How an online service for florists blossomed into something bigger
It’s unlikely that anyone from Farbod Shoraka’s college days would’ve predicted where he is now — the founder and CEO of BloomNation, an online support network for florists.
“Yeah, I don’t know anything about flowers, we didn’t know too much about e-commerce and we didn’t have any background in programming or computer science,” Shoraka admitted. As it turns out, the main things you need to start a business are a driving vision and the willingness to try things a different way.
When Shoraka graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, he originally took a job in Los Angeles in mergers and acquisitions. It wasn’t until he was working on a deal with a florist that he became interested in the industry.
“I happened to have an aunt that was based in Irvine, California, and she was also a florist,” he said. “Growing up, I was aware of her business, but I didn’t really dive into it, and all of a sudden, I had this interest to learn more because of this deal.”
What began as a natural curiosity led Shoraka to discover the degree to which many florists were struggling in the digital age.
“I was shocked,” he said. “I was so surprised because there was this huge contrast between what was happening on a corporate level and how she was struggling on a local level. Long story short, I realized there was this problem where these businesses didn’t know how to go online, they didn’t know how to acquire their own customers, they didn’t know how to retain their own customers.”
Many florists, he discovered, relied on an old-fashioned business model where sales are based on walk-ins and strong customer service to retain buyers. While good service is still important, many consumers turn to the internet to find the products they want — an arena where few florists excelled.
“That’s not only in flowers, that’s in any small business,” Shoraka said.
Back in 2011, when the brand was founded, there just weren’t any solutions for small businesses that worked, Shoraka continued. The online options that were available were broker models, where florists fulfilled orders for a larger brand without having the opportunity to promote themselves or their original work.
“You’re not building your own brand or your own business through those companies; you’re really just paying to get some one-off orders coming through your shop,” he explained. “We started the company on the simple basis of ‘let the florists control their own online business, online brand.’ Let’s list the products they actually have for sale.”
What Shoraka initially created was something akin to Etsy, where each designer is able to display their own work. Consumers shop by location on the site and choose from local options, which are fulfilled by the florists themselves.
“It allows these florists to showcase their own talent and art, and it allows the consumer to discover unique designs that are normally never found anywhere else,” Shoraka said. “We really just try to be the tech layer that sits on top.”
Users who visit bloomnation.com will still see that service, but Shoraka eventually realized that the website alone wasn’t fulfilling the entire need.
“Google was already promoting the local websites, and those websites were traditionally very bad,” he said. “They weren’t really optimizing for a good consumer experience.”
Shoraka knew that to compete in the digital marketplace, small businesses need more than just user-friendly websites; they need e-commerce platforms, email marketing and, now more than ever, streamlined delivery services.
“We started thinking of ourselves more as a platform for their entire business, and we ended up creating more of a SAAS company that sits behind the market place and powers even their independent business,” he said. “We’re now handing it to each independent florist as their own siloed business, and it’s making them so much more powerful to capture their own customers and power their own retention efforts and all that.”
The decision to expand BloomNation stemmed from Shoraka’s unwavering philosophy to promote local business. His commitment to this end goal, he said, is what has driven his success.
“As an entrepreneur, or anyone that’s starting a business, you tend to question yourself. And you should — it’s part of being scared and doing interesting things,” he said. “But I knew that small businesses should have access to this technology; it shouldn’t be only for big businesses. And I never let go of that.”
Shopping local is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shoraka also noted. The outbreak has made him double down on efforts to keep small businesses going, helping them to deliver safe delivery models and keep in touch with consumers digitally.
“You can see more than ever in this pandemic how important small business is, how integral they are to our communities,” he said. “Whether it’s a hairdresser or a florist or a liquor store, not being able to have access to these types of businesses and services and the people behind them has made me realize that the the future of BloomNation is really about empowering local commerce beyond just florists.”
Spending money locally has a multiplier effect, Shoraka argued, that can help drive up employment rates, curb homelessness and have other ripple effects throughout communities.
“The most important thing for people to realize is that when you shop local, it’s so much more impactful to the community which you’re a part of,” he urged. “There are these secondary and tertiary effects of helping small business that people don’t realize.”
