Why you should reach out to a local florist

Many people have heard of FTD, Teleflora, and 1800Flowers. They are the most widely recognized wire services in the floral world. Traditionally, they offered services for real local florists to send and receive orders. While they still offer these services, they have begun directly competing for customers with their florist members.

What is an Order Gatherer?

What we refer to as an "Order Gatherer" or OG is an online only florist who collects orders to send to a local florist at a lower price. They set up websites with all the right keywords to make it look like they are in your desired delivery area. Even here in Chestertown, if you Google "Chestertown Florist" or "Flower Delivery in Chestertown," there is at least one OG that shows up in the top 5 results, if they weren't the ad that shows at the top of the page. Once they get your order, they will send it to a local florist and keep a "rebate" amount as well as a 20% commission and any "service fees" they charged to you.

Here's An Example:

A customer in Florida orders a $69.95 arrangement from an OG in Texas for delivery to Ohio. A delivery charge of $8.95 and a service fee of $12.95 are added for a total of $91.85.

The OG sends the order to a real local florist in Ohio. That local florist will design the arrangement and deliver to the recipient.
For this, the OG receives:

• $7.00 rebate
• $12.95 service fee
• $13.99 commission

A total of $33.94! A flower has yet to be touched and the order value has already dropped 37%.

As you can see, order gatherers are simply middlemen. Since more and more customers are purchasing flowers online, the likelihood of an order gatherer being found is increased. Many OGs are telemarketers in an office or call center setting. They can be very deceitful to those that don't know who they are dealing with. We strongly recommend that all order gatherers be avoided when placing your order.

How can you tell the difference?

A simple rule of thumb works: Location, location, location! Where are they physically located? Their physical address should be on the main index page of their website. Or proudly shown on the bottom of each webpage and on their front page. If not, try their "About Us" or "Contact Us" page. If you are still unable to tell where they are located, you can always call and ask. Of course, if you are satisfied with their telephone response, then place your order.

Some florists do work out of their home or have a studio that is not open to the public, in those cases, they may not want to advertise their location. But for the most part, there will be clear, distinguishing features about their website that tells you whether they are "real."

We are independent

In 2021, we stepped away from all of the major wire services. We realized that not only was it costing us more money to be a member, but the recipients - people in our community - and their loved ones were receiving less than what they had bargained for. While we are still connected with real local florists across the country, we are not giving our or their hard-earned money to order gatherers.

Of course, if you see an arrangement on one of these sites and want to know if we can recreate it, the answer is most likely "Yes." Depending on your budget, the amount of time before delivery, and current season, we can make a recreation. There may be some variation in size since many of their photos are of one-sided arrangements and we prefer to give our customers a 360 arrangement if possible. We will work with you to give you an arrangement that you love!