Today's consumers rely heavily on the internet for everything, and shopping for flowers is no exception. That’s why your online presence must be strong! Search engine optimization should focus on customers in your direct vicinity. Local SEO is important, perhaps even more so than general SEO, because your direct source of reliable income will be the customers nearest to you. so optimizing your online presence that will prioritize them should be the first step for your business SEO. So, search engine optimization, as its name suggests, allows your business website to be easily seen at the top of search results, thus increasing your online visibility. The best way to go about your first steps of SEO is through Google My Business. Florist Tools For SEO For starters, Google My Busin…

Social media has had an overwhelming impact on human interaction since its inception, particularly in business. Social media has changed how people obtain information, and vastly increased the volume of content that we consume. Facebook remains the most-used social media platform, but recently its title is being threatened by another social media platform focusing on images and videos, Instagram. Origins of Facebook Inspired by unviersity face books which contain students' photos and basic information, Facebook began at Harvard University in 2003 as FaceMash. It creator, Mark Zuckerburg went on to open "TheFacebook" to other Harvard students in 2004. As time passed, membership expanded to other universities, high schools, then to private companies, until it finally opened to ever…

Are You Caught Up on Google My Business? Google My Business is a Google service launched about five years ago that allows businesses to make public profiles, and become more readily seen in Google Local Search and Google Maps. With over 150 million businesses registered and 3 billion consumer-merchant interactions, the platform is constantly growing, not just in user count, but also in its new features. Google My Business has launched two new features—florists, are you using these? Florist Special Offers Last year, Google launched the “For you” tab in the mobile Maps applications. With this update, they have allowed customers to follow businesses like yours. Now, Google is helping businesses give incentives to people who follow them on the platform in the form of special o…

Studies show flowers helps patients recover! Sending flowers to anyone you know that is sick or sad might be the go-to gift, but the sending of flowers is actually more helpful than you think. It might surprise you, but there are more to flowers than just the look and smell—they can have some really positive effects on your health as well. Floral Studies A few years ago the American Society for Horticulture Science performed a study seeing if plants have any influence on patients, and the results were outstanding. A group of patients was split into rooms with plants and flowers and the other half with no plants or flowers. The patients who had plants in their room had better results than those who did not have plants. According to the study, those exposed to flowers and plants ne…

Customers search online about the things they want to buy, even if it’s a simple local purchase.   Google is not only helpful for consumers, but it’s also good for businesses. As long as you can use that to your advantage by strengthening your business’s online presence, your floral e-commerce website can succeed.  Florist Quick Guide to Google My Business Google My Business is Google’s one-stop shop for all things online for your business. It is an online platform that contains tools where you can manage how your business will look like in Google and Google Search. Google My Business (GMB) improves your local SEO by: * Giving you the options to add your business and the relevant details to Search and Maps * Viewing and replying to customer reviews * …

It's beginning to feel a lot like summer! Let's celebrate the season with the lei and flower crown, a Hawaiian tradition with thousands of years of history. Flower artist and lei maker Ocean Dreamer (ocean_dreamerr on Instagram) has a feed full of gorgeous lei and flower crown designs for weddings and all occasions we'd like to spotlight today. The Origins of Leis Leis have been constructed of various materials including flowers, shells, leaves, nuts, feathers, and bone, but a braid of green Maile vine has been at the center of the lei all along. The lei was introduced to Hawaii by the ancient Polynesian voyagers who first settled the islands. For centuries leis have been worn as garments to beautify the wearer, exchanged by leaders to seal peace agreements, and served a ceremo…

Recently, Federal, State, and Local agencies have been hacked. Is your flower shop next? Over the past weeks, cybercriminals have attacked computers in Baltimore and other US cities, freezing computers, shutting down email, and interrupting real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services. We have collected some helpful tips so that your flower business won't be the next victim of similar kinds of hack attempts! How Can Hacking Affect My Floral Shop? Without having the most recent PC operating systems, like Windows 8.1 or 10, or up to date security patches, your floral business is at a high risk to be hacked. Many businesses who do not have up-to-date operating systems or security patches can experience the following: Frozen or locked out of your PC …

The 2019 Florist Mother’s Day Survey Results Are In!   A big thank you to everyone who participated in our annual Mother’s Day survey. Once again we received a strong response from our readers and members. Results were based on the 347 retail surveyed by Floranext between May 15th through February 22nd. Were 2019 Mother’s Day Sales Better Than Last Year? Lower – 18.1% Same – 20.5% Higher – 61.4% Were Mother’s Day In-Store Retail sales greater than last year? Yes – 59% No – 41% Aside From Red Roses, What Was Your Top-Selling Products This Mother’s Day? Arranged Flowers – 79.5% Hand-Tied Bouquets – 11.7% Other Roses – 7% Other – 1.8% What Was The Most Popular Gift Item This Mother's Day? Candy/Chocola…

Hello florists, we are asking all our members and readers for feedback on the success of their Mother's Day holiday relative to last year. Your participation in this survey is invaluable—gauging the success of the Mother's Day holiday is so meaningful for the overall success of the floral industry. Click here to begin!…

Did you know May is National Pet Month in the United States? May is officially here! A month of Spring Flowers, Mother's Day and a month to cherish our four-legged furry friends! As florists, you may have been asked the question time and time again, what flowers or plants are safe around animals? Every pet owner knows their furry friend will chew on anything it can get into, and at some point it will gravitate towards plants and flowers. As beautiful as plants and flowers are, some can be particularly dangerous to our furry companions. Pets are members of the family, so the last thing we want is for them to get sick from flowers or plants that are toxic to them. Of course, as florists, you don’t want customers who have pets to stay entirely away from all flower arrangemen…