Ed Shull, FTD and Ungrateful Florists

In a recent blog rant, USWeb CEO Ed Shull predicted the swift demise of independent flower shops. "Say goodbye to your local florist," he wrote while pointing out the advanced technical wizardry of his FTD affiliate site, dotflowers.com.

You may recall Dot Flowers since it made headlines last year for paying bloggers $5 each to write favorable comments and reviews about their site. The tactic was widely derided with on-point commentary by some notable web authorities.

In a nutshell, Mr. Shull's recent beef is that local florists appear to be ungrateful for all his optimization efforts to gain flower orders on 'their behalf'.
 
Ed says, "And the pricing is standardized for the different bouquets…or, you would think." and "FTD states to the order takers that they will enforce the pricing guidelines"  Wrong. The suggested retail prices from FTD and other wire services are just that - suggested. Requiring florists to fulfill all orders at specific prices would violate at least a few federal trade laws.  Ever heard of price fixing? 

The idea that a florist in Roswell NM would have the same inventory at the same prices as a store in Manhattan is really the 'old school thinking.'  The problem isn't local florists, it's with FTD and other national services that continue to try and overlay a template of sameness on an industry that has thrived on uniqueness, freshness and personal service.

Ed says, "Florists don’t like getting these orders. They recognize the fact that these orders make up a large amount of their business, but their margins are much thinner because of the number of middlemen in the order process." Mr. Shull, most healthy florists don't let 'these kinds of orders' become a significant part of their business.  Too much discounting leads stores to raise prices for their local customer and, well, you can see the downward spiral from there....

But at least we're getting to the crux of the problem - the 30% problem as in, when a local florist fills a dotflowers.com FTD order, they must grant a commission of roughly that percentage for the privilege of making and delivering those flower.

Shull continues, "FTD is one of the most worthless business models in business today." We finally reach agreement. In its current incarnation, FTD and similar services have raised the cost of florist-delivered flowers to consumers by around 20% - without adding value. At a time when disintermediation  - eliminating middlemen - has increased consumer value in other retail sectors, affiliate schemes like FTD have bloated costs and decreased the amount of blooms delivered for the buck.

The world doesn't need yet another reshuffling of FTD affiliate product images. Heck, FTD's own mirrors here, here, here, here, here and here are plenty - to say nothing of the tens of thousands of other sites with that duplicate product content.

(For the record, our company left FTD's network in 2001 when we found it no longer added value to our customers and our business.) 

Quit blaming local florists. Online affiliate selling from the FTD catalog is more akin to a travel agent promising a specific hotel package and set of amenities without having a clue if they're even available in a location. You, the agent, are now angry that the local facilities won't or can't provide what you sold at the price for which you sold it. The travel industry would be in a shambles if it ran on that model.

Despite Shull saying "No one is going to dig up the phone number to a local florist in a town so that they can call the florist directly" the greatest interest and most growth potential in Search these days is where? Did I hear you say local?

"Peter Daboll, president and chief executive of ComScore Media Metrix, said one notable recent traffic trend is increased popularity of sites helping people find local information: "Things having to do with local search are really gaining momentum."

A real web visionary would be exploring ways to help consumers find local florists and display live inventory that can really be delivered at the price promised. Right now, you're selling something closer to same-day floral vaporware.

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