web design companies that were introducing florists to the Net, never explained the real complexities and costs of doing business online. It was in their self-interest to discuss web design costs only and keep florists in the dark about all additional costs connected with traffic to the website and its promotion. Many florists-retailers were under a false illusion that after the web design costs and monthly hosting, all additional costs are free. Recognition that traffic coming under popular keywords can be expensive and equivalent to the price paid for rental location in Downtown Toronto.
Traffic is very valuable and having a website does not guarantee any placement on search engines quarry results. Your floral website has to be optimized to appear in the top three search results and any lower ranking means much lower results on a business side.
An alternative to being naturally placed on engines’ search results is purchasing in pay-per-click Ad Word program. Participation in pay-per-click program is a job of its own! Unless you have a time to learn the skills and manage the program, you have to hire a help and pay a management fee. Purchasing traffic on pay-per-click program means bidding against other Toronto florists in interested in your keyword category. Higher price you offer means higher placement and more clicks to your website. The monthly costs of running such pay-per-click program, or paying somebody with skills and abilities to have your website fully optimized all the time to be able to compete against other florists, could be equivalent in $, or higher than paying for prime florists retail location Downtown Toronto.
To have a fully functioning automated website does not necessary mean that you do not need any customers’ service to service purchasers online. In the age Web shopping, live customers’ service is still expected. Web shoppers will order online with an automated shopping basket, but still expect a personal service on demand.
If would be a great mistake to have an automated web site and omit your full business address and location of your store or flower processing center, if you are an online retailer only. The phone numbers should be answered minimum 12 hours a day by a knowledgeable personnel able to provide a status of an order on demand. Calls processing center in far-away place or just have a generic answering service will not do any good to your flower business online. Most shoppers avoid dealing with online florist-brokers and prefer a local merchant in the place, where they are sending they flower to. Shoppers expect to pay in Canadian dollars. You might have a well design websites explaining your products, services and policies, but shoppers might still call you about the same questions. Many shoppers absorb their information verbally, rather then reading. It is then advisable to have your staff well trained in the product knowledge and good manners of customers’ service. Some shoppers buying online view it as a choir to gat done as soon as is possible, for some it is an event worth of social talk.
Above are just few observations based on real experience of doing business as a florist in Toronto. Starting with a well established store in a traditional way and changing in scope to generate a bigger part of business coming from online.
Are you a Toronto florist looking for online promotion? Check out the Toronto flower online directory, that has a separate section for Gift Baskets Delivery.