1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. is a floral and gourmet foods gift retailer and distribution company in the United States. It was one of the first retailers to use a 24 x 7 toll-free telephone number, then the Internet, and then conversational commerce via chat/chatbots for direct sales to consumers.
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History
Founding and early years
The concept of using the word "flowers" within a Phoneword was originated by William Alexander in the early 1980s. The phone number, 1-800-356-9377, had been assigned to a trucking brokerage in Wisconsin and was used for that company until 1981. Granville Semmes and David Snow formed a corporation which began to use that number to sell flowers in 1982. Their business struggled and that company was dissolved, with its assets going to investors James Poage and John Davis of Texas. The new corporation struggled financially as well. Its assets were acquired in 1986 by Jim McCann, an owner of several flower shops in the New York City area since 1976, under whom the business saw success and growth.
Growth in prominence
In the early 1990s, two events helped bring 1-800-Flowers to national prominence. First, AT&T created an advertising campaign featuring the company that aired repeatedly during the 1992 Summer Olympics. Then, at the time of the first Persian Gulf War, many advertisers were pulling out of CNN, unaware that CNN's war coverage would draw additional viewers. 1-800-Flowers agreed to remain as an advertiser at founder Ted Turner's request.
The company was among the first retailers to partner with CompuServe and AOL, in 1992 and 1994 respectively. On September 1, 1995, the company registered the 1800flowers.com domain name. In 1999, the company went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol FLWS and changed its name to 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, to match its website address.
Recent development
The company has merged with or acquired a number of other gift and retailing companies. In September 2007, the company announced a partnership with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to produce a line of floral products inspired by Martha Stewart. In August 2011, the company acquired Flowerama, a Waterloo-based floral retailer with 100 locations in 28 states.
According to the Consumerist in 2008, customers have reported unknowingly being subscribed to LiveWell after receiving rebate checks from 1-800-flowers.
It had 4,000 employees as of 2008, with a market cap of $119 million USD.
In 2009, revenue was US$714 million. Operating income wasUS$-72.2 million, net income was US$-98.4 million, assets were valued at US$286 million, and equity was at US$134 million.
In March 2017, the Italian confectionery giant Ferrero SpA bought Fannie May from 1-800-Flowers.com. The maker of Nutella announced a multimillion-dollar deal to buy out Fannie May and Harry London. The international company closed the deal on May 30, 2017 and paid $115 million.
Conversational commerce
The company was an early example (2016) of conversational commerce (e-commerce via chat) on Facebook Messenger an IBM Watson artificial intelligence-powered chatbot/virtual assistant. The virtual assistant had previously been implemented on the Web.
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Facilities and services
The company is headquartered in Carle Place, New York, on Long Island.
Acquisitions
On July 21, 2008, 1-800-Flowers purchased Napco Marketing Corporation, a wholesale distributor of floral and plant containers and related supplies for the florist and mass market channels.
On April 30, 2008, 1-800-Flowers purchased DesignPac Gifts LLC, a gourmet gift basket maker, for $36 million USD in cash.
Companies owned
- 1-800-Baskets.com - online retailer of gift baskets
- BloomNet - international floral wire service
- Cheryl's - multi-channel company based in Westerville, OH, selling gourmet cookies
- DesignPac Gifts LLC - designer and maker of gourmet gift baskets
- Digital Leadership Program - executive training program
- FineStationery.com - online retailer of customizable invitations and personal stationery
- Florists.com - flower delivery via local florists
- FruitBouquets.com - online retailer of fruit bouquets
- Harry & David - gourmet fruit and food gifts omni-channel retailer
- Napco Marketing Corporation - wholesale distributor of floral and plant containers and related supplies for the florist and mass market channels
- The Popcorn Factory - catalog retailer of popcorn tins and snacks based in Lake Forest, Illinois
- Stock Yards - online retailer of steak, chops, and other meats and seafood
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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