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An online florist has seen a changing face in how flowers are sold. By moving online, there has been a significant business increase. Additionally, it seems that people are buying flowers more regularly nowadays, rather than expensive other products. Furthermore, the store also offers floral accessories and other products, thereby attracting an even wider range of people, who prefer to have a one stop shop for all their floristry needs.

MichaelDark.co.uk, an online florist based in Newton Abbot, Devon, has predicted that the popularity of flowers as a gift will only continue this year. Indeed, florists across the country are seeing increased sales, particularly if they have an online service. This has been happening over the past few years, with rises of around 8% experienced year on year.

“For about four years running now, we have seen year on year sales on our online store increase significantly”, says a spokesperson for Michael Dark. “By venturing into the online world, we have noticed a massive difference in the amount of customers we have, and we believe that this will continue for a while yet.”

At the same time, however, the increase in online sales is forcing smaller high street stores out of business. Many shops are now experiencing incredibly high rental rates, and councils are charging exorbitant business rates as well. Together with other overhead costs, including insurance and personnel, this is almost unaffordable for many smaller stores. The big question will now be whether they will all move to the online world, thereby creating greater competition, or whether they will simply go out of business, which will negatively affect the economy overall.

“Our predictions show that there is room to grow yet”, adds the spokesperson. “Many florists are approaching retirement age, so we do not expect they will all move online. And there is still plenty of demand for more shops in the online world. After all, healthy competition generally leads to increased sales as well.”

It seems that the gift of flowers is becoming increasingly popular. While traditionally used for anniversaries, commercialization of society means that people have more reasons to give flowers. Once upon a time, Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day were the big sellers for flower shops, with some stores actually remaining viable thanks to these sales. Now, however, people purchase flowers for Christmas, birthdays, weddings, funerals, christenings and various national holidays.

It is believed that, in a way, this is a result of the economic recession. While the general public is told that this period of difficulty is now over, most still feel a need to tighten their purse strings, either out of necessity or out of habit. Flowers tick all the necessary boxes. They are beautiful and festive and come in a variety of different colors. Additionally, they can be personalized, which means that a receiver feels as if they were given something very special. Perhaps most importantly, however, they are affordable.

Michael Dark offers a number of gift type flowers, both for traditional events and more. This includes:

• Valentine balloon, candles, packaging and silk flowers.
• Tributes for parents or grandparents.
• Wedding accessories
• And more

What this store is doing seems to be what the general public is looking for. Not only are they offering beautiful flowers, they also offer a range of different accessories for each type of occasion. For weddings, for instance, they provide flowers for carriages, chairs, reception areas, and more. In so doing, they hit a far wider audience, particularly since people want to be able to shop in just a single store.