Building a website is what we do. We do it day in and day out. So needless to say, we know what it takes to succeed. We know how to take an idea and turn it into online powerhouse, no matter the industry. Today, we want to talk about how to make a website for Flower and Gift Shops. Our decision to focus on this industry today is due to timing: not only are there big upcoming holidays (including Mother’s Day and Father’s Day) but now is the time to start getting ramped up for the big Holiday season (i.e. Thanksgiving and Christmas).

SDI has experience building apps and websites for this specific industry: we revolutionized Flowershop.com and built a DIY training app for Bloom, Australia’s leading Floristry College. This experience has led us to identify a few necessary elements to the success of the Gift-giving industry, including the standard eCommerce essentials and an increased emphasis on Design. Additionally, these businesses need to create a highly targeted marketing campaign, utilizing the best digital marketing tools available.

Basic eCommerce Necessities

eCommerce is a massive, thriving industry that represents hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Despite the plethora of eCommerce sites, most ventures with a clear business plan, sticking to a few basic rules, succeed. Most don’t experience Amazon-levels of success, but those who stick to it generally see a significant return on their investment.

There are many key elements that any eCommerce industry needs to become a big player in the market. That being said, we will only briefly touch on the biggest hurdle: Shopping Cart Abandonment.

Shopping Cart Abandonment represents one the biggest issues in eCommerce. Simply put, the vast majority of items put in a digital shopping cart remain there, languishing in eCommerce purgatory for all time. So how does a business owner avoid this? Well, you can’t. The truth is that this is likely to always be a problem. But there are tricks to mitigate this problem, to bring abandonment rates below the industry average of 75% or so.

What are those tricks? They include email campaigns and algorithms to entice return engagement. Want more details? Well, we can’t tip our hand that much – you’ll just have to contact us to learn more!

Design

While Gift Shops are essentially an eCommerce website, there are features that make this industry unique. Specifically, Design and Marketing are big elements to creating a successful online gift shop. While both are always important to the success of any business, it’s even more crucial in this industry.

Gift-giving is a highly visual medium, but needs to be combined with a personalization aspect. Let’s take ordering flowers as an example. Flower arrangements are great, but today people love the ability to create their own arrangements. So creating a module that allows people to actually create and see the arrangement they made is a feature that will add considerable value to your site.

A module like this will require robust coding, but also needs to have a clear design that’s easy to use. Otherwise, users will ignore it, and one of your best features will go unnoticed. But design is important throughout, and needs to not only follow industry standards (so people know how to use your site) but also indicates your expertise and your style. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Design is the epitome of science and art combined. Make sure you have the expertise needed!

Digital Marketing and Social Media

Social media is the single greatest resource for marketers today. Not only do the major networks represent a market numbering in the billions, many networks have easily identified target groups. This is important because it means marketers have readymade target populations who they know are interested in their service.

But social media marketing isn’t simple, and many inexperienced marketers waste time on social media networks that provide minimal return. A proper marketing strategy in the digital world starts with a plan to identify which markets will be the most useful to their organization. When it comes to our case industry, the best starting point is Pinterest, because it is a huge medium for people interested in design and art.

Importantly, this doesn’t mean that marketers for online gift/flower shops should ignore the big platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Both have access to markets that are enormous and are to be ignored at one’s own peril; but marketers for this industry should emphasize a strategy that places Pinterest and perhaps Instagram at the forefront.

Whether you are in the Floristry and Gift Giving game or not, SDI can help you build a website that will help your website grow a user base and improve revenue streams. We know our business – let us get to know yours.

Want to learn more? Give us a call at 408.805.0495/408.621.8481 – or click to contact us!