Do you have a local florist that you like to work with or do you click on the top search result in your browser?
The first page of results is mostly paid ads when you search online for “flower delivery,” or “send flowers”. These ads are posted by national corporations owned by people from who knows where. Companies like these pay to get advertisements in front of the eyes of busy people who are just hoping to get some flowers delivered with a minimum of fuss.
These national corporations can outspend local florists and run ads at the top of search engine results, show ads repeatedly in your phone apps, and barrage your social media feed. They clog the air with radio and TV commercials during the holiday season. Their carpet-bomb approach to advertising is designed to make it easy for you to put in an order. They know that you are in a hurry and aren’t inclined to do the leg work to find the local florist’s listing on page 2 of the search results.
Once you order through these aggregators, they hand off your order to a local florist while taking a major portion of the profit.
What you probably don’t realize is that most of the florists listed at the top of search engine results are, for the most part, mega corporations that don’t actually touch flowers. They are collectively known as “order aggregators.” They have sophisticated computer algorithms that take your order and hand it off to a real local florist to fulfill.
The customer doesn’t get a say in who the order is handed off to. The customer usually doesn’t know that the order aggregator just took most of the profit and sent it far away. The customer doesn’t realize that the local florist is the one blamed when expectations are not met. The local florist doesn’t even get the opportunity to let the customer know they exist. The local florist doesn’t have the opportunity to let the customer know if a certain vase isn’t available or the special colored roses they want are out of stock.
Read more about how you can get local flower delivery near you.
Florists are service providers that you can develop a personal relationship with. You can have a relationship with a florist the same way you do with your doctor or financial adviser. A florist that you work with on a regular basis will get to know you so they can better fulfill your needs. They want the best for you and are many times willing to go the extra mile for you because if they do, they are pretty sure that you will be a return customer.
Read a different perspective on local florists versus order aggregators.