We often get asked how to save on shipments throughout the year.

The first way is to place more than one order at a time, as our final checkout screen (the ‘thank you’ screen) has a discount code that even new customers can use to place more than one order at a time.

The second way is less obvious; simply combine your order with others as part of the same shipment this saves you a pile on shipping. To save even more look at our multi dozen chocolate covered strawberry assortments.  There is no special box that holds two dozen strawberries, when someone orders two dozen strawberries (or more) they are delivered in one dozen boxes. It’s pretty simple, order a 4 dozen chocolate covered strawberry assortment and you will get 4 boxes of one dozen strawberries. If you split those four dozen with 4 people at work your strawberries and delivery charges will be a whole lot less than if you each ordered separately.

Our wholesale flowers also are a great way to save money, our 100 ,200 and 400 long stem red rose packages can be split up upon receipt and you have roses for a whole lot of people. That’s a whole lot more than the $90 we’ve seen some local florists charge for a dozen roses on Valentine’s Day.  If you do the math right you could even get the other people to pay for your roses and they would still come out way ahead.

Order early: we place your order with the flower suppliers as soon as they come in, for Valentines we normally see stepped price increases as we get closer to the big day. The sooner you order the lower prices you’ll pay. It’s not that the suppliers are pricing gouging, there are millions of people asking for the exact same thing on the exact same day, this creates shortages of product, transportation, and trained labor. Special flights have to be arranged to bring the flowers into the US (it’s not like a whole lot of flowers are coming from Michigan in the dead of winter. They have to be flown in from South America).  The flower suppliers don’t want to suppress their January sales so they raise the prices in steps, the people that get the orders in soonest get the January prices, if you wait till the week before Valentine’s you’ll pay much more.

The same price increases happen in the strawberry market, plus if there is a freeze in California or Florida the prices for a flat of strawberries can easily jump $20 overnight. Strawberries are even more sensitive and perishable than roses and there are only so many places that they can be grown this time of year. Getting your strawberry order in early avoids the risk of price changes due to weather related problems or being locked out due to product shortages.

But if all you were after was a discount code … use “I-M-EARLY” it’s good on orders over $36 that are placed before 01/30/2011 (you’ll select a delivery date during checkout and can place  orders as far in the future as June). The discount code is only valid online and must be applied just after you press “Add to Cart” it can not be combined or used on previous orders or if  you have canceled an order in the last 30 days.

Some flowers are very fragile but not all are fragile in the same way. The shape of the flower also comes into play, as a large flat flower, such as a sunflower or a daisy, would need different protection than an aster or pom.

The picture below is an actual shipment in the mist of being unpacked.  No professional photographer was involved. You can see some of the special protection for individual stems below. The yellow flower heads are individually wrapped  which keeps the peddles from catching on the other flowers during the vibrations that come with nationwide transport. The protection on the purple aster is a flexible net that closes the flower just a little bit and also protects the delicate pedals.

Picture of a floral shipment showing extra protection

Some sturdy flowers don’t need individual protection. For example our rose bouquets are shipped with the roses, ready to bloom, packed in two layers (one row of blooms above the other), so the blooms are held in place by each other having no space for them to get into trouble.

Protection of the individual flowers, when needed, are not the only steps taken. Below is an example of the pack-out for our wedding  package.

Wedding Package example of floral packaging

You’ll note that the bouquets are supported by cardboard inserts,  these prop up the heavy bouquet tops to prevent stem breakage. The bouquets are also tied down to these cardboard supports which prevents the bouquets from shifting or crushing the flower heads on the sides of the box. If you look closely at the bouquet on the right you can see where it’s tied down near the two visible holes. The corsages and boutonnières  are individually boxed to the left.  Currently we only offer this collection in white but we plan to offer it with other rose colors in the future.

You can tell from the pictures that the bouquets are going to be beautiful, but like with anything “nice” you have to take care of it correctly in order to keep it that way.  Each of our packages come with care instructions which include when and how often to cut the stems, change water and  to keep them in a cool place (and not to freeze…)

How to save

1. The final checkout screen (the ‘thank you’ screen) has a coupon code for strawberry and floral orders that you place the same day.  Think about your other gift needs:  a birthday or long delayed thank-you gift.. use the code on the final checkout page to send upscale gifts at a discount.
2. Combine your orders with others, your friends co-workers..  (one shipment to a single location) and you’ll save a lot over separate shipments
3. The 2, 4 and 8 dozen gift sets are packaged in one dozen boxes, do the math… we’ll wait.. yep that’s a huge savings (combine with #2)
4. When Possible avoid Saturday delivery, it’s a lot more expensive. (we don’t make money on shipping so if you want to go ahead)
5. The bulk rose shipments are also a great way to save money, just pick up your vases locally and save a ton, if you look around the house you probably already have a vase or two. (combine your rose needs with the other people you work with to get the deepest discount on long stem roses) . Again do the math.. look at the 100 rose package and divide by 8 (that will give you the price for a dozen roses… you’ll see it’s about an eighth of what some florists (local or online) will be selling roses for, that’s a huge savings.
6. Get your orders in early, our suppliers pass the rate increases on to us and there have been crop destroying freezing in Florida (Strawberries and Flowers) and South America (Flowers), they have agreed to honor the current pricing on the orders we have in-house when the rates go up
7. Join our newsletter, it always has the best coupons and discounts.
8. Don’t wait till the last minute, there is a limit to how much we can make and ship in a day, if you wait till the last minute we may be at capacity and not taking any more orders and you may end up shelling out a huge amount for something from someone else at the last minute.

 I’d known about the lawsuits filed by FTD and the 2 class action suits against ProFlowers for it’s “direct from the growers” claims, when in fact they were really filling the orders with local florists. It’s common knowledge: anytime a company claims same day or Sunday/Monday delivery they are using a local florist to fill orders.

 They have set things up so customers unknowingly sign up for a third party service called Easy Saver which bills the customer $14.95 a month.

 This news report from KDKA (Channel 2 Pittsburg)  explains it well:
http://kdka.com/video/?id=57177@kdka.dayport.com

 And another report from NBC4 in Columbus Ohio http://www2.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/online_customer_upset_with_savings_program/16404/

 http://www.ripoffreport.com/Corrupt-Companies/Easy-Saver-EZSVER/easy-saver-ezsver-pro-flow-4b749.htm

 The above was created a year and a half ago, and I thought they had stopped the practice, but the following site shows they are still up to the same old tricks..

 http://www.flowercomplaint.com/proflowers_complaints.html

 While the majority of the complaints are about ProFlowers, (which is where the Secret Spoon Sweets and Cherry Moon Farms orders are also placed),  Shari’s Berries is also listed.  They are both part of  Provide Commerce which is part of the  Liberty Media group of companies (which also owns QVC, The Atlanta Braves….).

 My initial problem with these companies is that they advertise “chocolate covered strawberries” but don’t use chocolate, but with so many ProFlowers customers complaining about unknowingly signing up for a monthly subscription something has to be wrong.

 Please share this information with your friends, because no one should be paying for a subscription they didn’t know they signed up for.

The names ProFlowers, Shari’s Berries, Secret Spoon Sweets, Cherry Moon Farms, Provide Commerce, Liberty Media, QVC and the Atlanta Braves are trademarks of their respective companies.