\n<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Hi everybody. We\u2019re meeting Mr Ryan Bacher today\u00a0from NetFlorist. He\u2019s going to be sharing his\u00a0insights on how NetFlorist started and how\u00a0did he manage to stay afloat throughout 2020.<\/p>\n
Thank you so much for having this sit down with\u00a0us and discussing NetFlorist and how you guys managed to stay afloat throughout Covid season, or rather lockdown.<\/p>\n
So without further ado; for somebody that\u2019s living under a rock, Ryan, and they\u00a0don\u2019t know about NetFlorist, would you kindly share your story regarding that?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Yeah cool, sure. So\u00a0we\u2019re just over 20 years old now, which makes us one of the old guys in the e-commerce industry. Which isn\u2019t great. You know, it\u2019s not good to be old in this industry. We are, what can I say?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve\u00a0got more than enough track record to go by there, hey.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Hopefully, yeah.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Absolutely, absolutely.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
We started early on, because one of the large retailers, Makro,\u00a0approached 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\u00a0Africa, nobody here knew about it and they want us to build their website and build\u00a0their e-commerce scenario and we thought the best way to do that would be to build something\u00a0ourselves, learn about it and then build theirs and other people\u2019s. We thought that that\u2019s an\u00a0interesting opportunity actually. So we picked flowers very randomly.<\/p>\n
There was a business overseas that had just started and we thought: we\u2019ll sell some flowers. We don\u2019t know how it works, whatever. We\u2019ll\u00a0build a website, we\u2019ll put some pictures of flowers, we\u2019ll sell one or two, somehow get it delivered\u00a0and then we\u2019ll go to Makro and say we know what we\u2019re doing and we\u2019ll build your site.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s\u00a0it, that\u2019s how NetFlorist started. There wasn\u2019t any idea at that stage that we would actually have an\u00a0online retail business. It was more that we\u2019d be servicing others. That\u2019s how it started.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
That\u2019s\u00a0awesome that\u2019s very very wonderful.<\/p>\n
So Ryan, when you guys started in \u201999 and well, this is something\u00a0that we\u2019ve picked up from you guys\u2019s website, that you knew nothing about flowers. Would you run us\u00a0through that?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Yeah so, I mean, I went to law school. And my two partners who are in the business\u00a0with me, the one\u2019s an accountant, the other one is an engineer. We knew absolutely nothing\u00a0about flowers. I mean, I\u2019m not sure I still know that much about flowers. I mean, I know more than\u00a0the average person.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve been there for like 20 years now.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Yeah, I can\u2019t say I\u2019m an expert. You know, thank god we\u2019ve got people in our business that are experts in flowers. But we knew\u00a0nothing about it. We just we picked flowers because, we could have picked anything just to prove\u00a0a test aria, so we could go to Makro and say, we know what we\u2019re doing, we\u2019ll build your site. Could\u00a0have been anything.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
And would they have been maybe happy with anything too?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Yeah\u00a0they would have been, because they just wanted to know that we could build an\u00a0e-commerce site, take a transaction, get the thing delivered. It didn\u2019t matter what. We landed\u00a0up 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\u00a0or two later we started to focus on it and that\u2019s been my primary focus since then. But originally there was never any idea to actually have an online florist and gifting\u00a0business. It was really just to get a foot in the door at Makro, that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
That\u2019s amazing, that\u2019s amazing. And look at you 20 years after that, hey!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Look, it\u2019s a strange story but\u00a0actually, lots of businesses start and then there\u2019s like this unintended consequence\u00a0of other things. So lots of businesses have strange start stories.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Wow okay. Now I know. And another question: where do you guys get your flowers from?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
All over South Africa. So we buy directly from\u00a0a lot of farms, we buy from the flower market. In Joburg there\u2019s a big flower market. We\u00a0also buy from Kenya, from Ethiopia. So we\u2019re sourcing from a lot of places. Yeah, we need different varieties, we need, different flowers bloom better at different times of\u00a0the year in different parts of the world so we have quite a big supply chain.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Wow that\u2019s\u00a0awesome news, okay great stuff. So a quick question: NetJewel is a product that you guys have in\u00a0NetFlorist. Would you like to tell us more about it?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
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\u00a0reason for that is, quite early on in our journey, I\u2019d say about five or six years into our journey\u00a0we realized that we\u2019re not really a florist. When people send flowers it\u2019s really as a\u00a0gift.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why people send flowers. It\u2019s not really about the flowers, it\u2019s about the message\u00a0on the card and the emotion that that transmits. And flowers are a good product to send as a gift\u00a0sometimes, but not always.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
True, yeah absolutely.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
After a few years in the business we started to realize that we\u2019re not a florist, we\u2019re actually a gifting business, but we focus\u00a0on flowers. So, at that stage we started to think we should be broadening out. And we started\u00a0adding gourmet hampers, and bath and body stuff, and gowns and those kind of things. And\u00a0then we added jewelry and perfume because a lot of people buy jewelry\u00a0as gifts and perfume as gifts. So that\u2019s been\u00a0added on.<\/p>\n
We added a bakery and we\u2019ve got a whole\u00a0personalization department. So as we\u2019ve gone we\u2019ve broadened our range of gifting because flowers\u00a0isn\u2019t always the right gift for an occasion.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Very true, very true. Gee wiz, oh wow, okay. I\u2019m actually\u00a0blown out of the water with that story.<\/p>\n
How did you come up with the character, Harold?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harold:<\/p>\n
Hi, it\u2019s Harold here, your fabulicious gifting guru. Have I got a recipe for you to spice things\u00a0up for your next anniversary! Start off with a bit of the naked chef. You can give her the book too\u00a0if you want. What about a bottle of bubbly and some chocolate body paint. And you never know, your\u00a0lover might just fondue you until the sun comes up. So this anniversary send your special someone\u00a0something from NetFlorist.co.za, SA\u2019s largest same-day flower and gifting service. Hmm, I think\u00a0I need a waffle. Smooches!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Harold. So I\u2019ve got an old school friend of mine who\u00a0is now definitely one of the senior guys in the ad industry in South Africa, but when we were\u00a0just starting out I used to meet with him to get ideas on marketing. And in the early\u00a0days we had very little money to market so we had to stand out.<\/p>\n
We decided the best way to\u00a0stand out would be humor. Very few brands choose humor. Most brands don\u2019t because it\u2019s risky\u00a0and you get it wrong sometimes. So we\u2019ve often got it wrong. So most brands stay away from humor, but\u00a0that allows those brands that go into that space to stand out. Obviously the one we all\u00a0know very well is Nandos and Chicken Licken do it, but very few brands are funny.<\/p>\n
So we thought we\u00a0should be funny to stand out because our budget was small. And so we came out with this kind of, we\u00a0came up with this weird and crazy character that allowed us to say controversial things, but it\u00a0really wasn\u2019t us saying it, it was more this guy called Harold.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Oh yeah.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
He\u2019s lived the\u00a0test of time. He\u2019s been on radio now for a long time and we have a lot of fun with him and he\u2019s almost become a, he\u2019s our radio personality,I guess you could say.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Absolutely. I was actually\u00a0meaning to ask you about that whole \u201crelationship hotline\u201d that he\u2019s got going\u00a0on, I mean I\u2019m still amazed by that. What was the concept behind it when you guys\u00a0sort of initiated it?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Right, so because of a gifting business the idea was that Harold would give\u00a0advice. He\u2019d give gifting advice because actually, gifting is not simple. You\u00a0know, most people walk up and down shopping centers for hours. It\u2019s pretty tough to gift, so\u00a0we thought we\u2019d create this guy who would give advice, and relationship advice because gifting\u00a0is often about relationships.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s not really doing that. What he\u2019s really doing is,\u00a0he\u2019s entertaining. What Harold primarily is, he\u2019s a radio entertainer. That\u2019s what we, that\u2019s-\u00a0<\/p>\n
You know, we tell you a little bit about our business, but what we hope you do when\u00a0you hear a 30-second ad is to have a chuckle or a laugh and then Harold\u2019s done his job. And\u00a0we tell you a little bit about Valentine\u2019s day or a birthday occasion, whatever. But really his\u00a0primary focus is to entertain.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Wow, okay. Now I know. I reckon the rest of South Africa knows\u00a0going 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\u00a0did you guys still sort of, stay relevant to your consumers?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Right, so yeah, when hard\u00a0lockdown came in April we couldn\u2019t sell almost everything that we normally sell because\u00a0none of it was essential, flowers and hampers. So what we did is\u00a0we looked at what we had. And we\u2019ve got a warehouse, we\u2019ve got delivery and we\u2019ve got a system.<\/p>\n
And the one thing that was allowed at that time\u00a0was groceries and fruit and veg. Groceries we went to later, but right at the beginning of\u00a0April we started selling fruit and vegetables. We created a relationship with a wholesaling\u00a0group and we were delivering boxes of assorted veg or fruit or a combination. And that\u2019s how we stayed afloat in April. We were, we were, yeah our whole business changed to fruit and\u00a0veg. Which was very crazy because that\u2019s not something that we sell but it allowed us to pay through April.<\/p>\n
And then in May when some of our services were allowed again,\u00a0flowers started to become allowed again in May, we were able to go back to some and then claw\u00a0up as the restrictions lessened a little bit. And that\u2019s kind of how we got through the year.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Wow, totally blown over the water with that story too. So what changes have you guys seen in the market\u00a0thus far ever since 2020 happened? You know, what sort of changes have you\u00a0seen popping up here and there?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
So definitely, look, unfortunately we\u2019ve seen an increase in sympathy as a category and that\u2019s obviously a terrible\u00a0thing for the country. It\u2019s, you know, there\u2019s no question, the death rates are up. And we provide a service in that regard but it\u2019s a very, it\u2019s a strange thing for us, because-<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
You\u2019re not used to that space-<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
we have to look past the pain.<\/p>\n
But in terms of behavioral change, that has changed. Get well has obviously changed because that\u2019s 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\u2019d have a party, you\u2019d go there and you\u2019d maybe take a gift. But now you\u2019re not necessarily going there so then-<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
No, you\u2019re not allowed to visit.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Right, so our service,\u00a0certainly in the hard lockdown phase, became a bit more relevant for people who needed\u00a0to communicate a message but couldn\u2019t take it there personally. So we\u2019ve seen\u00a0some changes and some shifts.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
So was there more client, new client onboarding? Was\u00a0there maybe people that weren\u2019t inclined to buying online? Did you now see an uptake of\u00a0that growing within the business itself?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Yeah, we have seen a bit about uptake in that\u00a0regard. There are people who didn\u2019t 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\u00a0for other needs that maybe they wouldn\u2019t have had pre-Covid. It\u2019s just the nature of e-commerce\u00a0and that we deliver. It\u2019s not unique to us. Most e-commerce businesses have seen a change\u00a0in behavior.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Wow okay, now that\u2019s an awesome story, hey.<\/p>\n
Well I\u2019m just gonna sway a little bit to a bit of a personal note. Nothing too serious. I just wanted to find\u00a0out from your side: what are your favorite flowers?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
So actually, my favorite flowers are Proteas, which is not that common. They\u2019re not that common to send as a gift, but I absolutely\u00a0love those flowers, I find them just remarkable. And the fact that they grow in the wild is so\u00a0cool. Like, they\u2019re not in greenhouses, they\u2019re part of fynbos environments in the Cape. They\u2019re magic.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Gee wiz, that\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the most\u00a0expensive flowers that you\u2019ve ever bought?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t remember the price, but on one of my\u00a0wedding anniversaries I bought a hundred red roses. I\u2019d never delivered that so\u2026 I don\u2019t remember the number but it wasn\u2019t R100, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
I can only\u00a0imagine, absolutely hey.<\/p>\n
In terms of, well, let\u2019s say lockdown is done, everybody\u00a0gets to travel; what\u2019s your favorite holiday destination?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
So my family and I are game reserve people. So that\u2019s definitely up there. We like quality time we spend together and also\u00a0being in nature is lekker, so we love that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Awesome stuff. Alrighty, so another question\u00a0then: what are you currently reading right now?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m reading two books: a\u00a0business and a non-business book. The non-business book is called \u201cWhere the Forest Meets the Stars\u201d. Just a random fiction book.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And my non-fiction book I\u2019m reading at the moment is called \u201cFuture Back Thinking\u201d, and it\u2019s just a strategic book, you know.\u00a0And 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.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll know to add that to my\u00a0library now going forward.<\/p>\n
You guys have been running an affiliate program with OfferForge\u00a0since 2005. How\u2019s that journey been for you guys?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been good, actually. I mean, we\u2019ve been with\u00a0OfferForge for a long time.<\/p>\n
We do have partners that we interact with\u00a0directly, 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\u00a0there, but we can do it in a centralized way. So yeah, it\u2019s been great, we\u2019ve been happy customers of OfferForge for a long time now.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Wow, that\u2019s wonderful news. Great stuff. So\u00a0another question: what makes your brand unique?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a hard question. Look, I think\u00a0in the e-commerce world probably, our uniqueness sits around this gifting\u00a0aspect. I think in that space we\u2019ve got quite a, we\u2019ve got quite a strong positioning in the\u00a0gifting world in South Africa.<\/p>\n
So I think we\u2019ve been able to build top awareness, top of mind\u00a0awareness with customers out there that, if you need to send flowers or a gift that we\u2019re an\u00a0option. You may not use us, but we\u2019re an option and that\u2019s good. And then the actual brand persona is probably, I mean the colloquial term is funny, but this idea of irreverence.\u00a0So we don\u2019t take ourselves too seriously and we, you know, we can be a bit funny and be entertaining\u00a0and hopefully we stand out a little bit in that\u00a0regard.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
Right, so I actually think there\u2019s only one reason\u00a0to join any, to link with any merchant is if you\u2019re going to get a return. And the reason why you\u2019ll get return with us is our conversion rates are very good. I don\u2019t know another e-commerce company in South\u00a0Africa 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\u00a0business with the confidence that they\u2019re going to actually convert that sale.<\/p>\n
So I mean, you know, we\u00a0deliver and we\u2019ve got good quality and we\u2019ve got trust and all of that, but actually I don\u2019t think\u00a0an affiliate cares about that. What they care about is: we\u2019re going to invest in your brand, we need to\u00a0know, if we send clients that they get buying. They don\u2019t buy, we don\u2019t get money.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Well thank you so much for\u00a0taking 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\u00a0e-commerce brand. Which is pretty awesome, thank you so much for having us sit down with us to\u00a0get to discuss a little bit more about what NetFlorist does.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan:<\/p>\n
An absolute pleasure, thanks for your time. Pleasure.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew:<\/p>\n
Thank you so much, have yourself a good one. Cheers for now.<\/p>\n
Ladies\u00a0and gentlemen. Please don\u2019t forget to hit the subscribe button. There\u2019s more videos that\u2019s going\u00a0to come out and you\u2019ll always get updated also.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n