Valentines day websites

[findtim]

WELL, people say i talk to much, yes i do but i get a lot back so thats all cool.

maybe this will help someone else prevent what i dealt with today?

redroses dot comau flopped today , number one ranking, neat design but not amazing i will admit, valentines day and i had done a deal with 1 3 0 0 f l o w e r s to supply the orders.

2 weeks out they tell me they will not accept orders from my website ON valentines day !

7am today i get an email order, then an email from them saying "refund the money,we are not accepting orders" well honestly that was my fault, but a little while later i got an email that they processed it for me but said it would be the last one they would do !

i had a plan B, i switched the site to a commissionfactory petals affiliate homepage i set up, so i go " no worries" THEN, i start seeing tht petals are changing their pages to show a "warning" like "this will be delivered within 2-7 days "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so my day was shot. petals were still accepting orders online and by phone.

my wife works in a melbourne CBD florist and its now 8pm and she is stilllll there processing orders that have come through the websites i manage for that business.

according to my stats hundreds of potential orders have be lost

not happy

feel free to give honest advice in prep for next year

tim

 

[johno69]

I find it hard to believe you would think anyone would have time to fulfil extra orders made on the day who are not their direct clients.

Also can't believe anyone would order online and expect same day delivery on such a busy day in the industry.

I would say promote the hell out of "Pre order now for Valentines day" a few weeks before the fact next year. Same thing for Mothers day etc.

You will never be their priority when it comes to sourcing clients. Just a secondary option.

I have leased a website to someone for the month and called them to ask how the many emails leads that have come through are going. They said "i'll see if I have time next week to call them back." Some are over a week old. Unless it's their name on the banner, from my experience they will never hold you as a priority. Especially when they are busy.

 

[goldnugget]

Thats a bummer.

I can understand it from their point of view, rose availability is limited for the days sales and the pre-prep for anticipated sales would have started ages ago. They cant be put in a position to say 'Sorry, we are out of stock' or 'We cant deliver it'.

Live and learn I guess. Sometime the best laid out plans can still find a bump in the road.

Johno is on the right track...maybe see if you can work your way into the circle for pre sale preps next year for a set amount of orders. You have 12 mths to iron out the details.

 

[findtim]

yep goldnugget , its a learning curve

helenas JUST got home at 12pm ! thats how busy they have been and its been helped greatly from the websites i created for her boss.

( just to be clear there is no conflict of interest as we have a longggggg relationship with the owneer )

next year for me will be different, i basically got slapped in the head today and i won't let that happen again.

and i have a hell of a lot more knowledge after today, i think the good news is "knowledge" , what i love about this industry is you do FAIL, the ones that succeed fail an grow from it.

i am soooooooooooooooooooooo pissed off from today, but i know i have a good domain name that got a shit load of visits today and i just now need to work out how to convert them, and basically that was the issue.

there is more to this story and i am going to hunt it down

tim

 

[FirstPageResults]

interflora.com.au was taking orders well into the evening with same day delivery (according to their radio ads). No idea what stock levels are like but maybe you can get in with them next year..

 

[Billy01]

And check

Next year make sure your site is mobile friendly

Guys on the run at the last minute will want the product NOW and not have to think. You will have so many more orders if your buyers don't have to flip through so many cumbersome pages. I know how hard you work Tim but next year anyone with half a POSITIVE outlook on life and is keeping UP WITH THE TIMES will have it sussed.

Others will be freaking out like a brussel sprout that their dot coms are worthless.

 

[findtim]

i'm trying to move everything to responsive design, because of the hiccup i switch that feature off, went to a html static deep link affiliate page, today its back to normal but still not responsive design but definately very soon.

i got a load of other floral websites to do this year so there is heaps of scope for testing.

i have been using oscommerce but now making the move to wordpress based carts so i'm back to being a newbie with this code.

tim