The Q1 2024 benchmarking report for UK flower delivery services has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK flower delivery services perform across the digital space.
The research in our report will give you an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice within the flower delivery space in the UK. We've included 12 top brands in the space; Bloom & Wild, Interflora, Freddie's Flowers, Waitrose Florist, Bunches, eFlorist, Prestige Flowers, Flower Station, Floom, Teleflorist, Cornish Blooms, and Wild at Heart.
Our insights quantify the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for both you and other top floral brands to win digital brand exposure, secure online views, and ultimately win new orders and regular subscribers. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and will identify the barriers that may be reducing your ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 flower delivery services on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing flower delivery services, or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each flower delivery service based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. For brands managing a seasonal rotation of stock, such as flowers, they must ensure removing unavailable items is done with care and that redirects are effectively managed.
In the last quarter, we reported that Prestige Flowers returned 1,111 4xx errors, which it’s reduced to 158 in this audit. The flower delivery service with the highest number of 4xx errors in this quarter is currently Bloom & Wild with 1,638 4xx errors, which it had reduced to zero in our last report but has since not addressed. This service must check its linking structure for any broken links that are leading customers down dead end.
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. When you're competing to sell a luxury item in a saturated market, such as flower subscriptions, an unappealing site (or one that doesn't signpost well to key products) can mean users turn to your competitors instead.
The site speed score for this quarter ranged between 47 and 3, with Waitrose Florist and Freddie's Flowers at the bottom of the leaderboard. These flower delivery services can increase their site speed by optimising images to prevent loading delays.
Domain Authority (otherwise known as Domain Rating) helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. Flower delivery services can look to collaborating with high-authority bloggers, as well as outreaching to online publications in the interiors, gardens, gifting, and general press in order to gain backlinks and improve authority.
The DA rating for this quarter was between 72 and 13, with Cornish Blooms scoring the lowest. This service has the least number of backlinks, and it should look to increase these by building a rapport with gardening brands.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. For brands within a luxury, or 'treat' sector, such as flower delivery, they'll find they're competing for a smaller pool of traffic as customers cut back on non-essentials due to the cost of living crisis.
Half of the services saw a decrease in organic mobile traffic YoY, and Interflora had a 42% loss. At the other end, Teleflorist secured a 190% digital footfall.
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages more visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. You can also appear for a universal search result without being strong in other organic performance. For flower delivery services, 'image pack' is the most useful option for standing out from competitors and showing off their arrangements.
Once again, Interflora has secured the most appearances for overall Universal Search appearances with 11,800 ‘image’ results and 2,400 ‘people also ask’ results. Freddie's Flowers has the least appearances for ‘image’ results, which it should aim to increase by the next quarter.
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for retailer new search terms as they enter Google’s index. For flower delivery services, these keywords could include terms such as "flower subscription plans sign up" or "order quick flower delivery".
Interflora remains the top performer for longtail keyword across every position. It’s seen a decrease in the number of appearances for the top 3 positions, but there’s no suggestion it’ll fall off the top spot.
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 52 million users at the conclusion of 2022, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. For flower delivery services, Facebook (and other paid social ads) represent the chance to show off their highly visual products and grab attention from their target market. Facebook ads are also a great way to quickly push and pull ads for products that are either already selling well, or need an additional push.
We’ve included 3 examples of Bunches’ sponsored Facebook posts with a ‘shop now’ CTA box to help increase customer sales. This service also includes a carousel across 2 posts to highlight different angles of a product.
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release evergreen content that has a longer shelf life and maintains its relevancy to an audience for long periods of time. It's great for your retailer engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Content creation also helps with DA, appearances for longtail keywords and 'people also ask' results, so flower delivery services should look to creating shareable pieces that can support performance in all of these areas.
Most of the brands favour Facebook, and Waitrose Florist has the largest social media accounts with 532,300 Facebook Likes and 604,300 Instagram followers, though Interflora has the largest social media engagement across all brands.
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. Sites such as flower delivery services often focus on their need to appear visually appealing and can therefore fall short of the accessibility requirements their users with visual challenges will need. Even for a product which is highly visual, such as flower arrangements, brands must ensure their website is universally accessible.
In our last report, Wild at Heart flagged 172 accessibility alerts, which it’s reduced to 147 in this quarter. Bunches currently has the most alerts with a total of 149, which it needs to assess so those using a screen reader can still experience and understand the website’s content.
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.
Photo by Biel Morro on Unsplash