Revisiting this now in 2019 it's hard to believe just how far things have come.
When FloristWare was first introduced most flower shops did not have any kind of florist software or POS (point of sale) technology. They were not even aware that this kind of thing – software, designed solely to help retail florists take orders and run their businesses more efficiently – even existed.
And never mind dedicated floral POS software – many if not most shops did not even have a computer on the premises, and many of those that did still did not have internet access.
Given the widespread adaptation of floral-specific POS/flower shop management systems now (almost every flower shop, large or small has some kind of POS software in place) that might seem surprising, until you consider the options available at that time.
The few POS systems that were available to florists were incredibly expensive and often hard to use. They typically came with an enormous up-front purchase price (tens of thousands of dollars), plus significant ongoing yearly/monthly/per-transaction charges for support, updates, network access, security, etc. The actual cost of use was staggering, and to make the whole thing even more intimidating these systems almost always included ironclad, long term contracts.
There were no free trials and no demos. In most cases a florist did not even get to look at the software until after they had signed an NDA, in some cases until after the contracts had been signed and they money paid.
Yes, that's right. Believe it or not in many cases flower shops did not even get to see what they were buying until after they had committed to it!
And no wonder... many of those systems were they kind of terminal driven software (no mouse) that required the florist to remember countless special commands and keystrokes.
FloristWare put an end to all that. FloristWare was the first floral software system to offer a free trial version, so that florists could see – and use – exactly what they were getting before they paid a single cent. And no more long term contracts... no more contracts period. FloristWare was the first to champion the idea of "No Prisoners", the belief that we wanted people to use our product because they loved it, for only as long as they loved it, not because they were bound by a contract.
These choices – to treat florists fairly – paid off. FloristWare quickly became the most popular independent POS system for retail florists.
And it ushered in a whole new wave of options for the retail floral industry. Every single POS system for florists that has been released since FloristWare has used the same model, and made the same no prisoners guarantee. In many cases they have copied our marketing material verbatim.
But it has all been for the good for the retail florist. Florists have more options than ever before, and while FloristWare has more competition, we continue to lead by being the best POS system for flower shops.