As I sat down last week to reflect on the last year, I was struck by how fast 2022 has drawn to a close. It only seems like yesterday that we were welcoming in 2022 and hoping it was better than 2021!
During 2022 Flower Store In a Box has grown enormously, with many florists coming on board. I am forever grateful to every one of our exceptional customers on this journey together, and I thank you for supporting this small business!
I also want to reiterate how lucky we have such a dedicated team of people who make up Flower Store In a Box! Thank you to all the team behind the scenes.
This year represented over two decades of Flower Store In a Box working with florists on your eCommerce journey. We have helped you transact several hundred million dollars in online sales in that time! Not bad for a small Australian team and business.
In 2023 and beyond, we will continue to strive to provide the best all-in-one florist business solution for managing and growing your floristry business.
The state of the online florist retail market
2022 has seen significant challenges in the online florist market; supply chain issues, economic downturns and the end of lockdowns have all impacted. Many florists made sales and revenue projections based on artificially high covid sales numbers in 2020 and 2021. However, as we opened back in Australia, the sales peaks of people looking to buy flowers online got less.
Supply chain issues and stock availability have continued to be an issue. This is expected to continue into the new year as supply chain issues caused by international events and flooding in Australia remain.
Many businesses have seen a significant softening of sales from about May / June 2022. We have seen this over the platform as a whole, and anecdotally we have seen a reduction in overall platform traffic compared to the previous year. However, it isn’t easy to compare 2021 to 2022 due to Covid and the lockdowns that saw a massive spike in online sales.
Much of the softening in sales can be indirectly linked to the rise of Interest rates in Australia. Whilst overall personal and household consumer spending seems to have been maintained at a high level, discretionary spending for gifting has undoubtedly suffered.
We have seen a gradual increase in platform traffic and sales from about mid-October, and we anticipate this will continue into 2023.
In other floristry news, it’s welcome news that the ACCC has started to investigate some of the more egregious behaviour of some of the “order gatherers”. From this investigation, we hope to see concrete actions in 2023 that benefit small floristry businesses.
What we have achieved this year in features
During 2022 we have released a massive amount of new features, including:
- Free Delivery Products
- Free Delivery Product Categories
- Order Management Workflow
- Single-Use Discount Coupons
- Extensive new SMS Order Notifications
- Date Delivery Surcharges
- Weekend Delivery Surcharges
- Ability to turn “off” delivery suburbs
- Different same day cut off times for suburbs
- Ability to leave in-store pickup on but not local delivery
- Suburb Block dates
- Custom Addons and multiple add-ons ordering
- Hide out-of-stock products from the website
- Updated product management portal
Where we are going next year and the future
At the core of our philosophy for the platform is to add features that build your business, make your business more profitable and streamline the way you do things.
In 2023 we will be adding the following major new features:
- Subscriptions
- Point of Sale
- Marketing Automation
- Automated Marketing Campaigns
- In-Store & Online Loyalty Programs
- Updated Email Templates
- New Cart Abandonment emails and SMS
So that’s it from me for 2022; I wish you a happy, safe and prosperous new year!
