Online floral player cuts gardening business roots, changes name to reflect new focus. The well-known Southern California drop shipper has changed its name to more accurately reflect its business. The company serves all but one of the nation’s mass market online florists, as well as specialty retailers like Calyx & Corolla and Smith & Hawken. As well as the name change, the company announced it will be opening its virtual doors to all online merchants, and that it has named nursery veteran Amos Dupuich to the post of President.
“Serving Florists is what we are all about,” said Dupuich. “Windowbox was also a retailer of garden supplies, so it was confusing. We want to make it simple: FloraServ is who we are, what we do, and what we will be known as.”
Through their FloraServ.com web site, the company also serves smaller shops and even internet retailers who are not formally in the floral business, offering each and every one a better deal than is available via the wire services.
“The idea behind FloraServ.com is a kind of economic justice,” says Dupuich. “Why should the small florist have to suffer with 20% wire service margins, when they could be making twice as much? Plus, we cut their customer service costs with guaranteed quality and tracability of Fedex Delivery.”
The company has always focused on helping people have plants in their lives. Founded in 1997, as “The Balcony Gardener, Inc,” the initial mission was to use the internet to sell garden supplies to city dwellers. Following the trends, they changed their name to match their website, Windowbox.com.
“We thought that as a ‘dot.com’ we would get a lot of plant-crazed venture capitalists throwing money at us,” said founder Ben Swett, “But we turned out to be inept fundraisers.”
Dupuich is excited about the future of the business. “We are concerned about fuel prices, and there is definitely a lot of risk from being in a highly competitive part of a business that’s going through a revolution,” he says. “But plants are the same. They are still great, and we are going to help more and more people realize that.”
Key employees draw a comparison between working in plant fulfillment at FloraServ and that other business Southern California is well known for, entertainment.
“The Plant business is both glamorous and stressful, just like Hollywood,” says Wilson Chow, Director of Operations. “Everyone wants to work in it, so people are willing to make economic sacrifices to bask in the reflected glory of the beautiful product.”
For more information, contact Ben Swett at 323-277-1137 or ben@floraServ.com
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