Want to order from a truly local florist and support a small local business? Today we wanted to write about choosing the right florist for your occasion and needs. It's so important to find a local florist, even if you don't choose us. In the florist industry, like many others, there are companies that pose as local florists, but what they are is simply a website and a call center, and have a strong advertising budget. One term for these "order gatherers". We are not saying it's wrong to order from these types of companies, however, they are certainly not local, and probably not even a florist at all. They will simply send the order to a local florist, and take 20-40% commission after fees. The local florist receiving the order has to take this into account in order to still make a profit on the order. This normally results in a much less full looking arrangement, older / smaller flowers being used, delivery delays. If you order direct from us or another local florist more of your money goes into the arrangement. Sure, you will probably find lower prices on the order gatherer websites, but remember they still take a big cut of it. Instead of spending $50 with them, call a local company and ask them to make a $50 arrangement if you can't find similar prices on their site. Some of the tricks that I've learned to detect when you are on the website of an order gatherer as opposed to a real local florist are as follows:
-Call them! If you think you are speaking to a call center outside the US; Definitly not local!
-They normally appear as a "sponsored" or as an advertised result at the top of the search results.
-They have local florist written all over their search engine result, and their website, yet there will be no physical address anywhere on it
-There will be no Google reviews readily apparent
-If you search the name of the florist without the city you can find their headquarters (true location), which will be nowhere near your desired delivery location
-Try searching for the florist name and the word "reviews". This can display some very enlightening information about the business, location and actual reviews
-Check them out on Yelp in addition to Google, Yahoo, or Bing, before purchasing. Yelp does a good job of tracking their actual reviews, whereas search engines may not display them unless you search the city where they are headquartered.
-Look for an actual local address on the website.
That's all for today from the Aloha Nui Blog team. Mahalo Nui Loa!
