It has only been a week since Flower Shop Network launched The Networker. Along with addressing issues important to the floral industry and highlighting FSN services, this publication encourages input from member florists on issues or announcements that concern them. So far, feedback from shops has been wonderful. Florists from all over have submitted excellent topic suggestions, honors, announcements, personal insights, and even a nice thank you like the one from Bay Bouquet Floral Studio in Tampa, Florida.

I was particular touched by what Tony Swick and J. Thomas had to say and excited about their announcement of a new staff member:

To Whom it may concern,

We wanted to take a minute to thank Flower Shop Network for being part of our new business. After 20 plus years in the industry, we started our new shop in 09/07 with Flower Shop Network as our source for sending orders. Our store is a custom floral studio made up of 252 sq. ft and a 6×8 cooler attached to the back.

Our store is located in a great area of Tampa called Hyde Park, near downtown with a great residential area. Our clients are not the run of the mill traditional floral purchasers. They have a higher average order and require a nice selection of flowers. We have chosen not to carry carnations, daisies, or baby’s breath. This has helped us stand out in the area. Our designs encompass new trends, unique appeal and the freshest flowers arriving daily!

Our website with Flower Shop Network has had some really great activity. Customers have made comments about how user friendly it is. We thank you for that! We are looking forward to much more success with Flower Shop Network. We are also looking forward to being able to easily add our own designs and prices.

We wanted to take a minute and announce the newest addition to our staff. Heather Lockwood from Adrian, Michigan of Flowers & Such. Heather brings a great freshness to her design and has won awards as well as enjoyed floral training from designers such as Helen Miller, AIFD and Hitomi Gilliam AIFD. We are excited to have her with us. Knowing that her talent will be a great asset to all floral designs from our store.

Thank you Flower Shop Network for working for the florists and working to make this ever changing industry a continued success.
Our Best Regards,

Tony Swick
J. Thomas

Between The Networker and the Bloomin’ Blog, we plan to address every suggestion, topic and announcement. So keep them coming… we love to hear from our member florists and readers! In fact, we are compiling information for future issues of The Networker that will feature some great marketing tips, as well as shop accolades. We also plan to blog about how to order flowers online with tips for consumers on how to find local florists and important information needed to make shopping and sending flowers a pleasant experience. If you have any suggestions for this blog, please send them to jadams@flowershopnetwork.com or Ask The Expert on the Bloomin’ Blog.

Flower Shop Network is proud to announce the formal launch of our Holiday Email Campaigns program. The holiday email program has actually been in beta since October of 2005. The program experienced tremendous success during beta testing and thoroughly increased traffic to FSN member sites. As a result of that early success, Flower Shop Network is has campaigns scheduled throughout the remainder of 2006.

This is how it works: Before each major floral holiday, Flower Shop Network sends holiday-themed email messages to subscribers, showcasing current featured holiday arrangements.

This helps the local florist by reminding consumers:

that flowers are great last-minute gift ideas for any occasion.

how easy it is to send flowers to someone almost anywhere.

to order their flowers direct from a real, local florist or flower shop.

Flower Shop Network never competes against you by taking orders from your customers. All consumer orders phoned directly to your shop, as well as consumer web orders placed on your FSN Website and sent to you via FSN Relay, represent more flower orders coming into your shop at 100%.

Direct consumer orders are more profitable for your business, and you also receive valuable consumer information that allows you to market to your customers for profitable, repeat business.

FSN Member Florists can also utilize FSN Holiday Email Announcements as a marketing piece that is easy to forward to their own customer address book or database right before the holiday. Please review our terms of use before modifying the email announcements and contact us if you have any questions about forwarding these messages on to your customers.

Click here to view samples of the FSN Holiday Email Announcements, another way that FSN is bringing more and more profitable consumer orders directly to your shop.

The holiday email campaigns are just another valuable service provided to the member florists of Flower Shop Network.

Keep an eye on this news section and the Florists Only section of our site for the latest information about new features and programs provided by Flower Shop Network.