Andrew:
Hi everybody. We’re meeting Mr Ryan Bacher today from NetFlorist. He’s going to be sharing his insights on how NetFlorist started and how did he manage to stay afloat throughout 2020.
Thank you so much for having this sit down with us and discussing NetFlorist and how you guys managed to stay afloat throughout Covid season, or rather lockdown.
So without further ado; for somebody that’s living under a rock, Ryan, and they don’t know about NetFlorist, would you kindly share your story regarding that?
Ryan:
Yeah cool, sure. So we’re just over 20 years old now, which makes us one of the old guys in the e-commerce industry. Which isn’t great. You know, it’s not good to be old in this industry. We are, what can I say?
Andrew:
You’ve got more than enough track record to go by there, hey.
Ryan:
Hopefully, yeah.
Andrew:
Absolutely, absolutely.
Ryan:
We started early on, because one of the large retailers, Makro, approached a business that I was working for in 1999 actually. A while ago. And they wanted to go online with e-commerce. E-commerce was new in South Africa, nobody here knew about it and they want us to build their website and build their e-commerce scenario and we thought the best way to do that would be to build something ourselves, learn about it and then build theirs and other people’s. We thought that that’s an interesting opportunity actually. So we picked flowers very randomly.
There was a business overseas that had just started and we thought: we’ll sell some flowers. We don’t know how it works, whatever. We’ll build a website, we’ll put some pictures of flowers, we’ll sell one or two, somehow get it delivered and then we’ll go to Makro and say we know what we’re doing and we’ll build your site.
So that’s it, that’s how NetFlorist started. There wasn’t any idea at that stage that we would actually have an online retail business. It was more that we’d be servicing others. That’s how it started.
Andrew:
That’s awesome that’s very very wonderful.
So Ryan, when you guys started in ’99 and well, this is something that we’ve picked up from you guys’s website, that you knew nothing about flowers. Would you run us through that?
Ryan:
Yeah so, I mean, I went to law school. And my two partners who are in the business with me, the one’s an accountant, the other one is an engineer. We knew absolutely nothing about flowers. I mean, I’m not sure I still know that much about flowers. I mean, I know more than the average person.
Andrew:
You’ve been there for like 20 years now.
Ryan:
Yeah, I can’t say I’m an expert. You know, thank god we’ve got people in our business that are experts in flowers. But we knew nothing about it. We just we picked flowers because, we could have picked anything just to prove a test aria, so we could go to Makro and say, we know what we’re doing, we’ll build your site. Could have been anything.
Andrew:
And would they have been maybe happy with anything too?
Ryan:
Yeah they would have been, because they just wanted to know that we could build an e-commerce site, take a transaction, get the thing delivered. It didn’t matter what. We landed up never building anything for Makro because quite early on we kind of thought: hold on, maybe there is an opportunity here in this floral thing. So we kind of, a year or two later we started to focus on it and that’s been my primary focus since then. But originally there was never any idea to actually have an online florist and gifting business. It was really just to get a foot in the door at Makro, that’s all.
Andrew:
That’s amazing, that’s amazing. And look at you 20 years after that, hey!
Ryan:
Look, it’s a strange story but actually, lots of businesses start and then there’s like this unintended consequence of other things. So lots of businesses have strange start stories.
Andrew:
Wow okay. Now I know. And another question: where do you guys get your flowers from?
Ryan:
All over South Africa. So we buy directly from a lot of farms, we buy from the flower market. In Joburg there’s a big flower market. We also buy from Kenya, from Ethiopia. So we’re sourcing from a lot of places. Yeah, we need different varieties, we need, different flowers bloom better at different times of the year in different parts of the world so we have quite a big supply chain.
Andrew:
Wow that’s awesome news, okay great stuff. So a quick question: NetJewel is a product that you guys have in NetFlorist. Would you like to tell us more about it?
Ryan:
Yeah, it was an idea we had quite a while ago. So right now sixty percent of our businesses flowers but forty percent is non-floral. And the reason for that is, quite early on in our journey, I’d say about five or six years into our journey we realized that we’re not really a florist. When people send flowers it’s really as a gift.
That’s why people send flowers. It’s not really about the flowers, it’s about the message on the card and the emotion that that transmits. And flowers are a good product to send as a gift sometimes, but not always.
Andrew:
True, yeah absolutely.
Ryan:
After a few years in the business we started to realize that we’re not a florist, we’re actually a gifting business, but we focus on flowers. So, at that stage we started to think we should be broadening out. And we started adding gourmet hampers, and bath and body stuff, and gowns and those kind of things. And then we added jewelry and perfume because a lot of people buy jewelry as gifts and perfume as gifts. So that’s been added on.
We added a bakery and we’ve got a whole personalization department. So as we’ve gone we’ve broadened our range of gifting because flowers isn’t always the right gift for an occasion.
Andrew:
Very true, very true. Gee wiz, oh wow, okay. I’m actually blown out of the water with that story.
How did you come up with the character, Harold?
Harold:
Hi, it’s Harold here, your fabulicious gifting guru. Have I got a recipe for you to spice things up for your next anniversary! Start off with a bit of the naked chef. You can give her the book too if you want. What about a bottle of bubbly and some chocolate body paint. And you never know, your lover might just fondue you until the sun comes up. So this anniversary send your special someone something from NetFlorist.co.za, SA’s largest same-day flower and gifting service. Hmm, I think I need a waffle. Smooches!
Ryan:
Harold. So I’ve got an old school friend of mine who is now definitely one of the senior guys in the ad industry in South Africa, but when we were just starting out I used to meet with him to get ideas on marketing. And in the early days we had very little money to market so we had to stand out.
We decided the best way to stand out would be humor. Very few brands choose humor. Most brands don’t because it’s risky and you get it wrong sometimes. So we’ve often got it wrong. So most brands stay away from humor, but that allows those brands that go into that space to stand out. Obviously the one we all know very well is Nandos and Chicken Licken do it, but very few brands are funny.
So we thought we should be funny to stand out because our budget was small. And so we came out with this kind of, we came up with this weird and crazy character that allowed us to say controversial things, but it really wasn’t us saying it, it was more this guy called Harold.
Andrew:
Oh yeah.
Ryan:
He’s lived the test of time. He’s been on radio now for a long time and we have a lot of fun with him and he’s almost become a, he’s our radio personality,I guess you could say.
Andrew:
Absolutely. I was actually meaning to ask you about that whole “relationship hotline” that he’s got going on, I mean I’m still amazed by that. What was the concept behind it when you guys sort of initiated it?
Ryan:
Right, so because of a gifting business the idea was that Harold would give advice. He’d give gifting advice because actually, gifting is not simple. You know, most people walk up and down shopping centers for hours. It’s pretty tough to gift, so we thought we’d create this guy who would give advice, and relationship advice because gifting is often about relationships.
But he’s not really doing that. What he’s really doing is, he’s entertaining. What Harold primarily is, he’s a radio entertainer. That’s what we, that’s-
You know, we tell you a little bit about our business, but what we hope you do when you hear a 30-second ad is to have a chuckle or a laugh and then Harold’s done his job. And we tell you a little bit about Valentine’s day or a birthday occasion, whatever. But really his primary focus is to entertain.
Andrew:
Wow, okay. Now I know. I reckon the rest of South Africa knows going forward. Ryan, then 2020 happened. You know, and a lot of companies sort of, you know, saw how hard it is to trade and everything else. So how did you guys manage to stay afloat and how did you guys still sort of, stay relevant to your consumers?
Ryan:
Right, so yeah, when hard lockdown came in April we couldn’t sell almost everything that we normally sell because none of it was essential, flowers and hampers. So what we did is we looked at what we had. And we’ve got a warehouse, we’ve got delivery and we’ve got a system.
And the one thing that was allowed at that time was groceries and fruit and veg. Groceries we went to later, but right at the beginning of April we started selling fruit and vegetables. We created a relationship with a wholesaling group and we were delivering boxes of assorted veg or fruit or a combination. And that’s how we stayed afloat in April. We were, we were, yeah our whole business changed to fruit and veg. Which was very crazy because that’s not something that we sell but it allowed us to pay through April.
And then in May when some of our services were allowed again, flowers started to become allowed again in May, we were able to go back to some and then claw up as the restrictions lessened a little bit. And that’s kind of how we got through the year.
Andrew:
Wow, totally blown over the water with that story too. So what changes have you guys seen in the market thus far ever since 2020 happened? You know, what sort of changes have you seen popping up here and there?
Ryan:
So definitely, look, unfortunately we’ve seen an increase in sympathy as a category and that’s obviously a terrible thing for the country. It’s, you know, there’s no question, the death rates are up. And we provide a service in that regard but it’s a very, it’s a strange thing for us, because-
Andrew:
You’re not used to that space-
Ryan:
we have to look past the pain.
But in terms of behavioral change, that has changed. Get well has obviously changed because that’s been quite relevant. And then actually one of the categories that has changed a bit is birthday. Because in previous years if somebody had a birthday they’d have a party, you’d go there and you’d maybe take a gift. But now you’re not necessarily going there so then-
Andrew:
No, you’re not allowed to visit.
Ryan:
Right, so our service, certainly in the hard lockdown phase, became a bit more relevant for people who needed to communicate a message but couldn’t take it there personally. So we’ve seen some changes and some shifts.
Andrew:
So was there more client, new client onboarding? Was there maybe people that weren’t inclined to buying online? Did you now see an uptake of that growing within the business itself?
Ryan:
Yeah, we have seen a bit about uptake in that regard. There are people who didn’t necessarily see e-commerce as part of their daily world now starting to do that. And our existing customers I think started to see us as a service for other needs that maybe they wouldn’t have had pre-Covid. It’s just the nature of e-commerce and that we deliver. It’s not unique to us. Most e-commerce businesses have seen a change in behavior.
Andrew:
Wow okay, now that’s an awesome story, hey.
Well I’m just gonna sway a little bit to a bit of a personal note. Nothing too serious. I just wanted to find out from your side: what are your favorite flowers?
Ryan:
So actually, my favorite flowers are Proteas, which is not that common. They’re not that common to send as a gift, but I absolutely love those flowers, I find them just remarkable. And the fact that they grow in the wild is so cool. Like, they’re not in greenhouses, they’re part of fynbos environments in the Cape. They’re magic.
Andrew:
Gee wiz, that’s wonderful.
So what’s the most expensive flowers that you’ve ever bought?
Ryan:
I don’t remember the price, but on one of my wedding anniversaries I bought a hundred red roses. I’d never delivered that so… I don’t remember the number but it wasn’t R100, that’s for sure.
Andrew:
I can only imagine, absolutely hey.
In terms of, well, let’s say lockdown is done, everybody gets to travel; what’s your favorite holiday destination?
Ryan:
So my family and I are game reserve people. So that’s definitely up there. We like quality time we spend together and also being in nature is lekker, so we love that.
Andrew:
Awesome stuff. Alrighty, so another question then: what are you currently reading right now?
Ryan:
So I’m reading two books: a business and a non-business book. The non-business book is called “Where the Forest Meets the Stars”. Just a random fiction book.
And my non-fiction book I’m reading at the moment is called “Future Back Thinking”, and it’s just a strategic book, you know. And I like to try and read one of each of the same, you know, every night. I think, what do I feel like: fiction, bit of fantasy, or kind of hardcore reads that I want to go to.
Andrew:
I’ll know to add that to my library now going forward.
You guys have been running an affiliate program with OfferForge since 2005. How’s that journey been for you guys?
Ryan:
It’s been good, actually. I mean, we’ve been with OfferForge for a long time.
We do have partners that we interact with directly, like eBucks and Discovery miles and those kind of guys. But the affiliate world is just too difficult for us to manage on our own, to interact affiliates on our own. OfferForge becomes a great conduit for us to work with those affiliates that are out there, but we can do it in a centralized way. So yeah, it’s been great, we’ve been happy customers of OfferForge for a long time now.
Andrew:
Wow, that’s wonderful news. Great stuff. So another question: what makes your brand unique?
Ryan:
That’s a hard question. Look, I think in the e-commerce world probably, our uniqueness sits around this gifting aspect. I think in that space we’ve got quite a, we’ve got quite a strong positioning in the gifting world in South Africa.
So I think we’ve been able to build top awareness, top of mind awareness with customers out there that, if you need to send flowers or a gift that we’re an option. You may not use us, but we’re an option and that’s good. And then the actual brand persona is probably, I mean the colloquial term is funny, but this idea of irreverence. So we don’t take ourselves too seriously and we, you know, we can be a bit funny and be entertaining and hopefully we stand out a little bit in that regard.
Andrew:
I think that quirkiness works wonders. In not so many words, why should publishers join the affiliate program that OfferForge has that you guys are running in?
Ryan:
Right, so I actually think there’s only one reason to join any, to link with any merchant is if you’re going to get a return. And the reason why you’ll get return with us is our conversion rates are very good. I don’t know another e-commerce company in South Africa that has a higher conversion rate than us. And that helps, because it allows affiliates to spend some money to get people linking to our business with the confidence that they’re going to actually convert that sale.
So I mean, you know, we deliver and we’ve got good quality and we’ve got trust and all of that, but actually I don’t think an affiliate cares about that. What they care about is: we’re going to invest in your brand, we need to know, if we send clients that they get buying. They don’t buy, we don’t get money.
Andrew:
Well thank you so much for taking up the time to have this chit chat with us. Now it helps a lot that the publishers and everybody else would get to see the other side of NetFlorist as opposed to just an e-commerce brand. Which is pretty awesome, thank you so much for having us sit down with us to get to discuss a little bit more about what NetFlorist does.
Ryan:
An absolute pleasure, thanks for your time. Pleasure.
Andrew:
Thank you so much, have yourself a good one. Cheers for now.
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