Move over, Eliza DoLittle - 1-800-FLOWERS BloomLink Internet online services - Company Business and Marketing

Communications News, June, 1999

1-800-FLOWERS is the world's largest florist and one of the fastest growing companies in America, with a 40% compounded annual growth rate over the last three years. The Westbury, N.Y.-based company is a nationally recognized leader and pioneer in the on-line retail arena. In fact, it became one of the first to introduce secured transactional "stores" for leading commercial on-line services and the Internet. The company's leadership in its use of the Internet continues today.

Developed by AT&T Solutions in six months, BloomLink is a business-to-business, Web-based application that the company's florists nationwide can use to send and receive e-mail; process orders; participate in chat rooms/information sharing; provision their shops through the company-owned floral distributor; have online, commercial-quality hosting provided for them; and do logistics tracking.

Before BloomLink, florists communicated over 1970s technology, and orders were submitted via fax or telephone. The decision to move toward an Internet-based solution was based on scalability, reliability, security, and ease of use. In addition, the geographically dispersed nature of 1-800-FLOWERS' network of florists also made an Internet-based solution appropriate. The group of flower shops that fill 1-800-FLOWERS orders are known as BloomNet; 150 shops are company-owned or franchised, and 2,500 shops are partners.

The implementation of BloomLink has resulted in a 45% cost reduction for 1-800-FLOWERS' BloomNet members and also has established a more competitive way of processing orders. In its first 12 months of ramp-up operation, BloomLink processed 1.1 million orders. 1-800-FLOWERS handles nine million orders annually through its stores, toll-free number, and interactive services. The company expects that 80% of orders will be processed via BloomLink. More importantly, however, BloomLink enables 1-800-FLOWERS to maintain its leadership position in the floral industry.

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