"From positively impacting the staff members' working environment, through to new marketing campaigns and products, the coming year holds interesting changes in store for Interflora," she says. "And the new website [www.interflora.co.za] is one of the first steps Interflora is taking in this regard."
While Interflora's previous website was effective, Louw says the company felt that it didn't truly embody what Interflora is all about. "We're a flower company and we want that to be perfectly evident from the moment somebody visits the website," she explains.
Besides the new look and feel of the website, new functionality has been added to complement the new image.
"We conducted research into what our clients liked and disliked about the previous site," she says. "The findings of that research were used in all of our decisions for the new website."
Based on the feedback received, Louw says the company has shortened and streamlined the purchase process, built a search feature for special occasions or religious holidays (which includes background information and suggested arrangements for each occasion), built a tool that allows customers to set reminders for themselves and lastly, built in functionality that allows customers to input their 'favourites' list of recipients, along with preferred delivery addresses.
"The site is now much more functional and user friendly, something that we believe will impact on the volume of business we are able to drive through our on-line channel," she says.
When it comes to the variety of gifts available on the site, "where the previous website had 30 items, the new site has over 80 items to choose from," says Louw. "The substantially revised portfolio now comprises new gourmet hampers aimed at broadening the target market right from teenagers and children, through to more sophisticated buyers and pensioners.
"We now also have a much larger variety of flower arrangements and a new range of 'modern' items which have been compiled based on trends evident in the European market. Even the most price conscious buyers have been catered for. "With a massive array of free virtual cards and bouquets, every person from every walk of life can be an Interflora customer."
While Interflora has gone to substantial effort to ensure that a higher level of customer service is delivered through its electronic channel, the website has a strong value proposition to offer its partners, namely the network of florists belonging to the Interflora group.
"Florists now also have access to a portal on the website," Louw explains, "and for the near term we will use the portal to deliver vital information in the form of a newsletter for our partners. Partners also gain access to a calendaring/reminder feature similar to that used on the customer-facing portion of the site.
"Over the course of this year, we will be upscaling the functionality of the portal to facilitate the routing of orders and other business related communication to our florists," she says. "We feel this will greatly improve Interflora's already excellent order fulfillment ability."
"In the [time] since the new site has been up, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We are convinced that the effort we've placed behind the new website and digital strategy will reap valuable rewards," she concludes.
