Online flower delivery in the singapore has changed significantly from its initial business model. In 1999, it was a novelty when an online florist first began to offer a service with untraditional methods. The first site to start this service, floragateway, was founded by an entrepreneur whose passion for flowers and the internet led him to create his online florist offering customers low prices and quick delivery. The website boasted low prices because they processed orders at a central location; roses bouquet singapore could be delivered anywhere that you would like them delivered by one of their drivers within 3 hours of making your order.
Business model:
This business model was not well appreciated by the public and was considered to be fragmented. Back in 1999, only a few sites were offering this service even though the prices were sometimes higher than most supermarkets. However, floragateway changed its business model in 2001 when it started to deliver flowers via delivery only; it simply did not include its flower shop in its roster of suppliers. In addition, they increased their price point to the average of other florists, took on courier services to help reduce delivery times, and employed an extra staff member to help with customer service issues. This led them to start offering low prices for the fast delivery of flowers that contained fresh flowers as opposed to pre-packaged arrangements.
When the business module was changed, it took two years for the company to become profitable. However, it took off from there and nowadays, with about 1 million regular customers and £22 million in annual sales; it is one of Britain’s most successful online florists.
It was not until 2005 that online flower delivery became a mainstream practice when online florists began delivering flowers through traditional florists through their shops. In addition to this, they started offering gift baskets, chocolates, plants, candles and soft toys in addition to flowers. It led to even more variety and a widening demographic range; the popularity of online flower delivery grew exponentially between 2005-2010.
This increase in popularity is especially evident when looking at the number of companies; today, there are approximately 150 online florists in the Singapore, up from only ten years ago. Flower delivery companies began to offer an extensive range of products and services, but they also began to offer other products such as clothing, jewelry, food and electronics. However, even with all of this variety, it was difficult for companies to survive mainly because of the economic downturn that hit the Singapore in late 2008/2009 letting down closing down small businesses in addition to this, the number of sites that offer flower delivery is still low compared to those offering gifts or food delivery.
