Should you us a wire service to send flowers? The answer is only
if you don’t mind spending double the actual value of the flowers
you order. What I mean is that if you plunk down $50.00 at your
local florists to send your mom a bouquet for Mother’s Day, she
will end up receiving a bouquet valued at under $30.00.
What happened to the 40% to 50% of my order?
Let me explain.
The first hit from that $50.00 comes from the florist who took the
order from you. Whether they tell you or not, they are paid a
percentage of all wire orders they send. This could be FTD,
Teleflora, Bloomnet or one of many wire services out there. This
percentage varies depending on the wire service but is usually
around 10% or more. Some flower shops will also tack on an
additional $5 to $10 they call a wire fee. This is usually misleading
and added profit for them since they already receive a fee from
the wire service
So if your local flower shop did not try to get into your pocket and
didn’t charge you an additional fee, you are already down $5.00
since they get 10% from the wire service just for taking the order.
Next the wire service will also take a percentage of your order.
This fee is usually 20% or higher. Using the 20% figure you now
have $35.00 left. (Probably less because some wire services will
take more than 20%)
The flower shop in your mom’s home town now receives the order.
The first thing the flower shop will do is to deduct the delivery charge.
This is the cost they incur to pay someone to drive to your mom’s
home and hand her the flowers. In that price the flower shop also
pays the vehicle costs such as gas, insurance, lease payments etc,
as well as any benefits they provide to their driver. On an average
local deliveries run about $10.00 or higher depending on the flower
shop and the distance they have to drive to deliver your flowers.
(In most cases this charge is justified and well worth it).
OK, back to your floral arrangement. Out of the $35.00 the flower
shop has to fill your order, they just deducted the $10.00 for delivery
leaving your mom to receive a whopping $25.00 flower arrangement
that you just paid $50.00 for. What a deal huh?
Keep in mind that all these percentages I quoted are an estimated
average; I have found that they can be much more. So how do you
send your loved one flowers and know you’re getting full value? The
answer is easy, look up a flower shop on the internet or phone
directory that is in the same town or area you are sending the
flowers to, then call the shop yourself, ask them what their delivery
charge is and place your order over the phone. This assures that
if you are sending your loved one $50.00 worth of flowers plus the
delivery charge he/she is going to get the full value.
Next time I will discuss the pros and cons of 1-800 Flowers.
