When the Internet started to gain a wide acceptance in Toronto and Canada somewhere in the second half of nineties, technology writers were predicting major changes to be implemented fast in our shopping modes. A switch to the new ways of doing business would lead to more efficiency and lower prices. Several retail categories and sectors of hospitality were expected to be affected right away due to mass migration of consumers to shop on the web. Retailers and other members of the economy had to adapt to the new ways consumers and businesses were expected to spend their dollars, or face extinction.
At the beginning I was a member of gifts and florists retail category in Toronto, today I can reflect back on this sector. I compare the predictions with our situation today. Florists in delivery business were expected to be one of first sectors to do business on the Net and serve clients in a better way. Florists in Toronto were mostly pragmatist business people, not a technology fans and never great risk takers, willing to jump into the unknown. Most of florists did not know what to do, how to do it, but we were quick targets of so many web design companies looking for business and many using scare tactics to get florists to sign up for web designs. Web design companies were pointing to the International organizations being engaged in sending flowers world-wide and using them as the business model for any small florist in Toronto, willing to be fast and create a website. People were expected to do all shopping on the Net, with very little business remaining for the traditional retailers, left behind. Some scary thoughts and predictions were being cultivated, including by the futuristic trends, assessing book by Faith Popcorn, very popular at the time.
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.
Shopping on the Net means a shopping from a photo accompanied by a product description. Online shopping was explained to be done in a fully robotic way, with no live person from the merchant side involved. This kind of shopping means great convenience for the consumers since there is no need to go out, but shop from the home or office 24/7 and pay online with your credit card in a secure manner.
This was an outline and plan for Toronto florists, to do a business on the net. How does it compare with real practice and knowledge gained through the years, up till now, by local Toronto florists? No doubts that migration to the net to shop for gifts and flowers online has been a major one. Many shoppers gained their confidence to shop online, only over time. More people were getting lower priced computers and creating new markets. Some brick and mortar store retailers transformed themselves to the new online retail flower merchants. They vacated their old retail locations and moved to the new lower-rent business locations. Some Toronto florists retained their traditional business and added a website. First floral web sites were brochures-online types, only later came the automated shopping baskets with credit cards processing. Many florist doing business online prefer a secure transmission of credit card information and to be processed manually from the store.
The final flowers and gifts prices have to be readjusted many times due to several reasons. Substitutions since every florist in Toronto reserves the right to substitute by a similar product. Redeliveries due to insufficient information provided by the online purchasers are usually also charged extra.
Florists in Toronto have recognized that doing floral business online provides some rude awakening from earlier expectations they held on the web. The first expectations were fostered by the web designers and proved to be a great fallacy. Once you pay the design for your website, you just have an inexpensive hosting to pay monthly, but you can enjoy a free ride on the web. Many florists ordered their new websites thinking that they have a right to free traffic on the web. This misconception was quickly put to the rest as more Toronto floral retailers have realized in a hard way that gaining valuable traffic on the web is a proposition as much expensive, as having prime retail location on a busy street. One set of new costs has replaced old and traditional costs being associated with prime real estate in Toronto.
For web traffic, florists have to pay one way or the other. It is a quite expensive proposition to have your website optimized to appear on the first search page of Google, under several relevant keywords. In order to benefit from an online searches and traffic, you have to be included in the first three natural search results. The impact of being placed under top three is felt by the far fewer numbers of orders being received.
Ad Words or pay-per-click are additional promotional programs and it can be an expensive alternative. Participation in the program should be left to the expert who will charge a monthly management fee.Unless you have a plenty of time, it is better to leave pay-per-click to the expert. You have to compete with other florists for the top position on sponsored search results, driving the price for your keywords up. Since seven of ten searchers prefers to click to the natural search results, rather than a sponsored searches, it is better to pay to have your web site fully optimized. Your monthly costs of harnessing the traffic to your web site might be equivalent to the monthly price to pay for a prime location around Yonge and Bloor.
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 a Toronto florist does not provide a phone number along with his business address, listed on the web site, Internet shoppers will move on to the next available website. Net shoppers are looking for a local Toronto florist with a real store in Toronto and selling in Canadian dollars. Shoppers request talking to a well informed employee, regarding the details of their order placed online. Net purchaser would like to avoid placing an order with a flower-broker, w website soliciting orders online, only to sell to a real florist to fill the order. Regardless how well you explain on your website your products, business and delivery policies, Net shoppers will call and ask the same questions about it. People are looking for comfort that their orders for the loved ones are well taken care of. Customers’ service in the age of Net shopping is still alive and necessary part of doing business online. It is necessary to keep the phone lines open 7 days a week minimum of 12 hours a day. Customer service personnel should have a great product knowledge and ability to handle all situations including the problems.
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 flowers delivery shop looking for online promotion? Check out the Toronto florist online directory, that has a separate section for Christmas Flowers and Gifts Delivery.