In This Issue:

 For Most Consumers, Plenty of Holiday Shopping Left to Do  

Holiday Update: Sales Up For A Quarter, Down For A Third  

Baby, Come Back: Lure Holiday Shoppers Back After The Holidays   

End Of Year Profit Analysis
Pantone Names Emerald The Color Of The Year 2013

WFFSA 2013 Calendar - Check Out These Events! 

So, What's New With You?

 

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and reach over 2,000 WF&FSA members and prospects!

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For more information on WF&FSA Events & Programs, visit www.wffsa.org

 

 

netWORK is published by WF&FSA  

105 Eastern Avenue, Suite 104, Annapolis, MD  21403 


888-289-3372 or

410-573-0400.

 

WF&FSA's President is Pat Dahlson, Mayesh Wholesale Florist, Inc., Los Angeles, CA.

WF&FSA's Executive Vice President is Trish Lilly.


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One 

For Most Consumers, Plenty of Holiday Shopping Left to Do

Consumers Still Shopping - Get Your Message Out Now!

According to TIME magazine, it's an annual tradition: One day around mid-December, with clock ticking, it dawns on a large subset of consumers that they haven't even started trying to complete their holiday shopping lists yet. For retailers, the scramble for procrastinating shopper dollars begins now.  Here is your chance to send a message to your retail florists - start the tweeting, send the emails, do what you can to promote flowers as the perfect holiday gift! To read the full TIME article, click here.

TwoHoliday Update: Sales Up For A Quarter, Down For A Third

Reprinted Courtesy of SAF E-Brief, December 12, 2012  

  

Based on sales through Dec. 11, holiday revenues are up over last year for 23 percent of retail florists, according to SAF's Christmas Outlook survey. More than a third (35 percent) say sales are down and 37 percent are experiencing flat sales.

Optimism outweighs actual numbers for some florists, as more than a third (34 percent) expect sales at Christmas to increase over 2011 sales.

The National Retail Federation  predicts holiday sales will rise 4.1 percent from 2011. Last year, sales increased by 5.6 percent, and the 10-year average has been a 3.5 percent increase. Online sales will see double-digit increases, according to Shop.org and comScore, which predict 12 percent and 17 percent spikes in online spending, respectively.

 

To read the full article and view the graphs, click here

ThreeBaby, Come Back: Lure Holiday Shoppers Back After The Holidays  
Reprinted Courtesy of SAF E-Brief, December 12, 2012
 

 

Get rid of those holiday shoppers - by turning them into year-round customers. For some retailers, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas accounts for 40 percent of sales.

Even if your big days are Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, your shop is still benefiting from the uptick in traffic and general spirit of the shopping season. Now is the time reach out and pull those gift buyers into your regular customers ranks - and database.

"You create return customers by creating the most amazing experience - not just a good first impression, but a phenomenal last impression," Shep Hyken, a customer-service expert and author of The Cult of the Customer told Enterpreneur. Designers might want to give customers business cards that include a cell phone number where they can be reached, especially after a major holiday install or before a big holiday party. And then there's the follow-up, which can include a handwritten thank-you note and emails alerting the customer to sales and special events.


Keep your cash registers ringing with those holly jolly shoppers' business after the jingles bells stop jingling, with these tips: Click here to read the tips.
 
FourEnd Of Year Profit Analysis
Provided by Profit Planning Group
  

At the end of every year Profit Planning Group (PPG) provides their financial benchmarking clients in distribution with a cross-industry comparison (WF&FSA works with PPG on the Quarterly Benchmarking Report and Annual Operating Ratio Report).

 

All of the exhibits compare WF&FSA to the various groups of distributors. It is important to understand how comparisons across industry can be made legitimately.

 

According to Al Bates, PPG President, pure direct comparisons across different industries have limited value as each individual industry has its own margin and expense structure. However, a comparison of how different industries have changed over time is meaningful. If the preponderance of industries are increasing their gross margin percentage and your industry is not, there is a clear implication for action.

 

To view the WF&FSA Report, click here. To view the charts, click here.

Five

Pantone Names Emerald The Color Of The Year 2013

 

Lively. Radiant. Lush... A color of elegance and beauty that enhances our sense of well-being, balance and harmony." 

According to Pantone, "Most often associated with brilliant, precious gemstones, the perception of Emerald is sophisticated and luxurious. Since antiquity, this luminous, magnificent hue has been the color of beauty and new life in many cultures and religions. Also the color of growth, renewal and prosperity, no other color conveys regeneration more than green. For centuries, many countries have chosen green to represent healing and unity.

 

Visit Pantone's site and learn more about the selection of Emerald click here.  

SevenIt's About Value, Not Price!

By Tom Reilly, author of Value-Added Selling and Crush Price Objections 

 

To paraphrase William James, father of American Psychology: Where value is the thing sought after, the thing of supreme value is cheap, whatever the price one has to pay for it.

 

Price is what people pay; value is what they receive. The price that someone pays is what that person sacrifices to acquire something: money, time, and energy. The value that someone receives is the total return on that sacrificial investment: utility (in Drucker terms), impact, and outcome. Salespeople lose the price-value discussion when they fail to dismantle the price-shopper's argument that (1) what they pay is only based on acquisition price and not total cost and (2) what they pay is more important than what they get. A cheap price is not necessarily a good value. A product that fails to perform is lousy value at any price.  

 

Value is what buyers want, whether or not they choose to admit it. Value is the outcome of four variables compounding each other: acquisition price, total cost beyond acquisition price, utility of the solution, and impact of the solution on the customer. Price shoppers make one-dimensional decisions (acquisition price) for multi-dimensional problems. It is the salesperson's job to help buyers make better, more informed decisions. While buyers may argue that the opportunity cost of your product is too high (that they sacrifice too much to buy it), you must argue that the opportunity value of your solution is too great to ignore.

Six

WF&FSA 2013 Calendar - Check Out These Events! 

  

University of Industrial Distribution - REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

 

As attendees learned at the Floral Distribution Conference, the University of Industrial Distribution will be held March 10-13, 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Despite the fact that "Industrial" appears in the title, we urge you to consider this program since it is not focused on Industrial Distribution.

 

Since 1994, the University of Industrial Distribution (UID) has offered the very best value for professional continuing education for the wholesale/distribution industry.   

 

Offered each March, the four-day program offers over 30 full-day and half-day courses, delivered by the nation's leading faculty, distribution consultants and industry experts. Students choose their daily courses, based upon their needs and interests. Over 6,000 students worldwide have attended UID; with many attending multiple times.

 

Known worldwide for excellence in education, UID is developed, managed and delivered by 33 leading distribution associations throughout North America (including WF&FSA) , in partnership with Purdue University. Working together, these groups take great pride in providing a superior learning experience, tailored to the latest industry trends, at the lowest possible cost. Classes are focused on the unique needs of the wholesale distribution industry. To see the full program, click here. WF&FSA members can save $100 off each registration if delegates register by January 11, 2013.

 

Registration is now open for the 2013 University of Industrial Distribution, to be held at the JW Marriott Indianapolis Hotel on March 10 through 13. Attendance is limited - many UID sessions and classes sell out. Complete details are available on the WF&FSA website.

 

WF&FSA Management Institute

March 15-16, 2013

Charlotte, North Carolina

 

See Jim Pancero's quick video telling you what you will learn at the 2013 Management Institute!

 

October 23-25, 2013

Doral Trump Resort, Miami, Florida

Eight
  

   

WF&FSA has endorsed Electric Checks as a more effective way to collect bounced checks for its members. Electric Checks takes advantage of a regulation that allows a third party other than a bank to electronically debit the bad check writer's account and (if funds are available) electronically credit the creditor's bank account. The service is available to WF&FSA members at no cost because the bad check writer pays a service fee. To learn more about Electric Checks and to enroll, click here.  

Nine So, What's New With You?

 

We'd like to know what's new with you and your company. Do you have any organizational changes? Have you changed your address? Added a new product line? Introduced a new product? Just send your information into WF&FSA at [email protected]. If you like, to simply the process, you may use the attached form. Or, just add us to your press release list. Email your press release to the email address above or send it to WF&FSA, 105 Eastern Avenue, Suite 104, Annapolis, MD 21403. We look forward to hearing from you! 

 

 

 

Your WF&FSA Staff wishes you a very happy and joyous holiday season and a healthy and prosperous new year!

 
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