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.
Everybody expected the new gold rush, to be a mass rush to do business on the Net. Only few small take home, flower purchases, were expected to remain off the Net. Florists in Toronto saw the perceived advantages of doing business on the Net and many were rushed to get their websites. Florists need to maintain their high markup on the flowers sold, to take care of their large fixed expenses. To the economy predictors, Internet would force better efficiency and better consumers’ prices.
Internet shopping would mean ordering gifts and flowers from the pictures and reading their descriptions from the web site. When you see what you are looking for, then just drop your selection to the automated shopping basket and pay by a credit card. Internet shopping is done from the privacy of our homes, at our convenience and being able to do online shopping 24/7.
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.
There are some business reasons behind this preference. Business requires flexibility in prices due to possible substitutions. Many times, prices have changed and website update lacks behind or products ordered might not be available. Substitutions are common place in floral business online.
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.
Purchasing pay-per-click Ad Word program is a popular, but expensive alternative today. To do it right, you should be an expert. If you do not have time and expertise to engage in the program, you should outsource its management for a fee. When you buy into the pay-per-click program, you will compete and bid against the other Toronto florists interested in positioning under the same keywords, driving the price up. There are advantages of having your website fully optimized since 7 out of 10 searchers prefer organic search results, rather than sponsored results. When you add up your monthly Internet marketing cost, compare them against a rental cost in a prime retail area of Toronto, like Downtown Toronto.
Expectation of fully automating retail sales through the website and avoiding any personal cost was another illusion of doing business online for flower website in Toronto. While Internet shoppers may order online with an automated shopping basket and provide credit card information, they still might have some important questions.
Not having a phone number or business address listed on your web site means cutting down the chances of receiving orders. Internet shoppers in Toronto are looking for a local Toronto florist with web prices in Canadian dollars. They would like to talk to a knowledgeable person regarding their orders. Internet shoppers prefer avoiding brokers who are just generating orders online to be sold to other retail florists. More people in the business chain, the higher chances of something going wrong with their order. People are sending emotions with their flowers and gifts to their loved ones and look for assurances. A successful online florist in Toronto has to keep customer service line open minimum of 12 hours per day and the lines to be manned by personnel skilled in customer service and product knowledge.
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 flowers online directory, that has a separate section for Florists Delivery.