Thinking of dipping your toe into the world of floristry eCommerce? With millions of UK consumers already shopping online, it’s a lucrative space that’s ideal for both launching and expanding your florist business online.
You don’t have to be tech-savvy to start a flower shop online, either. With the right tools and a little bit of expert know-how (we’ve got you covered on that front), you can set up a professional platform for your flower shop venture in no time.
Kickstart your eCommerce project with these 6 steps.
You can find more floral inspiration here: 10 Crucial Tips and Tricks for Opening a Flower Shop
1. Gather Market Research
When starting an online florist, research is a must. You need to know more about the market you’re getting into, including who your competitors are and the sort of customers you want to attract.
Begin by getting to know your target audience. Create a customer persona that outlines key characteristics, like income, age, likes/dislikes, and purchase intent, as well as what they’re looking for when buying flowers online.
It’s also useful to know if they already shop with one of your competitors and, if so, what could entice them to switch to you.
To gather research on your target audience, we recommend:
- Checking out free and paid online research (PwC and Mintel are great resources).
- Surveying your existing customers (if applicable).
- Carrying out polls on social media.
- Asking friends and family.
Next, Conduct Competitor Research
Look out for what similar florists are including on their websites, how they’re photographing their flowers, and whether or not they have a blog, gallery, or online portfolio of work.
It’s also worth looking at price points and delivery options to give you a better idea of market averages and price comparisons.
This isn’t about copying what’s already out there, but about getting inspiration for your online florist store. Explore what other brands are doing well and blend their ideas with your own to build an online store that’s unique, engaging and authentic to your individual brand.
Market research also helps you spot gaps in the market, which is great if you’re looking for a unique selling point (USP) for your online floristry!
2. Create a Portfolio E-commerce Website
Now it’s time to decide how you’ll build your website. The good news? This really doesn’t have to be tricky.
If you’re not clued up on web development, your best bet is to use a drag-and-drop website builder, like Portfoliobox. This is a super simple way to create beautiful and professional eCommerce and portfolio websites, ensuring you steer clear of any tech overwhelm.
When using a drag-and-drop website builder, you won’t have to do any of the tricky coding or technical work. Instead, you’ll be working on the visuals. You’ll have more time to think about your logo, the colour palette for your online flower store, and the images of your flowers, for instance (all of which we’ll go over later in the article).
Website builders help simplify the whole process, and you can have the first ‘draft’ of your online flower store up and running within a couple of days. As your flower business grows, you can easily scale your site, too, ensuring you have a platform that’s ready to expand with your business.
Check out the resources available on your chosen builder’s website for helpful walk-through tutorials, and create your first eCommerce flower shop with ease.
3. Carefully Consider Your Branding
As a florist, e-commerce is a powerful channel for selling to new and existing customers. The only issue is that you’re not going to be the only online florist out there, so it’s important to create a portfolio and website that sets you apart from the crowd.
This is where branding comes in.
Your branding should reflect everything unique about your flower shop, helping you stand out from competitors online. It also needs to appeal to and engage your target audience, giving them a clear reason to shop with you over other online florists.
I’d recommend creating your own branding guidelines. These will be set rules that help you stay consistent when building your online flower shop, and are also useful for other marketing strategies like packaging design and social media marketing.
Creating a portfolio website that showcases your flowers and converts customers should follow a set of clear brand guidelines. These include:
- Useful insights from your target market research.
- Your brand mission, values, and USP.
- Your brand personality and tone of voice (TOV).
- Your colour palette (include exact colour codes where possible!).
- Your logo and logo variations.
- Typography choices, including headings, subheadings, and body text.
As you move forward with building your florist website, these guidelines will ensure you follow a consistent style that helps improve your branding and positioning.
4. Showcase Your Flowers Online
What’s an online flower shop without any flowers? This is the moment your shop really comes to life, making it an exciting step!
Set aside some time to arrange and photograph your flowers. If you’re not sure where to start, it’s a great idea to look at the brands you love to see how they’re displaying their products (add this to your market research to-do list). Are they using plain backgrounds or aesthetic set-ups? Do they include people in their photos?
You’ll need a few different shots of each product, giving your customers plenty of information so they can make the right floral choices for their needs.
Try to keep the types of images you’re taking consistent across your flowers. For instance, for individual flowers, you might take 3 photos:
- A photo of the individual flower
- A photo of the flower as part of a bouquet or arrangement
- A photo of the flower used in a setting (such as for table dressing)
This consistency creates a more professional website and signals credibility to your customers, which is vital for securing those all-important sales.
When taking the photos, you don’t necessarily need a DSLR camera. Many smartphones now have high-quality cameras and are far easier to use, making them the best option for reducing tech overwhelm. Some easy tips for flower photography include:
- Use softbox lighting for studio-quality photos.
- Use a tripod or phone stand to avoid blurry shots.
- Wipe your camera lens before each shoot to ensure sharp images.
- Lock your phone’s focus on the centre of the bouquet.
- Take multiple shots of each arrangement so you can choose the best later.
Lightly edit your images, playing around with brightness and warmth to get the best shots of your flowers. Just avoid overediting to maintain the professional look of your flower shop.
5. Add Content to Your Website
Your online flower shop’s going to need words that entice online shoppers, convince them why they should spend their money with you, and convey who you are as a brand, building credibility for your flower store.
For a standard online florist, you’ll need text for your home page, about, and contact pages, as well as for product descriptions. This should align with your branding TOV while engaging and informing your target customers.
Strong copy should highlight what makes your flowers special, explain why customers should buy from you, and guide them smoothly through your website. Keep sentences simple and easy to understand and avoid jargon that might confuse your customers.
Before publishing, proofread your copy carefully. Any spelling or grammar mistakes could damage your brand image, so check, check, and check again! Spellchecking tools can help you here. Grammarly, for instance, is a popular choice that’s easy to use and free.
If you’re not feeling confident about writing your own copy, consider hiring a copywriter or marketing agency to help you.
6. Try a Test Sale
Your branding’s done, and your photos are uploaded. Now it’s almost time to start selling!
Your final step before going live is to carry out a test sale. You want to make sure that your customers can browse your flowers, add them to their basket, and check out with ease. It’s also nice to know that your payment system works properly, ensuring those all-important customer payments head straight to your bank account.
When testing, be sure to look out for any actions that aren’t smooth or intuitive. With around 70% of online shoppers abandoning their baskets before finishing a purchase, you don’t want any issues to put off your potential customers.
Once you’ve tested your site, it’s go time!
Starting an E-commerce Flower Shop
Starting an eCommerce flower shop doesn’t have to be overwhelming. From website builders to grammar checkers, there are plenty of amazing tools out there to make this task simpler than ever so that you can build your site with confidence. Fingers crossed, these tips have given you all the advice you need to get started. For more floral news, trends, and business advice, check out the latest at Thursd.
