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…

The unique and beautiful traditions of May Day have sadly become lost and wilted over time—is it time to bring them back? Spring is finally here! This time of year is often associated with floral holidays like Easter and Mother's Day, but years ago, the season used to start in earnest with May Day. When Did May Day Start? The earliest known history of May celebrations began with the Floralia, the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. This festival was typically held on April 27th. The Floralia opened with theatrical performances, including a ritual called the Florifertum that was performed on either the 27th or May 3rd, where a bundle of wheat was carried into a shrine for the devotion of Flora. In the 18th century many Catholics observed May Day with various devotions…

In today's society, all products are judged by their convenience, and the smallest inconvenience can make or break any business. One simple convenience is the delivery of products this includes the delivery of flowers. Of course, flower delivery has been around for ages and most florists provide this service, but when was the last time you sat down and gave your delivery policies and pricing some critical thinking? To truly know if you are charging enough for delivery, there should be a few things that we should keep in mind. In the flower industry, which is highly local in nature, there is no one true “industry standard” for costs; your area is different from the others, and there may be considerations you have to make that other competitor and or businesses do not.  H…