iflorist
News Update
TM
June 2008
Expanded designer & sympathy collection Our already extensive range of flowers has recently been expanded, with new additions to our florist delivered designer, traditional and basket arrangement collection.
So, you should start seeing orders for more varied tributes which you might not have had allocated to you in the past over coming weeks and months, with higher frequency and better transaction values.
Perhaps most notable however are our new sympathy arrangements. These include everything from traditional wreath arrangements and posies to personal tributes including a massed harp, Celtic cross, linked heart wreaths, and even a cricket bat tribute.
Our extremely comprehensive range of funeral flowers now extends to over 150 floral tribute designs, with an average transaction value of between £75 and £150. A few recently introduced arrangements and a couple of existing larger tributes total over £300, possibly higher depending on customer specification.
You may have noticed a few changes happening on the site in recent weeks, and while the primary ammendments have now been implemented, the range continues to grow.
The iflorist website now boasts one of the most comprehensive sympathy ranges, and has resulted in a steady increase in online funeral tribute orders.
iactivity.co.uk launches After the successful trial of experience days and gift activities over the Christmas 2007 period on the iflorist.co.uk website, we have now launched a dedicated experience and gifting site at iactivity.co.uk which has over 500 activities, experiences and gifts.
Go Karting Grand Prix Driving Experience
our corporate customers, providing companies with a single source of supply for all types of gifts. Thus far, the response from our larger corporate clients has been fantastic, with orders already beginning to flood in.
Launched in good time for Fathers Day, the site features one of the most comprehensive ranges of experiences and activities online. From pampering days and champagne balloon flights, to paintballing and track driving, there’s something for everyone.
iactivity in one of a family of new websites which will be launched over the coming months by our steadily growing team. With our dedication to customer service and our enviable reputation for maintaining excellent supplier relations, we strongly believe that the success of iactivity and further upcoming sites will drive more orders to you, our florists.
With the recent rise in popularity of more unusual gifts, and by linking our range of flowers to this new range of products, we are able to offer an extremely comprehensive gifting service which will be the envy of our competitors. A key reason for launching the iactivity website is to expand the range available to
With each gifting site we are increasing our customer base, which is good news for our florist network, as many of these new customers will buy flowers from us in the future as we have already started to prove.
Relaxation & Pampering Experiences
Best shop window competition
Caramel
Submit a photo of your shop front (plus any additional photos you may wish to include – from the interior, to your staff, or perhaps even yourself!) for the chance to win a case of wine.
Following on from our previous promotions for ‘The Accidental Husband’ and ‘P.S I Love You’, Momentum Pictures has once again teamed up with iflorist for the promotion of Oscar nominated movie ‘Caramel’, a film by Nadine Labaki.
Presented in a wooden chest and featuring wines from around the globe, this fantastic prize could be yours simply by emailing your photographs to emily@iflorist.co.uk with the subject ‘Best Shop Window Competition’ – we’ll pick a winner next month and notify you in due course. Please include your shop name and contact details.
The compettion - which you can still enter at www.iflorist.co.uk - is to win a selection of relaxing, pampering treats, spa days & gift activities.
Grand Designs
On location at the cargoflowers.co.uk Photoshoot
W
ith stores throughout the Southeast of England, the well-respected furniture and homeware retailer Cargo has become the first on the high street to not only offer same day florist delivered bouquets, but also a range of fresh bouquets available for delivery across the globe via our network of international florists. A considerable amount of behind the scenes activity was needed prior to launch, and continues as the range of bouquets and gifts expands to ensure that the service and selection of products is consistently well portrayed and received.
In the virtual world of online floristry, the photography and presentation of a website and the products displayed upon it is of paramount importance. A customer will never be able to fully appreciate the beauty, scent, texture and up-close effect of a bouquet via their computer screen, but iflorist and the team at Cargo have meticulously planned and prepared for photoshoots, both for the website and their own catalogues & promotional material. Having both set studio photos and on-location lifestyle images is key to fully do justice to both the design of the bouqets and the skill of our local florists. And we’re glad to say the general consensus appears to be that our photographs and imagery have done the trick, with many customers commenting on how well portrayed the bouquets are, and how clear it is to see the effort and skill which has gone into both designing and photographing them.
To launch the new floral service in-store and within Cargo’s own direct marketing, we were granted access to carry out a photoshoot at a property featured on Kevin McCloud’s Channel 4 show, Grand Designs. As much as we all love being at the iflorist offices or in the studio, a day on set with our friends at Cargo in the countryside surroundings of a Grand Designs-featured property was too good to miss! Our head designer Christine Price and our team of florists took a trip down to Henley on Thames to meet up with the Cargo design team for a four day photoshoot, creating room sets and still shots for the forthcoming media launch. The stunning designer bouquets were photographed alongside Cargo’s own range of fabulous furniture. These will feature both in print and web form, from the latest Cargo catalogue, to in-store posters, point of sale materials and the Cargo Flowers website.
On location ‘Grand Designs’ Photoshoot.
Above, Right On location at the ‘Grand Design’ featured house as presented by Kevin McCloud on Channel 4
“Cargo floral gifting service launched by iflorist
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Being able to create and stylise the launch of our latest range of designer bouquets in a beautiful part of England on the banks of the river Thames was a real treat, and the resulting photographs and lifestyle imagery are sure to pay dividends. It’s easy to underestimate the time and effort involved in taking one core photograph, let alone a website or catalogues worth; the involvement with lighting set-ups, camera angles, styling, detailing and arrangement of accessories is staggering! As you can see from our behind the scenes snapshots, getting the latest range of bouquets prepared and shot was no mean feat! We’re glad to say however, that many of you should soon start seeing Cargo bouquets allocated to you, which will give you the chance to make up something a little different and typically with a much higher transaction value. We’re confident in our belief that ourselves and our shops are able to offer Cargo and their customers a first class floral service, and once again wish to extend our thanks all 1,400 of our florists for your continued effort and hard work. Keep your eyes peeled for Cargo orders, or check out the website www.cargoflowers.co.uk for more photos and further details as we expand the range over coming months.
Global Flower Delivery
International floral design & flower delivery
Christine Price, International Designer
T
he world is becoming a smaller place, with the adoption of the internet and broadband into everyday life. Customers now demand floristry to be a 24/7 business, and expect to be able to send flowers to the far reaches of the world at the drop of a hat... and with the click of a mouse! Understanding the cultural and design trends in each part of the world is key to the success of international floristry and flower delivery. What might be deemed a perfect bouquet for an English customer could be seen as totally inappropriate to a recipient in India, Italy or New Zealand. Our design team - headed by our own international florist, Christine Price - provide us with a unique insight into international flower trends. Living overseas in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore for 14 years, Christine - originally trained at her Mothers Rochdale-based flower shop - brings with her a fantastic and truly international perspective on floral design. Having designed and arranged flowers for the such venues as the State Opera House and global brands including Saachi & Saachi, she not only has a diverse knowledge of all aspects of floristry, but a truly keen eye for style and design on an international scale.
Christine comments that, “Introducing a subtle but quintessentially Englishslant has proven popular wherever I’ve worked in the world. From Wellington to Singapore, applying a little English charm often provides the basis for a winning formula, especially when combined with local, traditional floristry techniques.” The style and diversity of floral art and arrangements in the Southern Hemisphere is immense. The relatively low cost of flowers here allows scope for truly epic designs, created on sensible budgets, but which would rarely be considered in the UK on the basis of cost. By the same token, flowers and foliage often revered and considered luxurious, trendy or chic in England are close to being deemed garden weeds in some parts of the world! Understanding different floral events around the world is also key, but perhaps not as easy as it may at first seem. Mothers Day, for example, falls on different days in different parts of the world, and events such as Secretaries Day - often completely overlooked in the UK - are major events in countries such as Australia. Cultural and technological differences must also be taken into account. In India, for example, where - when allocating orders to our
florists - we often find that they will request payment in cash, as many do not have credit card terminals or processing facilities and - in some cases - even traditional banking. In addition to our UK-based teams, having software, support and allocation staff in India, America and the Philippines means that we are well versed and perhaps more familiar with aspects such as time zones & cultural differences, or international holidays & special occasions than most businesses within our sector. We have worked hard to plant ourselves firmly on the international stage. Seamlessly & effectively allocating orders to the four corners of the globe has proven a real challenge, not least for our team of software developers.
It’s easy to forget just how spoilt we are in the UK, with our postcode system allowing us to literally pinpoint every address in the country with ease. Language differences may seem like big enough barriers in themselves for some, but consider that in many parts of the world, entire streets remain unnamed and vast areas or regions have totally different names locally to what we refer to them as elsewhere in the world. All in all, international floristry is not for the faint hearted. Doing it right, and on the scale that we are, not only takes serious dedication, but also massive investment. With our teams in India allocating 24/7, we are able to send and receive orders around the globe while many of us here in the UK are in bed, fast asleep.
Taj Mahal, India
Champs Elysees, Paris
Sydney, Australia
Liberty Island, NewYork