[nostrademons]

All the major online flower vendors (Teleflora, Proflowers, 1-800-FLOWERS, etc.) work by contracting with local florists. They show you the offerings, including prices, and let you set destinations, delivery dates, card messages, etc. I don't really see how you would differentiate from their offerings.

Indeed, a hack you can use as a customer is to call up the local florist directly and order: you get the exact same product you would through Teleflora etc, but get to cut out the middleman, and the florist will usually give you lower prices.

[harrisonhjones]

I figured they did (they have to I imagine) but I really wish they would make that more obvious what florist they use. I want a service that adds value (like calling, order placement, but also additional services) but does so in a way that makes it feel like I'm simply ordering flowers from a particular local florist w/o having to call them.

Ideally the prices would essentially be the same (since you are driving business to the florist) but the service should be able to add enough value (by saving time, offering subscriptions, etc) to be able to display the florist info but still attract orders via the site/service.

[nostrademons]

It's likely that the economics of this don't work out. Most people actually do their online flower ordering by going to Google, searching [flowers], and clicking on one of the top few ads. (Indeed, I know about this because [flowers] was a very common test query we used when working on Google Search - it shows so many ads that if your new feature is going to break layout or look awkward on any query, it's probably [flowers].) In order to get people to click on the ad, you need to do your own branding.

Flower ordering has the same problem as weddings, funerals, job searches, ordering a plumber, etc: it's an event that you do maybe once a year, max. When you need the product that infrequently, it slips out of the consumers' mind, and they don't remember brands. So you can only build a viable business when the product costs enough that you can spend large sums on brand advertising (eg. cars, clothing, divorce attorneys, diamond rings) or large sums on search advertising (eg. [flowers], [mesothelioma], [digital cameras], [bingo cards]). Indeed, one of the main reasons Google has become huge is that they function as an aggregator for all the "infrequently needed, but too cheap to buy superbowl ads" products.

You're welcome to give it a go, though. The local florists would love you; many aren't terribly thrilled about Teleflora stealing all their customers and treating them as a commodity backend provider. It's just that you'll likely find customer acquisition costs way more than you bargain for.