Are you the owner of one of the more than 15,000 retail flower shops scattered throughout the country right now? If you are, then you know first-hand just how important it is for you to provide people with the freshest flowers possible.
In order to do this, you’ll need to work with a great flower distributor. They’ll be able to set you up with a steady supply of fresh flowers so that you’re able to offer the best floral arrangements around.
So, how can you find a reliable flower distributor that you can count on to send fresh flowers in your direction all the time? That’s what we’re going to discuss today in an effort to help you get your hands on flowers that you’ll be proud to sell to your customers.
Check out our guide on locating the best flower distributor in the business below.
Put Together a List of the Best Flower Distributors
When you’re first in the market for a reliable flower distributor, you may be tempted to Google “best flower distributors” and pick the first company you can find. But this isn’t always the right approach to take.
You might get lucky and stumble upon a flower distributor that is truly the best at what they do when you attempt to find one like this. But you might also end up working with a distributor that isn’t going to be cut out for the job.
With this in mind, you would be better off Googling “best flower distributors” and using the results to create a list of your options. It’ll put you in a position to then learn more about them so that you can see which one is really the best.
Find Out How Long Flower Distributors Have Been in Business
Once you’re done generating a list of flower distributors, you should make it your mission to do as much research on each of them as you can. You should be able to do this by visiting their websites and scrolling through their “About Us” pages.
When you do this, you should hone in on how much experience each flower distributor on your list has. The more experience a distributor has, the better off you should be while working with them.
When a flower distributor has tons of experience, it usually means that they’re going to be able to obtain the freshest flowers possible and pass them along to you. It also typically means that you’ll be able to get these flowers shipped to you fast for the best prices around.
Read Online Reviews to See Which Flower Distributors Have Great Reputations
While you’re browsing through everything on a flower distributor’s website, you’re likely going to notice that they will spend a lot of time talking about how great they are. They’ll make it a point to try to sell you on their services as best they can.
This can make it a little bit tricky to separate the good flower distributors from the not-so-good ones. But you will be able to do it by leaving the sites for distributors and finding online reviews for them.
These online reviews should help to paint a pretty clear picture of what it will be like to work with different flower distributors. Your goal should be to find the ones that have earned the most positive reviews from other flower shops since this will suggest that you can trust them to do an incredible job for you.
Look at Which Types of Flowers That Flower Distributors Sell
Not all flower distributors are going to be able to provide you with the same types of flowers. Each one is going to have working relationships with farms throughout the country that will allow them to secure certain kinds of flowers that they can then pass along to flower shops.
If there are specific types of flowers that you know you will want to purchase wholesale early and often, you will want to aim to work with flower distributors that can send them your way. You should be able to shop around on a distributor’s site to see what they have in stock.
Calculate How Much Flowers Will Cost Through Flower Distributors
Outside of the fact that all flower distributors will keep different flowers in stock, they’re also going to put different price tags on them for flower shops. You must be very mindful of this and do your best to buy flowers that are going to allow you to pull in the biggest profits.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should simply find the cheapest flower distributor and order online flowers from them. But you should seek to work with a distributor that is going to extend fair prices to you.
If you don’t do your homework when it comes to shopping for wholesale flowers with great prices on them, you might be forced to pay more than you should have to for flowers. It’ll impact your bottom line in a big way and could even put your flower shop out of business down the line if you’re not careful.
See Which Flower Distributors Offer Financing Options
If you run a very small flower shop with just a few types of flowers in it, you might not need to worry about financing the orders that you place through a flower distributor. But if you’re constantly placing very large flower orders through a distributor, paying for them outright might be out of the question.
In this case, you’ll need to find a flower distributor that would be willing to offer financing options to you. As long as you’re able to get approved for a financing option, it should come with these features:
- A repayment plan that allows you to pay for flowers over time
- A low-interest rate on your repayment plan
- A simple process for making payments to a distributor
Again, not every flower shop will need to take advantage of the financing options that some flower distributors can provide. But in the event that you ever need to finance an order, it’ll be nice knowing that you can do it through the distributor that you choose.
Learn About How Quickly Flower Distributors Can Ship Items to You
A flower distributor might be able to provide you with fresh flowers that are absolutely beautiful for a fantastic price. But if they aren’t able to get them to you in a hurry, guess what? It’ll all be for naught.
You’re not going to be able to set your customers up with fresh flowers that they’ll love if they show up at your shop much later than expected. It’s why it’s imperative that you work with a distributor that can offer priority overnight shipping on a nationwide level.
When a distributor is able to do this, you’ll be able to obtain flowers that are as fresh as they get. You won’t have to worry about them starting to shrivel up on you one bit.
The very best flower distributors are going to work to get flowers from a farm to your flower shop within just three days, if not sooner. It’ll ensure that your flower shop has fresher flowers than any other shop in town.
Figure Out Which Flower Distributors Extend the Best Customer Service
If you work with a flower distributor on a regular basis, there will inevitably come a time when you’ll need to call on its customer service department for assistance. Ideally, you want for this to be a pleasant experience for you from start to finish.
For this reason, you should try to gauge what kind of customer service department a distributor has. You should be able to get some sense of what they’ll bring to the table based on the online reviews that other flower shops have left for a distributor.
But you might also want to go as far as to test out the customer service department for a flower distributor. You can reach out to them with any questions or concerns that you may have and see what kind of response you get.
If you’re not happy with the way in which a distributor’s customer service department responds to you, it’ll indicate that you might not want to bring this particular distributor into the fold.
Check Out How You’ll Order Flowers From Flower Distributors
When you go to place an order with a flower distributor, you don’t want to have to jump through too many hoops to do it. If you need to do this, it’s going to discourage you from wanting to order flowers from them ever again.
Instead, you’ll want to look into finding a flower distributor that has an easy-to-use platform that can be beneficial for both farmers and flower shops alike. It’ll make it simpler for you to buy the flowers that you want fast without having to spend an entire afternoon doing it.
All you’ll need to do is register for an account with a distributor and then start shopping almost right away. It’ll make the entire process quick and painless and prevent you from having to fight with technology to get the flowers that you need.
Put One of Your Favorite Flower Distributors to the Test
At the end of the day, you aren’t going to know which flower distributors you can trust until you put them to the test. It’s why you should pick one of your favorite options after doing the necessary research and see what they can do for you.
You should sign up for an account through this distributor and place an order right away. From there, you should keep a close eye on every aspect of your transaction with a distributor and give them a grade at the end.
A few of the things you’ll want to pay attention to will be:
- How easy was it to order flowers through a flower distributor?
- How much did the flowers that you ordered cost?
- How quickly did a distributor ship the flowers that you ordered to you?
- What kind of condition were the flowers in when they arrived at your shop?
- Did you have to call on a distributor’s customer service team at any point, and if so, what was your experience with them like?
- What did your customers have to say about the flowers you received from a distributor?
By answering each of these questions, you should be able to decide whether you were happy with the products and services you got from a distributor. You should also be able to decide if you would be willing to continue to work with them as you move forward.
If you don’t enjoy working with a flower distributor the first time, you’re always welcome to make a change and find another one to assist you. You can keep on doing this until you land on a distributor that you love.
Choose Us to Be Your Flower Distributor From Now On
If you’re trying to locate a great flower distributor right now, we hope that you’ll give us a chance to show you what we can do. We sell lots of different types of flowers wholesale and sell flowers online to make it easy for flower shops to purchase them.
If you have any questions about our operation, we would be more than happy to answer them for you. We can also help you set up an account with us so that you can start ordering fresh flowers for your shop and have them delivered fast.
Contact us now for more information.
