Is A Shopify Website The Right Choice For Your Online Flower Shop?
Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform that offers numerous benefits for florists looking to sell flowers online. These include:
- a user-friendly interface, which allows florists to create a professional-looking online store without needing extensive technical knowledge
- a wide range of customizable Shopify themes, enabling florists to tailor their online store to reflect their unique brand and style.
- integrated payment gateways that ensure payments are processed securely and efficiently
But the being a florist is hard. It's different than other retail. You have to deal with things most retailers never even consider. And, since Shopify was built for general online retail, there are some things that florists looking to make the switch need to keep in mind...
Features Florists Need (That Most Retailers Don't)
Shopify was originally built for general online retail, but florists have always had different requirements:
Customer vs Recipient
In general online retail the customer (the person placing and paying for the order) is usually the same as the recipient (the person receiving the order). Because of this ecommerce sites tend to start by collecting customer information. If there is an option to specify a different recipient it usually happens later in the order process and is often easliy missed.
In the flower business it is completely the opposite. The customer is almost always ordering for someone else, and floral specific website platforms usually start with the recipient and then deal with the customer later. If you go with a platform like Shopify you will want to configure your site so that it’s very clear what information (customer vs recipient) goes where. Understanding this distinction is crucial for building customer loyalty and ensuring repeat business.
Delivery Date Selection
In general retail it is generally assumed that the customer wants the items as soon as possible, and most general retail websites don’t allow the customer to select a specific delivery date.
In retail floral customers have to be able to specify a delivery date. This is standard in floral-specific websites, but with Shopify you will have to set it up. Additionally, integrating local delivery settings within your Shopify store can enhance customer service by providing real-time tracking and scheduling options.
Delivery Cut-Off Times & Date Blocking
Once you have a website that allows the customer to specify a delivery date you also need the ability to block certain delivery dates. For example you need to make sure that a customer can't select same day delivery on your website after a certain time, and/or be able to block same day delivery after your truck has gone out for the last run of deliveries.
You may also need to block delivery on days you don't offer it (like weekends or holidays… if customers can select delivery on Sunday, Christmas Day etc. you can bet some of them will) or after you have reached capacity (maybe a day or two in advance of Valentine's Day or Mother's Day.
Florists are accustomed to having this ability with floral-specific websites, but with a more general platform like Shopify you will have to set it up. It is absolutely possible, just be prepared to have to do some work on it.
Enclosure Cards
Including a note or enclosure card is standard in the flower business, but not as common in general retail. It is possible with Shopify, but again it will take a little extra setup.
The short version here is that because Shopify was not built specifically for retail floral (unlike the website platforms florists tend to be acquainted with) it will likely take a little more work to set up for a retail flower shop. In most cases florists are well advised to get some outside help with this. We will talk about different options and the impact on total cost later on.
Customization
Floral websites are largely dominated by just a few companies. All offer florists options to customize their individual sites, but there are similarities and online flower stores can start to feel familiar. And because some under the hood technical aspects – like site and url structure – also tend to be similar it can be harder for these sites to stand out in search.
If your local competitors are using websites from wire services Shopify can help set your flower shop apart from the crowd. There are various Shopify themes available specifically designed for online flower shops, emphasizing the importance of a visually appealing and functional online presence.
Control Over Your Branding & Product Selection
When it comes to control over your product there is both good and bad news. The good news is that with Shopify you have total control over the products that appear on your site. They are never going to pull the kinds of tricks wire services do, like secretly adding some drop ship products that they fulfill, designs with containers you then need to buy from them, or arrangements that you can’t possibly fill at the prices they are offering.
The bad news is… you are in full control of your products. Many of the floral specific website providers offer some degree of help or automation when it comes time to swap seasonal products in or out. With Shopify, when it’s time to take the Valentine’s Day products down and put the Easter products up you are going to be on your own, or have to hire someone to do it for you.
When it comes to branding you will almost certainly have more control. It’s frustrating to many florists that they pay exorbitant rates for a wire service website, only to have a website that is branded more to promote that wire service than it is their own shop. That will not be a problem with Shopify.
Supporting Your Competition
Florists that use wire service websites often feel that they are supporting their competition because that wire service is also trying to sell to their customers. And some florists believe, although this has never been proven, that the wire service they pay to provide their website then uses data from that website to target their own customers.
Shopify is not in the business of selling flowers and will never be selling against you. This makes them a good fit for florists that are wary of wire services. It is however important to note that there are a number of other smaller floral website providers that are not in the business of selling to the public either.
SEO & Online Marketing
The Shopify platform offers a solid foundation for SEO (site structure, url format, etc.) and online marketing (email marketing tools).
But SEO/online marketing – especially in something as competitive as retail floral – is not a “set-it-and-forget-it” thing. If you want your floral website to rank well it is going to be an ongoing campaign that will require ongoing effort and investment.
Many of the companies that specialize in floral websites include some degree of ongoing search engine optimization, with options for more. With a Shopify site you really need to consider hiring an outside agency (ideally one like Strider Online Marketing that has experience with both the Shopify platform and the retail flower business) or freelancer.
It’s tempting to try and do it yourself but online floral is highly competitive and getting good results is going to require considerable expertise. A great thing about Shopify is that because the platform is so popular there are many options to choose from:
Best Places To Find Online Marketing Specialists For Your Shopify Flower Store
It’s also important – and perhaps a little discouraging – to note that no matter how much you pay an expert to promote your online flower store they will still need some help from you. It is virtually impossible to be completely hands off and be successful.
Costs
At first glance Shopify seems to offer a huge cost savings over the website platforms built specifically for retail florists. Their cheapest plan, what they call the “Basic” plan is $348/year or $29/month for US florists ($456/year or $51/month for Canadian florists). That is much less than any floral-specific website option.
Unfortunately that plan is geared to what Shopify calls “Solo entrepreneurs” and there are significant limitations to make it less attractive to any business larger than that. Credit card processing is going to cost more, and there is only one user account. That means that anyone that can sign in to that account will have full privileges and can export customers, run all reports, break things, etc. But this biggest limitation is that the Basic plan will not allow you to connect the Shopify website to a florist-specific POS.
The plan Shopify wants you to use, and the one that is the right fit for most florists, is called 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.
There are also some indirect costs you need to consider. If you currently use a florist-specific website platform these are either not neccessary or already included. With Shopify you need to factor them into your true cost:
Development Help
Because Shopify sites were originally designed for general retail florists may need help getting some of the features that they consider essential setup. In our experience this usually means hiring a freelancer from a site like Fiverr or Upwork or, better yet, hiring a full service company like Strider that do the initial setup and also handle your ongoing marketing.
Marketplace Extensions, Plugins & Shopify Apps
Florists that were early adapters of Shopify almost always needed to pay for third-party extensions from the Shopify App Store to add features they needed (things like delivery date selection, card messages, etc.).
The good news is that most of this functionality is now included in the core Shopify product, and you probably won’t have to spend much, if anything, extra. It is however very important that you ask your Shopify developer if they plan on using any third party extensions, as some continue to just out of habit. While many essential features are now included in the core Shopify product, you may still need to invest in specific Shopify apps to enhance your store’s functionality.
As you can see it’s hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison of Shopify to the well known floral specific platforms, but hopefully it’s becoming clearer that it’s not quite as simple as the $29/month figure that is often promoted.
Summary
While Shopify is a robust e-commerce platform, it does have some limitations for florists. One of the primary challenges is that Shopify is designed for general e-commerce, not specifically for the flower business. This means that florists may need to add multiple Shopify apps to achieve the functionality they require, such as delivery date selection and recipient information management. These additional apps can increase costs and complicate the setup process.
Another limitation is Shopify’s checkout process, which can sometimes be confusing for customers that are ordering flowers for someone else. This confusion can lead to errors and incomplete orders, potentially resulting in lost sales and dissatisfied customers. Additionally, the platform’s delivery date and cut-off rules can be complex and may not always align perfectly with the specific needs of a flower shop, leading to inefficiencies and mistakes in order fulfillment.
To overcome Shopify’s limitations, florists can leverage specialized apps and themes designed specifically for flower shops. These tools can provide essential functionalities such as precise delivery date selection, cut-off rules, and recipient information management. By using these specialized solutions, florists can ensure that their online store meets the unique demands of selling flowers online. with the downside of increasing costs and complexity.
Florists can also benefit from Shopify’s APIm which allows it to integrate their online store with the FlorisWare POS/shop management system delivery optimization software. This integration can streamline operations, making it easier to manage orders and coordinate deliveries. By adopting these strategies, florists can create a seamless and efficient online shopping experience for their customers, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Conclusion
If you are a florist looking for another option for selling flowers online Shopify can be an excellent choice. Just remember that...
- getting it set up and generating orders, with the features retail florists need, will always take more work than a floral-specific platform
- it will almost certainly cost much less than a wire service website, but...
- it also won't be anywhere near the $29 you see when you first get to their pricing page. In the real world it will end up costing at least as much as a website from a company like Flower Shop Network
- you will have much, much more control than you would with a wire service website
FloristWare offers an outstanding Shopify integration for florists. For more information please give us a call at 888.531.3012 x2.