As much of the world came to a standstill, Floward’s digitally prepared approach bore fruit, and the online flowers and gifts destination converted offline consumers into online customers by successfully executing a disruptive e-commerce strategy.
In the past 18 months, industries around the globe have been facing uncertainty and a myriad of other challenges, and like any other businesses, the crisis has affected the floral industry including Floward.
At the beginning, there was a lot of uncertainty on how demand will look like and what implications would it have on the brand. However, Floward’s preparedness, agility and innovation allowed it to see the opportunity that the crisis was bringing to e-commerce.
Floward CEO, Mr. Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani said: “Our full-fledged e-commerce solution and pureplay model put us at a favorable position. In our established markets, we saw e-commerce penetration double and reach a percentage that would have taken it 10 years to reach otherwise. We took advantage of this opportunity and saw remarkable growth of over 30x in the past two years.
Floward operates in an industry that is predominantly dominated by traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores, so we decided to seize the opportunity to occupy a gap in the market and provide online flowers and gifts delivery that matches and exceeds clients’ high expectations.”
The brand currently operates in 32 cities in nine different countries across the MENA and London, UK, with plans to expand to more cities in the countries it operates in, as well as new markets in the future.
Despite the highly competitive nature of the industry, Floward is leading the way. The fresh-cut flowers industry is estimated at USD1.6 billion in the GCC, while the UK market is 3x that of the GCC and the London market is the equivalent of all the GCC. Floward is ready to take the next step in its already impressive journey and establish itself as a market leader in both markets.
Established in 2017, Floward is a full-fledged e-commerce solution that offers prime fresh-cut flowers sourced from the best growers and farmers around the world and arranged locally by a team of florists and designers. Floward also offers cakes, chocolate and perfumes curated by the region’s most exciting designers bundled with its flower arrangements and manages the last-mile same-day delivery to ensure the best customer experience.