Flowers: Just A Click Away

Flowers: Just A Click Away

By Daryl Santillan

            

Humid weather, bustling streets, vehicles honking their horns, and of course colorful flowers everywhere. This is the usual scenario in Dangwa Flower Market, also known as the Bulaklakan ng Maynila. Located in Sampaloc, Manila, Dangwa Flower Market is a well-known place where anyone can get fresh flowers from different parts of the country. However, with the growing number of consumers finding it more convenient to order flowers online, the competition for the market power is getting harder and harder.

Customers are attracted to online pages where people sell flowers because customers are exposed to more choices when it comes to the type or design of the flowers. It is convenient and easy. With just one click, customers are given a wide variety of arrangements of flowers to choose from. As indirect competition has greatly increased from supermarkets, grocery stores and online, the result has been a reduction in profits and volume of sales for traditional florists due to low prices and one-stop shopping.

It all started when my friend and I went to shop some flowers in Dangwa Flower Market for me and my girlfriend’s incoming anniversary. Going there was a first time for both of us, so we were both new to the environment. As we walked along the market under the scorching sun, vendors occasionally approached us trying to accommodate us and asking what we need. The vendors were like sales associates in department stores, very eager to make a sale. They made me a little awkward and irritated at first, as I was hoping to browse some flowers in peace. In the end I was not able to buy some flowers, so my friend suggested to me that I should try to look up The Flower Gallery page in Instagram.

I looked it up and saw a huge variety of flower arrangement and designs. Surprisingly I was able to find the perfect flower arrangement that is also within my budget. I was really satisfied how the bouquet of roses turned out, which is really worth of my money.

I contacted the business and talked with Lily Ang, a warm-hearted woman, who created The Flower Gallery. “Tell me your budget and I’ll work with it,” she said to me. A sales agent in nature, she tends to sell everything and anything.

The Flower Gallery began in 2015 because her friends were insisting her to try the internet. “Uso kasi rin eh, nakiki-uso lang ako,” she said. (Another reason is because it’s trending, I just follow the trend). Lily thought it would also be nice to get an additional profit and also as a mean to get noticed or as an advertisement. Besides having an online flower shop, she has two other flower shops in Robinson’s mall.

“Serendipity,” she said. That’s what she said when I asked her what made her enter that flower industry. When she was in China years ago while sourcing some products to sell here in the Philippines, she just happened to meet someone that sells flowers. Before, she used to import fresh flowers from China, but she explained that you’ll need to have a very large chiller for that, which costs a lot of money.

At first, Lily tried using Facebook to start her online flower business. When that did not work out, she resorted to using Instagram to get attention. She found out that she has to be in the internet every day to run her business, which she did not like at the start. “Hindi rin naman din kasi ako yung ma-techy, at di rin ako marunong gumamit nung una,” she said. (I’m not the technology type of person, and I do not know how to use it.)

According to Lily, one of the problems of having an online flower business is that nothing prevents competitors or other online flower business from stealing ideas and imitating them. “Kasi ninanakawan ka na eh, kahit maglagay ka ng watermark mo,” she said. (You’re being robbed, even if you put a water mark.) Besides that, she said that having a business that sells luxury goods is very hard. “People can live without flowers. If they don’t have the budget, then they don’t buy,” she explains. Lily’s items are usually what you call impulse buy, so she has to make it very attractive to the customers. “Whereas unlike fast food companies, people come to them even if they don’t advertise,” she said.

She believes that one of the reasons why more consumers shop or buy flowers online is because consumers nowadays are more modernized and high-tech. Especially the Generation Y, which are now constantly using their gadgets and are more exposed to the internet where there are a lot of choices to choose from. Another reason is that her flexibility when it comes to prices. She said that she always justifies the price of her products.

She does not want her flowers to be recognized as flowers from Dangwa Flower Market, so every year she tries to come up with something different. She tries to buy stuff and try to think of new designs, she even made teddy bears to pair up with her flowers and sold them together last Valentine’s Day. In the previous years, she had a partnership with Cadbury, a chocolate company, in which customers will receive one rose for every large chocolate bar they buy. This year she partnered with a friend that makes chocolate candies, she helped her friend advertise the chocolate product and in return, her roses became cheaper. She believes that one factor why customers buy her flowers is because her flower designs are better than some vendors in Dangwa Flower Market. In fact, her fresh flowers are designed by a hired arranger from Holland Tulips, one of the biggest flower retailers in the country.

Flower arrangements by Flower Gallery

          I also talked with Kyle Tan, a regular customer of The Flower Gallery. According to him, he used to go to Dangwa Flower Market just to pick and buy flowers for his girlfriend, which is super hassle and consumes a lot of his time. Later on he found out about The Flower Gallery in Instagram and since then, he always buys flowers from them. He said “I found it very convenient to buy flowers online. I can set meet ups near me plus they also deliver the flowers too.” Additionally, he believes the quality and the design are much better of The Flower Gallery than those of in Dangwa Flower Market.

Jay-Ann Diaz, a 35 year old flower vendor in Dangwa Flower Market, told me that her off-season sales this year dropped compared before. Although her sales from last Valentine’s Day were good, she can’t dismiss the problem of losing sales to other businesses. She said that one of the advantages of having an online page or an online flower shop is that they have a larger reach to customers, where they can advertise their products. Unlike them, her only reach are the people who are passing her shop. “Sobrang matumal talaga ang bentahan kapag walang okasyon, di katulad kapag Mother’s Day, Undas, at Valentine’s Day yun talaga maraming bumibili.,” she said. (The sales are very minimal when there’s no occasion, unlike when it’s Mother’s Day, All Souls’ Day, and Valentine’s Day, there a lot of people buying flowers.) She says that she can’t compete with the online flower businesses as she doesn’t have the means like other businesses do.

According to an article by Kenneth R. Royer, “To busy consumers, convenience is often more important than price, which makes Internet ordering extremely appealing.” He also adds that one area of discomfort for florist customers is the inability to see what they were buying while placing phone orders. They were forced to rely on information from the salesperson, who most often wanted to discuss price rather than product. Being able to visually compare products and prices from various sources was appealing to consumers, and being able to do it 24/7 was an added benefit.

As time progresses, we improve and create new things. We will always evolve and try new things for the better or worse. And like how the trend of shopping flowers online changed the traditional way of buying flowers in flower shops in Dangwa Flower Market, so will the other traditional ways we used to do. It is not only the flower business that is changing, but also all sorts of businesses like clothing, traveling and transportation. But I believe that we will not stop there, as we tend to change and improve the things we see for convenience. The modernization of businesses, like the online flower businesses, will create many opportunities for many people, especially for those people who don’t have enough resources to have their own shops. However, like the Alchemy’s Law of Equivalent Exchange, there must be something to be given in return. With the opportunity given to the people to sell online, the traditional businesses will lose some of their market power.