...your whole day has changed. 1-800-Flowers (NASDAQ: FLWS) is a floral and gift retailer and distribution company in the United States. It was one of the first retailers to use a 24 x 7 toll-free telephone number and the Internet for direct sales to consumers. A decade ago, 1-800-Flowers was a business waiting eagerly for the Internet to take off. Today, the company has an e-commerce platform that can grow along with its business. For the delivery of smiles, 1-800-FLOWERS implemented more scalable, centralized e-commerce platform to support its rapid business growth. Also the company fills its orders in two ways: through a network of florists and through drop shipments. It established a florist-to-florist network called BloomNet, and is one of several floral wire services in the country today. The company was among the first retailers to partner with CompuServe and AOL, in 1992 and 1994 respectively. In April 1995, the company was one of the first retailers to establish its own Internet sales site. In 1999, the company went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol FLWS and changed its name to 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, to match its web site address. E-Commerce Growth As the Internet started to become commercial in the 1990s, the early adopters were primarily tech-savvy males. So it only made sense that the first e-commerce business that launched on America Online was something that many men desperately needed: a 24-hour flower shop. 1-800-Flowers, a retailer that started...
Words: 2758 - Pages: 12
...augmented it into a chain of 14 flower shops in the New York City metropolitan area. In 1986, he acquired the telephone number 1-800-356-9377, which allowed him to advertise the company as 1-800-FLOWERS to receive orders by phone. He registered it as a trademark. In 1995, he acquired the domain name 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, registered it, too, as a trademark, and opened a Web site. The domain name has since become one of the most recognized brands in gift retailing. From its flowers-only beginning, the company expanded into plants, gourmet foods, candies, gift baskets, and other unique gifts, all offered at the Web site. Non-flower products are shipped to customers worldwide. To accommodate flower customers anywhere in the United States, the company created BloomNet®, a network of about 9,000 florists. This network supplements the company’s own 100 stores from coast to coast in the United States. To cast a wider net, the company also operates an affiliate program, enabling any online business that joins it to earn up to 12 percent of sales that originate at that business’ site. The company offers a “10-Day Return Cookie.” If a customer comes to 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and decides not to make a purchase right away, the affiliate can still earn the commission if that customer purchases from 1-800-FLOWERS.COM within 10 days. Visitors who enter 1-800-flowers.com into their browsers may think they are taken to a single site, but they may actually be routed to one of...
Words: 879 - Pages: 4
...Final Project Julie Bonner Financial Analysis in IT and Administrative Management 03-17-2015 Winter 2016 For the final exam in Financial Analysis in IT and Administrative Management, the students were asked to present a project analyzing of a publicly traded company. The publicly traded company which I picked to present is an online flower delivery company by the website well know as 1-800-Flowers.com. The company offers flower delivery from an online database which you can visit and place an order for all occasions and holidays. Since it’s an online platform, the company also sends flowers internationally with the help of their partnerships such as the local florists and flower growers in each country including the United States. The company also sells cards, chocolate and other accessories and gift items however they don’t produce any of it. 1-800-Flowers.com is simply an online store which you visit to order flowers and gifts and they have it delivered by working with the trusted different venders they have partnership with. Below is an example of the different category and average of the different percentage each category generates. This analysis will include the product/service profile. I will also share the financial analysis, providing three years of ratios, a horizontal analysis, and a vertical analysis. I will also be comparing the company to another company by the name of Flowers Foods...
Words: 1291 - Pages: 6
...Find examples of each of the categories of e-commerce: B2B, B2C, P2P, and C2B. For each of the examples found, describe the levels of interactivity and customization on the Web site. From a consumer standpoint, what do you like and dislike about each of the Web sites? How do you propose that each of the Web sites could be improved? B2B E-Commerce Nistevo (www.nistevo.com) is a B2B e-commerce site serving vertical markets. Vertical markets serve an industry specific sector. Nistevo is a collaborative logistics enabler, founded in 2000 (Roberts, 2003). The members include several large corporations from food and packaging industry. The key issues addressed by this B2B marketplace include the reducing the inefficiency present in the logistics of shipping goods by trucks (Roberts, 2003). From a design perspective, this site (www.nistevo.com) has an ideal design for a B2B e-commerce site. In B2B sites, design aesthetics play a minor role, while the emphasis is generally on navigation and ease of information gathering (Miletsky, 2003). The Nistevo home page has links for customer support as well as login access to the Transportation Management System, which allows members of this B2B marketplace to access the system. The simple design of the site indicates its focus on its core technology, which is the transportation management system. The home page has direct links to its core technology marketplace, as well as links to customer support in order to address the problems its members...
Words: 969 - Pages: 4
...operates on the Web. 1800Flowers.com, Inc. is the oldest online florist. Jim McCann opened a single flower shop on Long Island in 1976. In 1986, he acquired the telephone number 1-800-356-9377, which allowed him to advertise the company as 1-800-FLOWERS. He registered it as a trademark. In 1995, he acquired the domain name 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, registered it, too, as a trademark, and opened a Web site. From its flowers-only beginning, the company expanded into plants, gourmet foods, candies, gift baskets, and other unique gifts, all offered at the Web site. . The Web site is built to accommodate the typical surges in the weeks of Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. On Valentine’s Day and the 48 hours before the day, the number of transactions increases to 10 times the normal number.Each of the three physical locations maintained by AT&T hosts several servers. Starting in January, the IT staff takes each hosting facility offline for a few days and tests it. The staff simulates a transaction load similar to what it expects on its busiest day, Valentine’s Day, and fixes any problems that emerge. This attention to detail and corporate discipline may be the reason for the company’s success. From a single store in 1976, it has grown to a combination of brickand- mortar and Web-based business with revenue of close to $800 million. Chris McCann, the company’s president, says that the Web section of the business is the company’s most profitable not only because it eliminates the use of telephones...
Words: 319 - Pages: 2
...Creating, Financing, and Marketing a Business Creating, Financing, and Marketing a Business Heather Stalder Strayer University Justin Ndwiga Business 100(Mini) Creating, Financing, and Marketing a Business One of the easiest ways to start a business is to create a partnership; creating a partnership when forming a business has several advantages and disadvantages. A partnership starts with two or more parties having the same vision developing a business and contributing to the financial and operations of the business.“The simplicity and flexibility in creating a partnership may be one the main advantages of the partnership as a form of business. However, the disadvantages of the simplicity and flexibility must be carefully considered.” (Hanson, 1998) A risk you take in the partnership is that there is no requirement to have written agreement. Without a legal agreement it may be difficult for those in partnership to outline the parameters of the business relationship. If a thorough partnership agreement is agreed upon it can be executed to make the partnership flexible and workable for all involved and help alleviate the tensions that may arise in a business partnership situation. (Hanson, 1998) An upstart business has quite a few options when it comes to financing their vision. Depending on your financial needs the type of financing you choose will differ. Will the financing be long...
Words: 1190 - Pages: 5
...Executive summary The key problem faced by a new company is that financial performance of Calyx Flowers had not reach its full potential. The primary cause of this problem is in different customers targeted by Vermont Teddy Bear Co and Calyx Flowers (men vs. upscale professional women), that resulted in different value proposition (deliver of unique top quality gift vs fast delivery of fresh flowers of high longevity) that in proper manners does not increase sale volume either by primary market segment of Calyx Flowers (to alleviate to guilt and for home and office decoration), or by new segment - special occasions. To address this problem the company should increase its power in its primary (initiate) sale segment based on active internet sale incl. personal e-mailing among the existing clients and changing the loyalty program. Situation overview The most important problem facing the company is that Vermont Teddy Bear Co and Calyx Flowers use different business models for development . For Teddy Bear a target costumer is a man searching for an expensive gift in the eleventh hour while the VP is a joy that may bring an expensive gift which does not require much time for chose before the great event. Business model of the company is to make costumer buy the present (usually teddy bear or pajama) just in supreme moment before the event For Calyx Flowers a target costumer is upscale professional women who buy flowers NOT as a present. For them flowers are...
Words: 585 - Pages: 3
...FACEBOOK FACTS Three years ago 1-800-Flowers, long a pioneer in Inter- net marketing, became the first national florist to create a fan page on Facebook. It used the free page to build relationships with customers and sell selected products, but it spent very little money advertising on the site. In January, however, the company began buying a different kind of Facebook advertisement. “Sponsored stories,” as they’re called, let marketers pay to turn actions people take on Facebook into promotional con- tent. When members click a thumbs-up button to signal that they “like” a product or brand, for example, a simple ad appears on their friends’ pages: “Julia Smith likes 1-800-Flowers.com.” Those friends can click a Like button on that ad, which then shows up on their friends’ pages, and so on along with $79.5 million in punitive damages. Thanks in part to those ads, the company now has more than 125,000 Facebook fans, more than twice as many as it had at the start of the year. Now, says 1-800-Flowers president Chris McCann, "We look at Facebook as core to our marketing program."Many companies has to say similar stories. Instead of wasting large amount of money in advertising companies all they have to do is create an ad in facebook and make us its marketers. 1. What are the benefits of using social media as a marketing tool? Most businesses venture into social media expecting to see a big return on investment. The hope is that new customers will come in droves, and that...
Words: 1485 - Pages: 6
...Naoimh Noelle McConville Communication is a vital tool within every organisation. The theory surrounding communication has progressed and diversified from the early studies of Taylor and Weber which observed autocratic and bureaucratic managerial styles as being the fundamental approach and communication was viewed as a managerial tool to command and control employees. However the study of communication has evolved extensively and organisational communication has become more complex than was traditionally observed. “Our global economy is complicated, our connections with other nations are complicated...nowhere is this complexity more apparent than in consideration of communication processes.” (Miller 2009) Miller highlights the impact of globalisation in her latest offering, suggesting changes in global demographics, diversification and technological advances have attributed to such major changes within the area of organisational communication. The emergence of web2.0 which was coined in 1999 by DiNucci was launched into the business jargon by Tim O Reilly in 2004. he term is describe new way in which software developers and end-users started to utilize the World Wide Weparticipatory and collaborative fashion.” The traditional online services were affected by the burst of the dot.com bubble in the early 2000’sthe enhancement of the newer Web 2.0 services saw a new era in computer mediated communication. The move from the traditional social software’s of email, IM etc was...
Words: 1727 - Pages: 7
...Data Mining Jenna Walker Dr. Emmanuel Nyeanchi Information Systems Decision Making May 30, 2012 Abstract Businesses are utilizing techniques such as data mining to create a competitive advantage customer loyalty. Data mining allows business to analyze customer information, such as demographics and purchase history for a better understanding of what the customers need and what they will respond to. Data mining currently takes place in several industries, and will only become even more widespread as the benefits are endless. The purpose of this paper is to gain research and examine data mining, its benefits to businesses, and issues or concerns it will need to overcome. Real world case studies of how data mining is used will also be presented for a deeper understanding. This study will show that despite its disadvantages, data mining is an important step for a business to better understand its customers, and is the future of business marking and operational planning. Tools and Benefits of data mining Before examining the benefits of data mining, it is important to understand what data mining is exactly. Data mining is defined as “a process that uses statistical, mathematical, artificial intelligence, and machine-learning techniques to extract and identify useful information and subsequent knowledge from large databases, including data warehouses” (Turban & Volonino, 2011). The information identified using data mining includes patterns indicating trends...
Words: 1900 - Pages: 8
...series IBM Institute for Business Value IBM Global Business Services, through the IBM Institute for Business Value, develops fact-based strategic insights for senior executives around critical public and private sector issues. This executive report is based on an in-depth study by the Institute’s research team. It is part of an ongoing commitment by IBM Global Business Services to provide analysis and viewpoints that help companies realize business value. You may contact the authors or send an e-mail to iibv@us.ibm.com for more information. Additional studies from the IBM Institute for Business Value can be found at ibm.com/iibv Introduction By Carolyn Heller Baird and Gautam Parasnis CEOs, according to the IBM 2010 CEO Study.1 Today’s businesses are fervently building social media programs to do just this. But are customers as enthusiastic? Actually, most do not engage with companies via social media simply to feel connected. It turns out, customers are far more pragmatic. To successfully exploit the potential of social media, companies need to design experiences that deliver tangible value in return for customers’ time, attention, endorsement and data. With the worldwide explosion of social media usage, businesses are feeling extreme pressure to be where their customers are. Today, this hub of customer activity is increasingly virtual, located inside a social media or social networking site. But in an environment defined by customer control and two-way dialogue...
Words: 6737 - Pages: 27
...In 2009, daily deals firms sprouted up on the digital landscape like eager-to-bloom crocus flowers often seen at this time of year. But more recently a late winter freeze has buzz sawed through one flowery bulb after another, as hundreds of daily deals upstarts have fallen by the wayside because they couldn’t develop in the harshly competitive climate. Could a big one—LivingSocial—actually be the next to wither away? Sources familiar with the company say they wouldn’t be surprised if the industry’s No. 2 player, trailing only Groupon, was sold to a larger company or liquidated piece by piece by spring 2014. They say LivingSocial has lacked the speed to adjust to a space that’s increasingly becoming more complex. Even worse for this nascent field, the marketplace has gotten a lot more crowded. Dozens of outfits from Yelp to marketing giants such as American Express and Bank of America—to even companies that enable retailers to set up their own offers—now provide innovative ways to link customers with local merchants. Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali says neither LivingSocial nor Groupon are too big to fail—even if the latter still has cash reserves in the billions from its 2011 initial public offering. “The daily deals space is saturated,” she says, “and it never provided tremendous value to merchants. And that was the fundamental flaw in the business model. They’ve survived over the last few years even when these truths were obvious because they’ve reduced...
Words: 2740 - Pages: 11
...7CASE 6-1 FACEBOOK OVERVIEW Three years ago 1-800-Flowers, long a pioneer in Internet marketing, became the first national florist to create a fan page on Facebook. It used the free page to build relationships with customers and sell selected products, but it spent very little money advertising on the site. In January, however, the company began buying a different kind of Facebook advertisement. “Sponsored stories,” as they’re called, let marketers pay to turn actions people take on Facebook into promotional content. When members click a thumbs-up button to signal that they “like” a product or brand, for example, a simple ad appears on their friends’ pages: “Julia Smith likes 1-800- HYPERLINK "http://www.Flowers.com" Flowers.com .” Those friends can click a Like button on that ad, which then shows up on their friends’ pages, and so on. Thanks in part to those ads, the company now has more than 125,000 Facebook fans, more than twice as many as it had at the start of the year. Now, says 1-800-Flowers president Chris McCann, “We look at Facebook as core to our marketing program.” So do dozens of other major brands, including Ford, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola. Suddenly, large companies are running multimillion dollar ad campaigns on Facebook. Startups, such as the social-game maker Zynga and the daily-deal service Groupon, are mounting similar though smaller campaigns, and so are hundreds of thousands of local businesses, such as fitness salons...
Words: 5869 - Pages: 24
...I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave Read the story that was nominated for a 2013 National Magazine Award. By Mac McClelland | Mon Feb. 27, 2012 7:00 AM EST "Don't take anything that happens to you there personally," the woman at the local chamber of commerce says when I tell her that tomorrow I start working at "Amalgamated Product Giant Shipping Worldwide Inc." She winks at me. I stare at her for a second. "What?" I ask. "Why, is somebody going to be mean to me [1] or something?" She smiles. "Oh, yeah." This town somewhere west of the Mississippi is not big; everyone knows someone or is someone who's worked for Amalgamated. "But look at it from their perspective. They need you to work as fast as possible to push out as much as they can as fast as they can. So they're gonna give you goals, and then you know what? If you make those goals, they're gonna increase the goals. But they'll be yelling at you all the time. It's like the military. They have to break you down so they can turn you into what they want you to be. So they're going to tell you, 'You're not good enough, you're not good enough, you're not good enough,' to make you work harder. Don't say, 'This is the best I can do.' Say, 'I'll try,' even if you know you can't do it. Because if you say, 'This is the best I can do,' they'll let you go. They hire and fire constantly, every day. You'll see people dropping all around you. But don't take it personally and break down or start crying when they yell at you." Several months prior...
Words: 8617 - Pages: 35
...PART I IT in the Organization 1. Information Technology in the Digital Economy 2. Information Technologies: Concepts and Management 3. Strategic Information Systems for Competitive Advantage CHAPTER Strategic Information Systems for Competitive Advantage Rosenbluth International: Competing in the Digital Economy 3.1 Strategic Advantage and Information Technology 3.2 Porter’s Competitive Forces Model and Strategies 3.3 Porter’s Value Chain Model 3.4 Interorganizational Strategic Information Systems 3.5 A Framework for Global Competition 3.6 Strategic Information Systems: Examples and Analysis 3.7 Implementing and Sustaining SIS Minicases: (1) Cisco Systems/ (2) Aeronautica Civil 89 LEARNING OBJECTIVES 3 After studying this chapter, you will be able to: Describe strategic information systems (SISs) and explain their advantages. Describe Porter’s competitive forces model and how information technology helps companies improve their competitive positions. Describe 12 strategies companies can use to achieve competitive advantage in their industry. Describe Porter’s value chain model and its relationship to information technology. Describe how linking information systems across organizations helps companies achieve competitive advantage. Describe global competition and global business drivers. Describe representative SISs and the advantage they provide to organizations. Discuss the challenges associated with sustaining competitive advantage. ROSENBLUTH INTERNATIONAL: COMPETING...
Words: 18939 - Pages: 76