With the boom in online shopping and deliveries, plenty of sectors have taken the plunge. But not every product needs the same logistical care. Flowers are a case in point: fragile by nature, they need professional expertise to arrive in good condition. For florists, running the logistics takes time and pulls them away from their craft. Demand for delivery is there, and it spikes at key moments of the year such as Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, but meeting it can be complicated. What if there were a secret to improving your flower deliveries?
The challenges to solve if you want better flower deliveries
Temperature: the number one enemy of flowers
Carrying fresh flowers is as demanding in summer as it is in winter. Hot or freezing, temperature is a serious issue in flower delivery. These journeys call for refrigerated vehicles suited to the delicate packaging flowers need.
Fragile goods in transit
Because they are fragile, flowers cannot take long journeys. According to the BBC, flowers lose 15% of their value for every extra day in transit. Same-day delivery is therefore essential if you want to optimise your deliveries.
Sharp seasonal peaks
Customers may want flowers delivered at any time of year, but florists have their key moments. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and the end-of-year holidays usually bring a real spike in activity and in delivery volume. On top of how demanding the goods themselves are, another challenge appears: that intensity is packed into very short windows. Preparing the logistics needed to guarantee deliveries in those periods is complex, and above all critical.
💡 Also worth reading: How can logistics optimisation lift your sales during occasions like Valentine’s Day?
Outsourcing your logistics: the key to better flower deliveries
To improve your flower deliveries quickly, one option is open to you: bring in a logistics provider to take some or all of your deliveries off your hands.
Professional support to absorb delivery peaks
As we said, your sector has very sharp peaks at certain points in the year. Valentine’s Day starts it off, then Mother’s Day, Easter, International Women’s Day and the end-of-year holidays.The statistics bear this out. In a 2020 France 2 report, 1.3 million bouquets were sold in France for Valentine’s Day.These surges create one major problem. The pressure on supply chains is extreme, and it lands in a very short window. To guarantee your deliveries, the processes have to be in place beforehand.
Expertise in handling and carrying fragile goods
Bring in a professional and you gain expertise straight away. Hand some or all of your deliveries to a logistics partner and you know your flowers will be handled with the greatest care. Their experience and their skills let professional carriers make the journey go smoothly, in the best possible conditions for fragile goods.That is why Shippr works with more than 1,000 exclusively professional couriers. Handling fragile products, and running enough vehicle types to match the right one to the goods, are two of the things we offer our florist customers.
Time back to focus on your core business
Finally, logistics is complex and, above all, extremely time-consuming. Every hour spent running your deliveries is an hour you cannot give to a core business that already demands plenty. During peaks like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, you cannot be everywhere at once.Outsourcing your logistics is an excellent way to win back time for making up bouquets, for selling and for everything else your business involves. You also hand your logistics to people whose core business it is. Unexpected problems, packaging, couriers, vehicles, customer support 7 days a week … Shippr manages all of it, so you can offer a delivery service without the admin that comes with it.
How do you choose the right logistics partner for your flower deliveries?
1. Go with a same-day delivery specialist
Choosing a logistics provider that delivers same day means fast delivery and, above all, fewer risks for your products. That service counts for a lot in your customers’ eyes. How many of them hold back from using your delivery service for fear of what might happen in transit? Same-day delivery guarantees that once your products are handed to the courier they go straight to the final recipient, with no intermediary. Remember that flowers are perishable goods. They do not cope with long journeys or multiple stops. A same-day partner protects the quality of your flowers as far as possible. You also save on packaging. And your customers get a fast, professional service whenever they want it. Same-day delivery can also be scheduled, so your customers pick the exact delivery day. Shippr has made it a speciality: planned or express, we only deliver same day. This service brings you plenty of benefits:
- you reduce your customers’ anxiety about transport
- you give them a quality, personalised service
- you save them a trip and even let them send a floral surprise
- you also cut your packaging costs
- and you build loyalty, so they keep coming back to you
2. A large fleet of vehicles to match your needs
If you already run vehicles, you probably need reinforcements at peaks such as Valentine’s Day. Two options are open to you at those moments: add more delivery vehicles, or bring in an external delivery provider. The second gives you serious operational support in periods of heavy demand. That is what plenty of florists already do with Shippr during volume peaks. As same-day delivery experts, we work with a large pool of transport professionals based in Paris and Brussels, driving every kind of vehicle. Thanks to them the fleet grows by the day, so you can find the vehicle your delivery needs. When you create a delivery with Shippr, our algorithms automatically assign the right vehicle for the job.
3. Offer flexibility and personalisation through your logistics provider
Whether for your own operations or for last-minute customer requests, flexibility is essential. E-commerce sellers know it: online shoppers now expect a choice of delivery options. Beyond the type of service, they also want to choose where and when their order arrives. Scheduled delivery at home or at work, express shipping … Letting them personalise your delivery service does a great deal for their satisfaction.
4. Keeping your customers informed
Customers would no longer imagine a delivery they cannot track. Offering a tracking link and keeping recipients informed is essential, especially when someone is surprising their partner at work. If you work with an external carrier, make sure they offer parcel tracking. Shippr does: automatic emails and texts go to recipients at every stage of the bouquet’s journey, with a real-time tracking link. You and your recipient can check on the delivery at any time. Another step you can take is to add a tracking page to your online flower shop. On top of the emails, your customer can reassure themselves about their order by going straight to your page. Beyond tracking, that page is an excellent way to bring traffic to your website and to communicate. Use it to tell visitors about your shop’s latest news or your current offers.
5. Available, responsive customer support
Nothing is worse than a hold-up or a last-minute change. Unfortunately that is daily life in logistics. You cannot always avoid them, but you can make sure of one thing: operational responsiveness.Working with an external provider that offers parcel tracking and a support service is a real asset. Imagine working with a provider that gives you no visibility over how deliveries are running. What do you do when something goes wrong? Will you even be told? Who takes charge and finds a solution fast enough to save the flowers? The time it takes to hear about the problem and find an answer costs you responsiveness. That is why Shippr provides real-time tracking, both to the customers receiving the flowers and to you, the sender. You can see where your flowers are at any moment. And because it manages deliveries every day, our support team follows each one and stays in constant contact with the professional couriers. Available 7 days a week, it is alerted the moment something goes wrong and has the means to resolve it quickly.
To find out more about the operational logistics support you can get with Shippr, talk to one of our experts.
