free deliverY pays for itself

Free delivery doesn’t have to take a bite out of Valentine’s Day revenues, says Scott McBride. In fact, it’s his best weapon for coming out of the holiday with a stronger bottom line.

Last year, McBride, approaching his third Valentine’s Day as store manager of Myrtle Flowers and Gifts was determined not to say no to any business. “We were turning business down on or even a day or two before Valentine's Day, because we simply couldn't continue to make enough arrangements to meet demand,” he says.

So he offered an early-bird free delivery promotion and shifted the cost of delivery out of the arrangement and into his advertising budget.

McBride says the additional sales that resulted from the promotion far outweighed the revenue lost from the free delivery. “We were able to handle way more arrangements over the Valentine's week holiday, which made our bottom line grow more than if we hadn't,” he says.

In addition to the natural response the word “free” elicits, McBride discovered an indirect benefit of the promotion: “Let's say a woman at an office building gets an arrangement four or five days before Valentine's Day ... then all the other people in the office are given that many more days to call or stop in and place an order” (or drop hints to their significant others). The early orders create more business for the shop and gives McBride’s team that much more time to design.
 
For additional tips on drumming up sales for Valentine’s Day, see Saturday Night’s All Right for Me, published in the January issue of Floral Management.

Source: SAF

flower power flexes tv muscle

And here you thought Dexter was creepy!

The new TV show Petal Pushers gives us a world that's every bit as cutthroat, even when it's freshly cut.

And today's episode -- hop to HGTV to see it -- is particularly killer.

It, like so much of the show, really pulls the petals off, so to speak, when it comes to exposing all the creativity and roll-up-your-sleeves work that goes into floral design, says Karina Lemke, the show's leading florist. This is the case, week in and week out, with what amounts to an inside look at the flower biz. It being the week of V-Day, however, the pressure is times ten, and this is one girl who's working harder than the shredder once did at Enron.

Oh, and the stories she could tell. Karina, who's the woman behind the popular Posies, on Toronto's Markham Street -- on screen and in life --has seen it all.

There is, for instance, the anti-Valentine's "divorce party" that she caters, given by a woman who orders several dozen red roses (because her ex never did give her flowers), and then proceeds to deliberately snip the heads off all the stems in an almost-Desperate Housewives send-up.

Then there is the unappreciative girlfriend who sends her boyfriend back to the flower shop with his bouquet because he has "spent too much" on it.

Presumably, our Karina says, this "return-it" scenario arises at least once every year.

Who knew?

Drama queens, like roses, apparently never do go out of style. And it's all part of this punchy, new culture of Petal Pushers. Forward floral design is here, as is that inevitable hodgepodge of conventional and unconventional flower dilemmas.

Karina and her crew have at least one die-hard fan. It's her long-time, laugh-out consort, one who's no stranger to the Canadian scene -- Yuk

Yuk's founder Mark Breslin! Two stems up, he says. And Karina's small-screen performance? "Elegant," is what he calls it.

Source: National Post

personalized ads pack bigger punch

Ad viewers want to be targeted, but privacy concerns linger.

If retailers are struggling to bring in customers in a rough economic climate, getting personal might be the answer.

According to ChoiceStream, 41% of Internet users surveyed said they paid more attention to advertising that was personalized. And nearly the same proportion of respondents (39%) said they were more willing to click on such personalized ads.

Given consumers’ privacy concerns when it comes to behavioral and other forms of online targeting, marketers would be well-advised to tread carefully. Forty-five percent of Internet users surveyed in a 2008 Harris Interactive study said they were uncomfortable with Website policies that allow behavioral targeting.

Some 57% of respondents in a TNS Global and TRUSTe poll indicated they were worried about advertisers using their browsing history to serve them relevant ads.

Still, Internet users respond to personalization, and according to ChoiceStream, the more money viewers spend online, the more likely they are to respond.

“Today’s online consumers understand the value of online advertising and know retailers have information about their shopping behavior that can make their experience more relevant,” said ChoiceStream president and CEO Steve Johnson.

eMarketer estimates that $1.1 billion will be spent on behaviorally targeted ads in 2009.

Source: eMarketer

florists respond to rev. wallace scam order

I, too, was contacted by Rev. Wallace, last week.  The spelling of many words in his emails were incorrect, the order vague, and too good to be true.  Red flags came up in my head.  We emailed back and forth for 3 days.  When I asked for a certified cheque, money order or for the dear Reverend to come in to the store in person to sign the credit card invoice, ( I said I needed a signature because of the amount of credit card fraud) the emails came to an end as I thought they might.  He too, had offered me to pay up front by credit card.  As retailers know, you are on your own when it comes to the credit card companies.  You are guilty until proven innocent.

Today I received a suspicious e-mail from a Rev. "Chris" Douglas looking to purchase 100 planter baskets at $50.00 each. I had recently read about the scam where the florist lost $22,000 when dealing with a church in Africa that had a large order of wreaths and baskets so I was instantly suspicious. I replied to the e-mail stating that they would need to be paid for before we ordered them and listed what credit cards we accepted. I asked him to phone in the credit card number since e-mail is not a secure medium. He called me with the credit card number including expiry date and CVV number and the name on the card (Chris Curtis). He claimed to have trouble with his land line so wouldn't give me a contact phone number. He wanted to know when I would be processing the credit card. I contacted my credit card machine supplier since I couldn't find a direct number for Master Card. They gave me a list of questions to ask and information to get. I then e-mailed the "Rev. Chris" to get the mailing address for the card. He e-mailed back with an address in Florida. I then contacted Master Card who said the card is from a Citibank in South Dakota and the number is not valid. I e-mailed the Rev. back telling him that Master Card told me it wasn't a valid number and we couldn't fill his order until we had received payment.

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