Costly Mistakes Florists Need To Avoid When Setting Up A Shopify Site

Shopify is a powerful ecommerce website platform that allows retailers to set up an online store and start selling over the internet quickly and easily.

It is also becoming increasingly popular with florists that are looking for their first website, or an alternative to wire service websites. And, in many cases, it can be a good fit.

See: Is Shopify A Good Fit For Your Online Flower Shop?

But because the platform was built for general retail – and not specifically for the flower business – there are some costly mistakes it's easy for a florist to make. This article can help you avoid them.

Mistakes To Avoid

We work with a lot of florists and these are the mistakes they've told us about time and time again, the things they wish they had considered before going live with their Shopify sites.

Make Sure To Properly Calulate The Cost

It's easy to take a quick glance at the lowest number on the Shopify pricing page and think about all the money you could be saving but it's not that simple.

Direct Costs

The cheapest Shopify plan ("Basic") is $348/year or $29/month for US florists ($456/year or $51/month for Canadian florists). Unfortunately this is geared to what they call "Solo entrepreneurs". It's not intended for brick and mortar retailers and there are serious limitations for established businesses with more than one employee.

The Shopify plan that is the right fit for most florists is called (and yes, this is confusing) the "Shopify" plan. It costs $948/year or $89/month for US florists ($1,584/year or $132/month for Canadian florists). Shopify describes this as being built "for small teams" and offers lower credit card processing rates, 5 additional staff accounts and POS integration.

Indirect Costs

You also need to factor in some indirect costs. Shopify florists are designed for general retail but florists have some pretty unique requirements. There are things (more details below) you would take for granted with a website from a company like Flower Shop Network or Gravity Free, but with Shopify you may need to hire someone to get them dialed in.

The short version is that a Shopify website likely isn't going to be quite as inexpensive as you might have hoped. And, when you factor in the extra time and work involved getting it dialled in for online flower ordering, it's going to cost a little more than a site from a company like Flower Shop Network.

But the good news is that a Shopify website will almost certainly cost much, much less than a website from a wire service.

Make Sure Your Customers Can Specify Delivery Dates

A lot of florists go live with a new Shopify site having overlooking the fact that there is no way for their customers to specify a delivery date. For a lot of retailers this makes sense – they just assume that the customer wants their order delivered as soon as possible.

But florists know that the flower business is different. You need to let your customer selected from allowed delivery dates.

Make Sure You Can Block Delivery Dates and Set Cut-Off Times

Once you have given your customers the ability to select delivery dates you have to make sure you can block delivery dates (unless you really want to be delivering on Christmas Day) and set cut-off times for same day delivery (or you will have people ordering at 5 PM assuming the flowers will get delivered that evening.

Make Sure Anybody You Work With Understands The Flower Business

If you hire an agency or freelancer to help with setup or online marketing make sure that they understand the flower business. This is the issue we hear about most often – a flower shop hires someone with no industry experience to set up their website, someone who doesn't understand that (for example) customers need to be able to specify a delivery date.

Then, when the site goes live, the first three customers that try to place an order give up when they don't see a way to do that. Then a fourth customer places an order at 5 PM on the assumption it will be delivered that day.

Be Aware There Will Be A Little More Ongoing Work Too

There are a lot of downsides to having a wire service website but they know the flower business and take care of some of the housekeeping for you. For example they will generally make it easy to raise prices at Valentines, or add/remove seasonal products. In some cases they may even do it for you.

With a Shopify website you are going to have to do more of that on your own.

if you are careful to avoid these mistakes Shopify can be a great platform for your online flower store.

Pre-Flight Checklists For Shopify Florist Websites

We covered the mistakes you need to avoid, now let's talk about what you need to get right.

Before you go live with your new Shopify flower store please go through these two checklists thoroughly. If you don't you might find yourself receiving orders with no delivery date or worse!

As The Owner

Sign in to your Shopify admin account and make sure that you can do all of the following:

Block Delivery To Areas You Don't Cover
It's really discouraging when the first orders you get are to places you don't deliver.

Block Delivery/Pickup Dates In Advance
So customers can't specify delivery on days you don't deliver (for example Christmas, Sundays, etc.).

Set Dame-Day Cut-Off Times
So customers can't order for same day delivery late in the afternoon.

Block Same Day Delivery
This is essential when – often for surprise reasons, like running out of product or your delivery can breaking down – you can't delivery any more orders that day.

Add/Remove Seasonal Products And Change Prices
Leading up to Valentines you likely want a lot of roses on your home page. On February 15 you probably don't. Make sure you can make those kinds of changes easily.

Some of these things you will do on a regular basis – maybe even every day – so make sure that:

• you remember how to do them
• you can do them quickly, bookkmarking the pages if it helps
• you can even walk an employee through them over the phone

As A Customer

An equally important consideration is the customer experience. You need to make sure that your customers are able to visit your new Shopify website and order flowers quickly and easily, and without getting confused.

To do this you will need fresh eyes – someone who doesn't understand the flower business as well as you do. Recruit a friend, a family member, a neighbor – anyone from outside the flower business – and ask them to try and place an order on your new website while you watch them closely.

Make sure that...

• They are absolutely clear on where and when they are entering customer vs recipient information, and don't get confused and overwrite one with the other.
• It is easy for them to add multiple products to a single order.
• It is easy for them to specify a delivery date.
• The delivery dates you have blocked off are indeed blocked off for the customer.
• That there is a place for them to enter the card information.
• That card information is at the order level, not the product level.

If your tester struggles with any of that you need to refine your Shopify setup. If you don't your customers will get confused and not place their flower orders, or you will get orders that are hard to fill because they have missing or mixed-up information.

Conclusion

A Shopify website can be a great choice for florists. Just remember that a lot of the things you would take for granted with a florist-specific platform or wire service website will not be set up out-of-the -box. It's going to take a little extra work.

When your site is set up our Shopify Integration is really the last piece of the puzzle. With it the orders placed on your Shopify website will come into the FloristWare POS/shop management system and join your phone and walk-in orders. You can then manage production, fulfillment (including route optimation and our mobile flower delivery app) reporting and accounting from one place.