An ethical new flower service, Flowerfox, has launched, with a mission to bring online profits back to florists and artistry back to their craft.
The new digital marketplace connects boutique, florists with customers in a hyper-local model, to bring the magic back to buying flowers.
“The way people buy flowers online right now doesn’t reflect the magic of the moment,” says founder and CEO, Leah Pooley.
“A lot of the major flower sites use stock imagery of bouquets, then pass these orders along to real florists to replicate for only a percentage of the overall sale. It can be unpredictable what will actually arrive and when.”
“If you search ‘local florist St Kilda’, the majority of results on page one aren’t real florists. ‘Flowers’ is one of the most expensive keyword categories there is on Google, which means small businesses are often priced out and unable to promote their businesses online.”
What exactly does Flowerfox have to offer?
Flowerfox offers a solution allowing florists to craft, curate and sell their own bouquets and floral arrangements online without needing to manage their online presence.
“We wanted to empower local florists by providing them with a space online where they have full creative freedom to sell their own products at prices they decide.”
Pooley, a country girl from Albany WA who grew up on a five-acre property with gardens and fruit orchards, launched Flowerfox after several infuriating experiences buying flowers online. She started speaking with florists about why they weren’t promoting their own online stores and found that they lacked the time, money and skills to have a strong digital presence. As a result, some are struggling to stay open.
“As a small business it is extremely hard to compete with the big online companies who pay thousands to have their site ranked first on google,” shares florist Rebecca Stacey of Canary Jane’s Flowers. “Flowerfox has seen this gap in the market and are setting out to help us little shops!”
“I didn’t want to see any more local florists forced to close their doors, so decided to do something about it.” says Pooley. “The thought of starting a business that meant being surrounded by flowers every day was also too good to resist.”
With same day delivery across metropolitan Melbourne, Flowerfox offers a range of contemporary, artisanal flowers, plants and gifts ranging from $10 – $150.
