Ecommerce Flower and Plant Website
Increasing Online Sales for a Florist in Ottawa
The Problem:
The Goals:
The Strategies:
We focused first on creating a website that was optimized for online shopping, rather than finding out information about a local shop. This involved a lot of behind the scenes work on product categorization and tagging, and an overhaul of the navigation, so that customers could quickly and easily find what they would be looking for.
Our next focus was on increasing the average order value significantly. We analyzed previous shopping patterns, and developed a network system of cross-sells and upsells for every product. We also introduced strategically developed product bundles, which helped to reintroduce older stock items to customers in a fresh way, and sell out items with high inventory.
We quickly recognized an opportunity to create and expand a new revenue stream: plants. We crafted an exclusive email mailing list for plant lovers, and developed brand new shop sections dedicated entirely to plants. Plants quickly became one of the most popular items, with stock regularly selling out of desirable plants only hours after email newsletters were sent.
To fully capitalize on traditional rush periods, we created an automated system that offered customer’s a pick-up window based on the items in their order. That allowed staff to balance their workload much more efficiently. FTT was able to continue accepting orders long after many comparable shops had to stop.
- Complete overhaul of product categorization and tagging to optimize the menu and create a seamless shopping experience
- Application of data-driven cross-sells and upsells to increase average order value and keep stock moving
- Strategic creation of bundled products to consistently increase average order value
- Redesign of shop pages to better promote slower-moving products
- Creation of exclusive mailing list opt-in for plant customers
- Automated system for pickup window based on order contents to increase staff efficiency
The Results:
- In 2020, brought in their best revenue of all time in a number of consecutive months
- In 2021, they beat those numbers again
- The physical location was able to remain closed by choice to protect vulnerable staff, since online revenue was so strong in 2020-2021
- After reopening to the public in 2022, they have combined the online and in person shopping experiences using technology that keeps stock up to date between the 2 platforms at all times.
- Average order value increased significantly
- Reduced stock wastage and shelf time
- New revenue stream created and promoted through exclusive mailing list with a 5% average click rate
- Able to accept more orders during high rush periods than any other comparable business