00:00Big numbers. How are you thinking about what's expected around the corner?
00:03Are we seeing a lot of people spending in the last few days, or are they going to be like
00:06me and making a run to go buy some flowers tomorrow?
00:09Well, first of all, thanks for having me, especially on our 50th anniversary. It's an honor to be here.
00:17The interesting thing about Valentine's Day is 50% of the bouquets are sold in the last three days.
00:25We're going to sell about 17 million stamps, 10 million of which are roses.
00:31It's our third most important holiday after Christmas, Mother's Day, then Valentine's Day.
00:39Interesting. I wouldn't have expected Christmas to be such a big flower day.
00:43But looking at kind of the operation, thinking about the partnership with Walmart, thinking about the partnership with DoorDash,
00:48how are those levers going to fit into the business when you're looking to expand sales and expand people who
00:54are buying these stems?
00:55We are super excited about expanding beyond e-commerce.
00:59Keep in mind, we not only have the flowers business, probably a business that is even bigger than flowers is
01:05Harry and David.
01:06And in Harry and David, we have everything from baskets, chocolate, pears, you name it.
01:11The way we're thinking about our business is we want to be with the customers are.
01:18And players like Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, DoorDash have traffic.
01:22We want to expose our products to those customers.
01:26And we started doing that this year.
01:28I'm happy to report we did that with our baskets from Harry and David at Amazon.
01:34We sold out.
01:35The only mistake we made was that we didn't allocate enough inventory for that.
01:39And that's where the customer wants to shop, where a products company will be there.
01:43Well, I want to talk about that a little bit more because I feel like you have a really unique
01:47type of inventory management.
01:49We're talking about flowers and they can wilt.
01:52So especially ahead of a holiday like Valentine's Day, I mean, a little bit like a Super Bowl for you
01:58over at 1-800-Flowers.
01:59How do you go about planning your inventory and making those predictions of how much you're actually going to need
02:05on hand?
02:06Well, so we have a lot of history that we leverage.
02:10We partner with our suppliers, our florists, and we try to break down the business into this is what is
02:18going to come from florists.
02:19This is what is going to be delivered in a box.
02:22And then the other thing we introduced these years, for the first time ever, we are targeting different customers.
02:29We targeted Millennials and Gen Z, and we are happily surprised that they are responding to our offer.
02:36We actually saw meaningful growth with those segments of the market.
02:40But it's a lot of preparation.
02:42The good news is this week, weather hasn't been a factor, so people are getting their bookcase.
02:47Yeah, especially on the East Coast.
02:49The temperature is rising a little bit.
02:51There's no historic snowstorms, at least in the forecast.
02:54That's interesting, though, because when it comes to other industries trying to get that younger consumer, Millennials, Gen Z, you've
03:02seen alcohol, for example, just feels like, especially Gen Z, just isn't drinking.
03:07You think about dating.
03:08They're dating in a different way, and you can see that reflected on some of the apps.
03:12So when it comes to your business, how you try to target them, it seems like you're having some traction
03:18there.
03:18But how does connecting with that demographic look like versus maybe someone who's a little bit older?
03:25Well, so you start with a different marketing strategy and a different message.
03:29And also, what we are finding out is not everything is romance.
03:34So there's also just friendship that is being celebrated.
03:37We have cool things like it's a black rose, but it's a midnight, we call it a midnight rose, that
03:44is actually trending really well.
03:45So you are trying to find something that they want to talk about, that actually they feel cool about it,
03:51and it's actually resonating with them.
03:53Well, one thing that I have to think about with your business, what's the customer retention like?
03:58I personally either go to my local florist, or I check and see which company has partnered with my credit
04:03card and is going to give me the most money back.
04:05How do you see customer attrition and customer loyalty?
04:08It's all about segmentation.
04:10There's people like you and I that probably only buy Valentine's Day.
04:13I buy for my spouse, and I send her something.
04:18But there are people that like to entertain at home, and they don't have time to go and buy bouquets.
04:22So that's a different segment of the market.
04:24So that's one of the new things we're introducing to the company is it's not a segment of one.
04:30It's let's segment the customer and let's deliver the message that they are looking for to make our products relevant
04:36for them.
04:37Well, Bloomberg has a lovely floral arrangement often.
04:40We do.
04:41Would you want to partner or be able to sell into commercial businesses?
04:45Like is that a lever to pull, or is that something you guys are looking for?
04:47There's a segment of the market that does that.
04:49We have actually a B2B sales force that sells into that.
04:53So, yes, that's also a segment of the market.
04:55It's not huge, but we have that segment, too.
Comments