2.6 million unit sales : what do you think?

Gotta wonder how many of the 2.6 million belonged to Wesley Berry, GoFlorist.com (and their many city-specific domains) and the other OGs TF hosts?
My info says WB generates around 325,000 yearly. Likely close to 1 mil of TFs orders are gathered by their stable. And who knows how many TF.coN snags.

And the wires think this is a "benefit" selling point. And florists seem willing to accept that and give up 35%
 
Just for clarification: As of just a few months ago, TF claimed to have 16,000 worldwide members (mostly North America), and to host 13,400 web sites. Some are custom, the vast majority are template sites.

FTD, I believe hosts just 5-6,000 web sites, or less.

2.6M / 13,400 sites = 194 orders per site
194 / 12 months = 16 per month

Even allowing for variances in populations amongst the members, that really doesn't seem to be much to get excited about.

Now, when we consider that TF used to host closer to 16,000 sites, but only now have reached the 2.6M order mark we can assume that either:
a) their sites are getting better at converting
b) customers in general are more likely to shop online
c) a little "a" and a little "b"
 
Just for clarification: As of just a few months ago, TF claimed to have 16,000 worldwide members (mostly North America), and to host 13,400 web sites. Some are custom, the vast majority are template sites.

FTD, I believe hosts just 5-6,000 web sites, or less.

2.6M / 13,400 sites = 194 orders per site
194 / 12 months = 16 per month

Even allowing for variances in populations amongst the members, that really doesn't seem to be much to get excited about.

Now, when we consider that TF used to host closer to 16,000 sites, but only now have reached the 2.6M order mark we can assume that either:
a) their sites are getting better at converting
b) customers in general are more likely to shop online
c) a little "a" and a little "b"

Ryan, I think you forgot one...

d) The market is becoming more and more saturated with dOGs and the WS is relying (and incentivizing them) to generate and increased percentage of their orders.
 
Ryan, I think you forgot one...

d) The market is becoming more and more saturated with dOGs and the WS is relying (and incentivizing them) to generate and increased percentage of their orders.

I didn't forget that one - I just don't agree 100% with it.

The order volume industry-wide is being consolidated to a shrinking number of OGs. The A List is getting stronger, but the B List is really squeezed. It's not that there are more OGs, it's that the few at the top are getting stronger.

At the same time, more orders are going direct to the local florist, bypassing the wire services. That's part of why TF member sites are producing more orders with fewer users.
 
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I would agree with that, and I would add, florists are converting more orders squeezing the "b list" from the bottom, as the "a list" pressures from the top.

Every florist I know with an Indy site is seeing increased online purchases and activity.

Florists are uniquely positioned to fight in their own yards. You have the local info, you can blog about local goings on and connect it to your biz, FB connects to your biz, you can run local contests... And more...

The game is changing...again...
 
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Mark up above you state that you believe TF is getting close to 1 million orders from the dOGS do you have any sound information on FTD's numbers and 800. If so that would be very useful for my meeting with Google tomorrow.
 
While it is always fun to dissect and extrapolate on imaginary numbers , the only fact that I am certain about when it comes to TF is that they are a privately held company and do not publish their financials. So to start doing the math based on what the TF salesman throws out in a conversation is next to useless. Lets face it, the local TF rep has no more inside knowledge of the big financial picture at TF other than what he is allowed to know and fed on an ongoing basis.

With one of the other guys in the WS business at least you have a fighting chance if you want to pour over quarterly numbers and year ends.

As well assuming any "average" for what a website produces for the "average florist" is next to useless as I see no reason why the old 20/80 rules (or a slight variance of it) would not apply here. The volume a website does is so dependent on so many factors, size of town, optimization, ad words, selection of product, effort invested, etc. Most florists do little if anything to improve or promote their websites, they uses the "field of dreams" system (you know..."build it and they will come") that is why cookie cutter sites are used by so many. Pay your $99.00 per month and sit back waiting for the orders.

It is also why such a large concentration of orders are in so few hands, the companies generating the bulk of the business on line treat e-commerce as just that a "business" onto itself. This is a mind set that the typical 'mom and pop" florist just do not tend to embrace, after all they B&M business to operate daily.

As far as how many orders TF sites actually generate, who cares? The only web site volume any of us should be focused on is our own. Knowing that TF sites generate 2.4 million per annum, or 2.4 gizillion per annum doesn't mean getting one will change any shops business for the better.

Lets face it, most of the "florist" canned websites are not much different in nature, what separates the men from the boys is what an individual shop does with their site.
 
While it is always fun to dissect and extrapolate on imaginary numbers , the only fact that I am certain about when it comes to TF is that they are a privately held company and do not publish their financials. So to start doing the math based on what the TF salesman throws out in a conversation is next to useless. Lets face it, the local TF rep has no more inside knowledge of the big financial picture at TF other than what he is allowed to know and fed on an ongoing basis.

With one of the other guys in the WS business at least you have a fighting chance if you want to pour over quarterly numbers and year ends.

As well assuming any "average" for what a website produces for the "average florist" is next to useless as I see no reason why the old 20/80 rules (or a slight variance of it) would not apply here. The volume a website does is so dependent on so many factors, size of town, optimization, ad words, selection of product, effort invested, etc. Most florists do little if anything to improve or promote their websites, they uses the "field of dreams" system (you know..."build it and they will come") that is why cookie cutter sites are used by so many. Pay your $99.00 per month and sit back waiting for the orders.

It is also why such a large concentration of orders are in so few hands, the companies generating the bulk of the business on line treat e-commerce as just that a "business" onto itself. This is a mind set that the typical 'mom and pop" florist just do tend to embrace, after all they B&M business to operate daily.

As far as how many orders TF sites actually generate, who cares? The only web site volume any of us should be focused on is our own. Knowing that TF sites generate 2.4 million per annum, or 2.4 gizillion per annum doesn't mean getting one will change any shops business for the better.

Lets face it, most of the "florist" canned websites are not much different in nature, what separates the men from the boys is what an individual shop does with their site.

Right arm, Doug.