Every season Floranext releases a new set of banners for our Florist Websites. Here is our new batch of beautiful Valentine’s Day and Spring banners for our florist website customers!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

Facebook has a new business search engine, similar to Yelp, for finding local business – what will it look like and how can you make sure your flower shop is listed?

A new section of Facebook, discovered by some enterprising bloggers recently, suggests that Facebook is about to go head to head with Yelp in the local services search market.

The previously unknown service allows you to find anything from a restaurant to a home cleaning service to flower shops.

How can your flower shop get on Facebook’s new business search engine?

Like any good search engine the results are the secret sauce. Google’s search algorithm looks at hundreds of factors when deciding which website to show to users – things like speed of the website, frequency of updating, and more.

For Facebook they have revealed information about their news feed algorithm in the past. Key components are the relevance of the information, measured by your affinity to the person posting.

We don’t yet know what factors will be important for Facebook’s service search results. But it’s likely that the more friends or friends of friends have connected with your florist business page, the better higher your ranking will be. So what can you do:

• Get Facebook Reviews – star rating reviews show up prominently in reviews – even if you’re not at the top of the list, if you have the best reviews you will get clicks
• Get more Facebook likes – get supporters, friends, family in the local community to like your business
• Friend Check-in Activity – get people to check in to your business – coupons and small discounts are an easy way to do this
• Update your Facebook page – take and share photos of your work, your events often. Facebook is watching the frequency of updates.
• Verify your Flower Business Business– prove to Facebook that your business actually exists.

Verify your florist Facebook page with a phone call

Verifying your florist business Facebook page is another factor that is likely to increase your ranking in the Facebook search.

1. Select your business name on the top right on Facebook

2. Choose settings

3. Click to Verify your business with a phone call

Good luck with the new Facebook search engine for your flower business!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

Is your flower shop marketing to the newest, biggest group around? The Millennials? Well, you should be because they are your future!

image via google.com

Who Are Millennials and Why are They Relevant for Florists?

Millennials, depending on who you talk to, are born between the late 1970’s to the middle of 1990’s (1995) and they comprise the largest demographics, surpassing the Baby Boomers in numbers and by 2018 in spending power! They are also on track to become the most educated generation in American history.

image via google.com

Is there a different way of marketing to them then the Baby Boomers? Absolutely and here are five tips to help get you started…..

5 Florist Millennial Marketing Tips

1. You flower shop need more than just a presence on social media; you need to make a connection! Millennials are spending an average of 25 hours per week online and they love to share, like, pin, tweet, comment and snap on what they find on their discoveries. Therefore, take an active role in your social media and give your shop a voice.

Snap pictures of your newest designs, an unusual flower or floral material. Everyone likes to “discover” the newest treasure and let that be your shop. Having fun behind the scenes? Add those pictures to your social media to build a connection with your customers. Only on Facebook? Check out where your millennials hang out; is it Pinterest, Instagram or Snapchat? If it is, your flower shop needs to be there too.

2. Cause and Socially Responsible – since they have been in kindergarten, Millennials have been told they need to save the planet, be socially responsible and make a difference. Do you purchase products that are “organic”, “locally grown”, “fair-trade certified” or eco-friendly? If so, promote.

Shop Locally is also an important attribute to the Millennials. Add a sign to your florist website, social media and in your shop that you are a local business and you are part of the community. Connect with local causes and become a part of the solution.

3. Your website is your life blood. Millennials are used to purchasing everything online, heck, they prefer it. So to get the sale, your site has to be as easy as possible to purchase from or else they will move quickly to another site. They also are not thrilled with putting in all their billing information and it can be a sales stopper so utilize a service like PayPal, it can help with the sale.

4. Lots of researching before buying. Millennials don’t remember a time without the internet. Consequently, before they make a purchase, they research websites, read reviews and ask their social media friends a lot. They seek pre-purchase validation online to avoid buyer’s remorse. Your site needs to be professional, informative and able to capture their short attention span. Reviews can make you or break you so always check your online reviews and make sure you have corrected the ones that need assistance. Also, always ask for a satisfied shopper to give you a review. For more information, check out the Floranext blog post on Fixing a Bad Review for your Flower shop.

5. Mobile all the time. Millennials grew up with mobile phones where everything is accessible all the time. Is your florist website responsive to the changes from a desk top to a tablet to a mobile phone? If not, fix it! Millennials preferred method of communication is texting over calls. Experiment with texting and your shop. Send a text with a photo when the arrangement is sent or communicate with brides through texts. Look for ways to utilize their form of communication.

Using these five tips to market to Millennials can help your flower shop break into this increasingly lucrative generation. How do you market to this new generation?

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

The newest Chinese fashion accessory sold and seen in Beijing’s trendier neighborhoods is a small plastic flowers or sprout that appears to be growing from the top of the wearers’ head.  Children, women and men, affectionately dubbed “Sproutheads” can be seen wearing these plastic bean sprouts or flowers clipped to their hair. Is this the accessory of the future here?

images via google.com

What do you think – would these intriguing Chinese floral headpieces work for the US market? Let us know what you think below!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

Everyone has a secret tip or technique that works in their flower shop to make them more effective. Here are ten secret tips that you can start using today! Have some of your own? Share yours in the comments section.

image via shutterstock.com

10 Florist Design Secrets

1. Keeping hydrangeas hydrated while in floral foam. The key to hydrangea freshness is to dip the stem in Alum powder (available in the spice section at the grocery store). Dip right after cutting the stem and before inserting it into the fully saturated floral foam. This also works well on keeping gerbera stems lasting longer in floral foam.

2. Don’t use the usual suspects all the time. When it comes to greenery for your designs, try something besides the usual. And try to manipulate this unusual greenery, such as, folding aspidistra leaves and/or using steel grass to create heart shapes to change-up the design and give them a distinct look. This also goes for using unique blooms as well. They might be more costly but they sure pack a punch when marketing your shop!

3. Prep Early. With the holidays fast approaching, prepping your containers earlier can be a big time saver. For Thanksgiving, “green” with fall leaves as much as 2 weeks in advance since leaves are already dried. For Christmas, start greening with long lasting pine etc. before Thanksgiving. Another time saver for the busy holiday crunch is to design with a recipe, make only 3 or 4, your choice, designs that can be done in a production mode. Saves you time and money!

4. Use Stock Plants Leaves in Designs. Judiciously prune leaves from your decorative plants like ivy, fern, aspidestra, palm, monstera and snake grass to use as decorative leaves in your design work. Use the plants then to decorate the showroom or even use them for sale.

5. Innovative glassware. Get vase sleeves like the ones at www.floristmercantilecompany.com and turn a standard cylinder vase into a custom vase with hundreds of styles to choose from.

image via google.com

6. Add-On to Funeral Sales. By using a 4″ pot liner with foam secured at the base of a potted plant, a cluster of fresh flowers can be added to a funeral plant order to make it unique and colorful.

7. Easy Bouquet Design Stand. To create a stable bouquet stand for when you are designing cascading bouquets done in a cascading bouquet holder, use a wire lamp shade frame to keep it upright and steady while you work.

8. Easy Way to Customize. Wanting to make elastic wristlets and headbands look more your own? Use ribbon in place or in addition to elastic wristlets. Upgrades the look and feel!

9. Reviving wilted cut hydrangeas. If your hydrangeas arrive or become wilted in the store, totally submerge the wilted stems in a sink of very warm water, making sure the freshly cut stems stay under the water. After about ½ hour, the hydrangeas will look as good as new.

10. Always Have Your Glue Pan Ready. Every florist should be using a hot glue pan to speed up design work. It’s fast, economical and efficient.

Here is the start with ten Florist Secret Tips, which ones are you going to implement in your shop? Any Secret Design Tips you can share? Add them to the comments below.

A special Thank You to Rhonda Wood, Bloomfield Floral, Denton, TX; Noah Barnett, Stems Upstate Floral Co. LLC, Spartanburg, SC; Jessica Chaffins, Event Florist, San Diego, CA; and O’Shea Flowers, for sharing their Secret Design Tips with us.

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

At Floranext we love great design. We will be adding beautiful new website banners every season for our florist website customers. Here is a sample of some of the new website banner designs, available for Fall, Thanksgiving, Birthday, and Flowers.

Note that we have used watermarks for these banners on our blog – on Floranext webites they appear without the watermark.  

Need help adding or changing your banner – click here for our how-to guide.

How can you get more customers into your flower shop? Here are nine ways to help get your florist front door swinging and help stand out above the crowd!

image via google.com

Make sure to promote these on your outgoing deliveries – every delivery should have information on your weekly special or offer.

1. Free Coffee Monday – every Monday bring out your favorite brew and offer a free cup to whoever stops in. Everyone loves a fresh FREE cup of coffee. Not into coffee, how about tea? This drink is definitely the new up and coming beverage. Or how about a themed beverage, hot chocolate in the cold weather, pumpkin spice for fall, change it up to keep people guessing and coming back each week! Don’t forget to promote this with store flyers, emails and on social media #FreeCoffeeMonday.

2. Weekly Flower Special – Each week on the same day have a special on one flower. Buy 40 and 50 Centimeter roses because they can be sold for cheaper. Or you can do a different seasonal flower each week. Promote, promote, promote on social media, email and flyers with a photo of the flower and an interesting description. People will start to look forward to this weekly treat! Try #MondayPick #MondaySpecial #TuesdayTreat #HumpDay #FlowerOfTheWeek or any other hashtag you can think of. Always use it consistently!

image via creative market

3. Flower Design Classes/Workshops – DIY (Do It Yourself) is BIG so jump on the bandwagon and let your customers design something themselves, with your help, of course. Back to School is just around the corner, why not have a back-to-school workshop the first week of classes and make a late summer wreath or design? Once people realize how much fun working with flowers are and how you, the expert, can help them make something beautiful, they will be back for more. Be sure to have a whole list of monthly workshops available and list them on social media, email and your website.

4. Book Club – Why not think outside the box and hold a monthly book club at the store? Focus the books you read around flowers or beauty and then bring your knowledge of flowers and design work into the discussion. How about making a design that goes with the theme and raffle it off at the end of the evening?

5. Locally grown – farmers market – Host a “farmer’s market” with locally grown flowers from local growers or sourced through your wholesaler. Locate locally grown honey, maple syrup or eggs to help bring people in the door. You might want to become a weekly drop-off for locally grown meat, eggs or CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture).

6. Children Contest – Everyone loves to see their child/grandchild’s artwork on display and what a perfect way to display them at your shop. Have an art contest and when the child drops off their art, give them a thank-you flower and then display the art throughout the flower shop. Take photos for social media and be sure to alert the press! Give the contest a distinct name and use it with your hashtags. Ask parents who take photos to also use the same hashtag for more publicity.

7. Bizarre Funny Holidays – There is a holiday for everything, look for something fun and go with it. Advertise it on social media and in your shop and don’t forget to alert the press! One website to find different holidays is https://www.daysoftheyear.com/

8. Kids Clubs – Work with local boy/girl scouts or clubs in the schools. Is there a badge they can earn by coming to your shop and learning or making something? This makes great photos and stories for your social media and the press!

9. Themed Events – Utilizing the different seasons is always an excellent way to get customers in. Trick or Treating for Halloween or a Halloween costume contest; Santa on the weekends or during your Holiday Open House are always a good draw to get new people in your shop.

These 9 tips are just the beginning of what you can do to get more flower shop foot traffic. What ways have you gotten more people into your flower business? Have other great ideas – let us know!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!

On July 29^th,2015 Microsoft will be releasing Windows 10, their newest operating system – should you upgrade your flower shop?

image via windows

Those users who remember the last, disastrous Windows 8 version – with a confusing tile interface that was built for touch screens – may be questioning whether Windows 10 is more of the same.

Should you upgrade your flower business or wait? We took the new Windows OS for a spin and while there’s no big rush to update your system, we generally like what we see.

Reasons to Upgrade Your Flower Shop to Windows 10

• • The start menu is back! The start menu from Windows 7 that was missing in 8 is back with an expanded look. You can now find the power button, the Setting command as well as most used apps and the ability to scroll down through all your apps in alphabetical order. The expanded look also includes the tiles from Windows 8. There you can pin your favorite apps and view live tiles for News, Weather and other apps that show you up-to-the-minute information. It’s a good blend of Windows 7 & 8.1.

image via windows

• Microsoft Edge – Their all-new browser is “built to give you a better web experience”, says Microsoft. “With this browser, you can use Write2 or type notes directly on webpages and share them with others, read online articles free of distraction, and save your favorite reads for later access.” Think how great this would be to find a wedding post and add your own ideas and comments to it and send it along to a bride. That would definitely impress!

image via windows

• • Cortana, their personal assistant will help keep track of your important florist wedding appointments, help with traffic analysis, set reminders and give personalized suggestions. “Cortana3 works across your day and your devices to help you get things done. By learning more over time, Cortana becomes more personal and useful to you. Cortana’s also best at reminders, delivering them at the right time and place so you forget less and can do more.” explains Microsoft.

• Well Tested Microsoft has been beta testing the software since October 2014 with over 5 million people in their Windows Insider Program. This is a global community of fans who tested and commented on the new Windows to make it ready for release!

Reasons for Your Flower Shop to Wait on Windows 10

1. Is your equipment ready? If you are running the latest version of either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1, you should fine. If not, go here for more detailed information on what is required.
2. Do you love your Windows 7? If you loved these on your Windows 7, you might want to hold off on updating but you have till January 14th, 2020 before Microsoft ends Windows 7 support.
3. Older Printer Scanner – Your printer and scanner are older and you are not sure if they will work with Windows 10. Wait and check with manufacturers to make sure they are compatible before upgrading. You don’t want to upgrade and then need to purchase a new printer or scanner to get the work done at your shop.

Most Florists Will Like Windows 10

Overall we like where Microsoft is going with Windows 10 and we think most florists will too – better look, smart, dynamic, personalized operating system. That said, the first few months of a new OS can be bumpy so there’s no big rush to upgrade right away.

Good luck with the decision and let us know how it goes for your flower shop!

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Floranext offers great florist software, florist POS, florist websites and florist wedding proposal software. Our florist technology products are built by florists, for florists. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Facebook announced that they are offering free Bluetooth beacons for retail businesses – these devices will allow customers to see more information about your business when they log into Facebook at your shop. Should you sign up to get a free device?

image via facebook / created by floranext

What is a Bluetooth Beacon?

Beacons are a relatively new technology that allow for retailers to push messages and information to shoppers’ smartphones when they enter your shop. Larger retailers are beginning to use these to market to their customers and also to track who visits their shops, how long they stay, and what they do when they arrive.

What will Facebook’s Beacon Do Exactly?

Initially the Facebook Beacon will allow customers who open up the Facebook app while close to your store to see more information about your shop. Typical information would be friends’ check-ins, photos taken in your store, tips left by other users about your flower shop.

Gif provided by Facebook.com

What are Privacy Concerns with Beacons?

Facebook’s beacons, unlike some others on the market, only push information to customers. They don’t collect location information from your users, so there isn’t the privacy concern attached to other types of beacon technologies.

Should I Get a Facebook Beacon for My Flower Shop?

As long as the Beacons are available for users who open up the Facebook app, the Beacons are going to be more useful for businesses where customers spend a lot of time. These are going to be cafes, restaurants, and other similar establishments.

That said, Facebook Beacons could be an interesting addition to your flower shop, particularly if you have a group of customers that are highly engaged with Facebook. You can even let your Facebook followers know they can try out the technology when they visit your shop.

The beacons are simple to set up and there is no maintenance  required so they may be worth a closer look for a some of the more socially engaged flower shops.

Want more information about the free Facebook beacons? Click here for the Facebook information page.

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here!