Flower delivery is a service in floristry . In many cases it is conducted through websites which allow consumers to browse online catalogues of flowers. They are often delivered to a third party, the recipient of the gift. Historically, these were coordinated through telegraphs and later telephones before the advent of the World Wide Web .
19-502: Interflora is a flower delivery network, associated with over 58,000 affiliated flower shops in over 140 countries. It is a subsidiary of Teleflora , a subsidiary of The Wonderful Company . In 1920 a florist , Joe Dobson, of Leighton's Seedsmen and Florists in Glasgow , and a nurseryman, Carl Englemann in Saffron Walden , Essex were looking to increase their business. They knew of
38-446: A flower relay service is a company established primarily to facilitate order exchange and fulfillment between local florists and/or third-party sales agents of floral products. Floral wire services offer proprietary networks, clearing house services and operate as affiliate marketing sources. The first floral wire service, established by a group of 15 US florists in 1910, was Florists' Telegraph Delivery Service ( FTD ). The group
57-653: A business cooperative and affiliated with FTD, began operating under the name Interflora in 1953. By the 1970s, most European countries had their own Interflora units. In addition to the cooperatives, independently owned and operated for-profit companies built their own proprietary networks including Teleflora and 1-800-Flowers with their BloomNet division. Similar to travel agents , wire service affiliates' main functions are to act as agents and sell products and services on behalf of local florist suppliers. Unlike other retail businesses, sellers are not required to keep stock on hand. A flower arrangement or other floral gift
76-437: A group called Florists for Change with a website RealLocalFlorists.com. Services are broadly divided into four categories: Local florist websites offer arrangements and bouquets for direct delivery in the geographic area physically serviced by their companies' own vans and personnel . This service is also known as "hand delivered" and has the advantage of presenting shoppers with the precise items available for delivery on
95-402: A relay florist , is a website where a person or organization procures a purchase order between a consumer and itself instead of the order being placed directly with a local florist in the delivery area. The relay service collects payment for the order; however, as the relay service normally cannot fulfill the order itself unless the delivery is local to the location of the relay service, it relays
114-418: A same-day basis. Local delivery charges are generally displayed as a separate fee from the price of each product. Order brokers are third-party agents that display arrangement and bouquet product images and then transfer orders to affiliated local florists for fulfillment and hand delivery. Order broker customers pay additional service fees as well as local delivery charges, which are generally included in
133-561: Is not purchased from a supplier unless a customer requests the item. The flowers or other floral gift are supplied to them at a discount. The profit is therefore the difference between the advertised price which the customer pays and the discounted price at which it is charged to the agent. This is known as the commission. A wire service affiliate selling agent typically earns 20% of the product and local delivery price, plus services charges. Additionally, many florist wire services pay performance rebates to affiliate resellers. Twenty-four states in
152-687: The call centre in Sleaford , Lincolnshire and the Interflora members around the United Kingdom . In 2005, the Interflora British Unit moved from being a trade association to a private equity ownership under investment company, 3i . 3i sold British Interflora to US-based FTD Group , the successor to Florists' Transworld Delivery, in 2006. In 2008, United Online Software Development acquired Interflora and FTD. In 2012, Interflora bought
171-669: The Florists Telegraph Delivery Association (now known as Florists' Transworld Delivery ) which had existed in the US since 1910, and applied to join as foreign members. In 1923 the UK arm of the FTDA was formed with 17 members. One of the straplines used in advertising was Flowers by Wire when the telegraph was actually used to communicate between florists. Later, telegrams were sent from member to member requesting deliveries to be made in
190-586: The Gifts Division of Flying Brands. In November 2013, United Online spun off its floral delivery subsidiary, FTD, which became a separate NASDAQ-traded company called FTD Companies , Inc., under the symbol FTD. In June 2019, the FTD Group sold Interflora British Unit in a $ 59.5 million deal to another US-based flower delivery network, Teleflora , a subsidiary of The Wonderful Company since 1979. Flower delivery A floral wire service , also known as
209-548: The USA have now outlawed geographic misrepresentation by floral product sellers in Yellow Pages and in online advertising. National floral marketplaces such as BloomNation offer an alternative to the wire services. Many traditional retail florists have a deep-rooted disdain for modern wire services. This comes from the perception that companies such as FTD , 1800flowers , From You Flowers and Teleflora take floral orders away from
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#1732869899329228-494: The flowers are shipped from the farm or importer they can be fresher although temperature fluctuations en route and shipping conditions may negate the benefit. Recipients are responsible to unpack, clean, condition and arrange courier-delivered flowers. Few companies in fact ship flowers direct to the consumer from the farm. Most online flower retails such as ProFlowers , Interflora , Teleflora , FTD typically function as order gatherers and will work with local florists to have
247-532: The local business and extract excessive commission. FTD was formerly a co-op , owned by its member florists. In 1994 the board of directors made the decision to sell the co-op to Perry Capital . The revenue from the sale was disbursed amongst the member florists, more senior florists being paid substantially more than the more junior florists. At this point FTD became a for-profit company. Wire services were originally member-owned co-ops , but were privatized. Florists have organized new nonprofit initiatives through
266-453: The name changed to Interflora and the slogan Flowers Worldwide along with the Mercury Man roundel became well known. "Say it with Flowers" became the subsequent and most famous slogan associated with Interflora. When telegrams became obsolete the most used method for requesting deliveries was by telephone. Following that Interflora brought in messenger1 in the mid to late 1980s, this system
285-410: The order and payment to a local florist in the delivery area, minus a commission. Courier -delivered flowers (also sometimes called grower-direct or Flowers By Post) are assembled into bunches at the farm or in the warehouse of an importer or distributor; they are then placed in cardboard boxes and shipped direct to the recipient via overnight couriers. The advantage of such a service is that because
304-451: The price displayed with each product. Orders are sent to local florists for fulfillment via a floral wire service . The advantage of this service is the consolidation of purchases for delivery to multiple locations through a single website. The disadvantage is the customer cannot see or pick the fulfilling florist. Most florists also offer order brokering services for national and international delivery. A relay service, often referred to as
323-407: The recipient florists area. In the original Interflora Directory, used by members, the longest established members could be recognised by their telegraphic addresses . This would be the only telegraphic address in that city to include the name Interflora. In the case of the founding members, their telegraphic addresses were "Interflora Glasgow" and "Interflora Saffron Walden", respectively. In 1953
342-432: Was formed as a cooperative and was mutually owned by its members. Members exchanged orders via telegraph messages and hence the name 'wire service' was used to identify the order exchange business model. In 1965, with the introduction of international order sending, FTD changed its name to Florists' Transworld Delivery . In the 1920s, a group of British florists formed a similar 'Flowers by Wire' group. This group, also
361-417: Was very similar to sending a fax. In the late 1990s messenger2 was introduced, that used the internet to transmit orders. In the early 2000s, Interflora brought out a system called Rose, this used the internet but instead of a dial-up connection a broadband connection was used. This enabled orders to be transmitted in real time. In 2011 Rose was updated to ROSEGold which provides a real time service between
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