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A blooming business
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The Internet and a call centre help florists in over 120 cities in the country network through phoolwala.com to deliver fresh flowers the very day they are ordered
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Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.
A FRAGRANT SURPRISE The service soon aims to spread to over 500 small towns too
Flowers are meant to say a thousand things. And these days everyone does their wooing, apologising and expressing in their own way. Whichever way they choose, a surprise bunch of flowers delivered at the doorstep is a sure-fire winner. Moreover, why wait for an occasion to dash off a bunch of red Dutch roses to a spouse or Significant Other? And that too have them delivered the same day on which the noble thought occurs to you! Making life easy and your pocket and mind lighter is phoolwala.com.
With a network of 120 cities ranging from Ambala and Ajmer to Sholapur and Tanjavur or Ghaziabad and Mysore, this florist group is finally in Bangalore. It took off in 1998, and has been rather popular with NRIs wanting to send flowers to their families and friends back home in India.
Order over phone
Over 150 gift shops, florists, and supermarkets have tied up with them in Bangalore, allowing customers to place orders directly with them, order over telephone or online. "We found in our survey that people in India were weary of placing orders online and giving out information on their credit cards. So we started the call and collect-pay system, which has worked wonderfully. We also take direct orders at florists with on-the-spot payment," says S. Baghel, all-India manager.
Phoolwala offers bouquets, posies, arrangements in wicker baskets and terracotta pots, or in keepsake vases that range from Rs. 299 to Rs. 2,000 and a little over that, depending on the arrangements, and the exotic value of the flowers. While Dutch roses of all hues seem to be a hot favourite, a lot of arrangements also include carnations, anthuriums, orchids, Asiatic lilies, gladioli, gerberas and glysophilias filled with ferns and baby's breath.
The call centre boom has hit the florist industry too! The Delhi-based Phoolwala has a call centre in Bangalore that co-ordinates and tracks orders throughout the country. Flowers are delivered from the local florist, so they deliver on the very day the order is placed. "All our florists are linked on the Internet and our orders get distributed automatically."
The flowers are sourced from Bangalore, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and most of them are seasonal. Arrangements have been categorised and catalogued for various occasions and relationships — love 'n' romance, birthday, anniversary, friendship, congratulations, get well soon, sympathy (in memory of someone who died or condolence to the bereaved family). There's even a `just like that' category! There are heart-shaped arrangements for the love-struck.
They are planning to spread out to even smaller towns, nearly 500 of them, over the next two years, says Baghel, because the flower-sending instinct and practice is now becoming very common. And people don't mind shelling out the amount because at the end of the day, the receiver is definitely charmed with the thought and the gift. Friendship Day, Valentine's Day, Mother and Father's Day are just some occasions when they are flooded with orders. "During Valentines, we take orders well in advance, because there is a shortage of flowers during that time," he adds. In the normal course, they cater to an average on 60 online orders every day, apart from the large number of telephonic and on-the-spot retailer orders. Corporate houses give them contracts to form a database of employees and have flowers delivered automatically on their birthdays.
To order, log on to www.phoolwala.com or call 98443-56937/98863-56937.
BHUMIKA K
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