Industry Analysis & Industry Trends
In full bloom
Since flowers and gift baskets are generally considered discretionary purchases, online demand is dependent on personal disposable income, unemployment and other macroeconomic factors that affect consumer spending. The industry's largest players have mitigated some of this volatility in sales, however, by establishing a network of local florists. In essence, online florists like 1-800-Flowers.com and FTD collect fees from local florists in exchange for order-taking (i.e. websites receive the orders from consumers but the local florists prepares the bouquet and delivers them), credit card processing services, advertising and transmission services.... purchase to read more
Industry Report - Industry Analysis Chapter
Online flower companies have benefited from the extensive marketing power of the Internet and have been successful at leveraging national brand names to increasingly capture market share from brick-and-mortar stores. Nonetheless, as part of a discretionary industry that depends on the consumer market, online flower shops were significantly set back by the economic downturn as low consumer confidence, high unemployment and declining per capita disposable income curbed demand for non-essential items such as flowers and other gifts. As a result of weakened demand, the online flower shop industry is expected to decline at an average annual rate of 4.0% to $2.1 billion in the five years to 2012... purchase to read more