Courtney Ray didn't last long in her job in finance in a large corporate.Â
"It was a little bit soul destroying for someone who didn't want to spend their life in front of spreadsheets," Ray says. She decided to try to create a business around her passion for flowers.Â
![Courtney Ray founded Daily Blooms to foster her passion for flowers.](/web/20170418192533im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/k/5/4/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvhvqu.png/1492352226422.jpg)
"I knew that opening a traditional florist shop was crazy because you have to carry perishable inventory so I workshopped lots of ideas with my husband on our honeymoon."
Ray decided to create a business offering one bunch of flowers a day and operating wholly online with inspiration from San Francisco-based Farmgirl Flowers.
![Members of the Little Flowers team Sophie Rothwell, Julie Wall, Carolina Gallo, Emma Marchant, Sarah Redan and Natasha ...](/web/20170418192533im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/k/5/e/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvhvqu.png/1492352226422.jpg)
"We thought retail shops are outdated and you have to pay for staff to be there and you have to pay rent so we thought it was better to be online," she says. "It had to be super quick and easy to order."
Daily Blooms
Daily Blooms was launched in 2014 with a starting capital of $500.
"I built a little Wordpress website myself and I spent the money on a couple of workbenches, my first batch of flowers and a printer," Ray says. Operating out of a "tiny shed" in Melbourne, Ray started off selling flowers to friends, then it grew to "friends of friends" and now "it's everyone".Â
When customers order from Daily Blooms their only choice is the size of the bunch offered.  The bunches are seasonal and dictated by what's available from the flower markets with the limited options allowing Ray to avoid the need for excess stock and price her bunches from $30 including delivery. Â
![Little Flowers founders Sarah Redan and Chris Berents wanted to take the 'big' out of flower giving.](/web/20170418192533im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/k/5/e/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvhvqu.png/1492352226422.jpg)
The online florist employs 14 people, "a fleet of courier drivers" and turns over about $2 million per year.
"We launched in Sydney in the middle of last year and I'm just building that up now," she says.
Little Flowers
The set price online model is blooming with competitors including Little Market Bunch, The Little Posy Co and Little Flowers providing similar offerings.Â
Chris Berents started Little Flowers in Sydney with his partner Sarah Regan and some friends in 2013 after spotting a gap in the existing floristry industry.
We founded our business on the fact that no moment, no matter how big or small, should go flowerless.
Chris Berents
"We saw a bit of an opportunity in the traditional florist market based on the fact that flowers were exceptionally expensive and generally gifted for big reasons like Valentine's Day, Mothers' Day, anniversaries, funerals and weddings," he says. "We founded our business on the fact that no moment, no matter how big or small, should go flowerless. We wanted to take the bigness out, being bunch size and in price point and in gesture."
Berents claims Little Flowers was the first in Australia to offer online sales of set price daily bouquets.
"We were the first to do it in Sydney and then copycat platforms similar to us sprang up in Melbourne," he says. "It's gutting."Â
Berents says Little Flowers customers have really taken the concept and run with it.
"Very early on we were finding people were giving flowers for the most ridiculous reasons, for borrowing clothes and hair straighteners, from dogs to cats for eating food or even posing as celebrities and sending friends flowers from George Clooney, Matt Damon and even Thor." Â
Flowers are sold for $30 a bunch and Berents says the delivery fee is the biggest cut of this.
"The biggest winner for us is population density," he says. "The shorter it is between deliveries the more profitable for us. Having an online business instead of one with foot traffic cuts down on the extraordinary amount of rent that we pay."
Little Flowers now employs 10 staff and 15 couriers with turnover of more than $1.5 million. Â
Berents wants to expand the business to other cities but is wary of the existing competition. Â
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Traditional florists
While competition is hot among the online floristry start-ups, Berents says the reaction from traditional florists has been mixed with some having a negative view.Â
But Charles Lukasik, founder of industry group Australian Florist Network, says online florists such as Hello Blooms and Little Flowers offer an alternative for customers.Â
"It's kind of like an entry to the flower sending world," he says. "If more people keep buying flowers it will trickle down to everybody. I'm all for it."  Â
Lukasik warns profit margins are thin when delivery costs are bundled into the price.
"Obviously they are making money but its hard to sell something for $30 when a courier will take $15, which is an average fee," he says. "It's a market segment where someone has seen an opportunity and taken it."
For the founders of Hello Blooms and Little Flowers it's all about carving out an alternative space in the floristry industry.Â
"I still love traditional florists," says Ray. "I hope there is always a place for them."Â
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