Online florist FTD has launched a mobile shopping site in time for one of florists’ biggest sales days of the year: Mother’s Day. Consumers can view images of flower arrangements, rank them by price, select a preferred delivery day and customize gifts with a personal message.
FTD.com, No. 59 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, used m-commerce technology vendor Usablenet to build the site. Usablenet has built m-commerce sites for such retailers as ShopNBC.com, Vitacost.com, Office Max and REI.
FTD competitor 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., No. 40, has offered an m-commerce site since 2005 and since last year downloadable mobile apps for Google’s Android smartphone, Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry. It’s used m-commerce technology Digby Inc. to build its site and apps.
FTD joins the growing ranks of retailers with mobile sites—135 retailers operate mobile sites, 65 run mobile apps—seeking to reach the growing number of consumers accessing the web through mobile phones. In the first quarter of this year, 30.1% of the 234 million mobile phone subscribers in the U.S. accessed the web from their handsets, up from 27.5% in the fourth quarter of last year, web and mobile measurement firm comScore Inc. reported yesterday. 28.6% used apps they downloaded to their mobile phones in the first quarter, up from 26.0% in Q4, comScore says.
FTD reported 2009 web sales of $281 million according to Internet Retailer estimates, up 6% from an estimated $265 million a year earlier.
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