DoorDash launches online flower delivery service
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a new player is entering the on-demand flower delivery space.
Online delivery platform DoorDash is introducing flower delivery as of Wednesday, Feb. 9, partnering with more than 3,000 local and national florists across the country for on-demand delivery. This offering follows years of the company fulfilling on-demand delivery for florists via its own channels with DoorDash Drive, its white-label fulfillment service.
Moving into flower delivery also continues DoorDash’s trajectory of expansion into new categories beyond restaurants including grocery, alcohol, pets, and retail. The new service also marks a partnership expansion with many of DoorDash’s grocery and convenience store retailers, including supporting floral deliveries from Albertson’s and Safeway.
To order a floral delivery, consumers can open the DoorDash app and click into the new “flowers” tile at the top of the app to explore available florists and their offerings. Customers can also type “flowers” into the search bar or click on the “now delivering flowers” carousel on the homepage.
To send a gift of flowers to a different address, customers can open the DoorDash app and enter the address of the person they want to send a gift to. A gifting tile at the top of the homepage features specialty gift items beyond flowers, including chocolates, alcohol, retail items, and more.
Customers can browse and purchase flowers and other gift items from any store on the DoorDash app. On the checkout page, they can click “send as a gift” to turn any order into a gift order, as well as add the recipient’s name and choose from a range of digitally-animated cards for a variety of occasions, with the option of a personalized message. Customers then fill in the recipient’s phone number through their contact list for dropoff.
After confirming a gift order’s details, customers then place their order. They can share their gift link with the recipient to let them know it is on the way, allowing them to track the delivery and open any virtual message. Customers can schedule ahead for a specific time up to 30 days in advance.
DoorDash is launching this service as flower retailing is generally becoming a more popular digital commerce niche. In September 2021, David’s Bridal introduced an omnichannel floral shopping experience in collaboration with The Bouqs Company Weddings.
In time for the June 2021 wedding season (and as mentioned above), Albertsons Cos. began offering what it calls an environmentally-friendly online option for purchasing fresh, hand-cut wedding flowers. Albertsons’ online flower portal allows customers to choose between several flower types and colors from various themed collections.
Tech-focused e-tailer Newegg also recently launched a new online floral storefront. The company is offering a large assortment of fresh flowers for under $50 and a number of products offering free delivery. Newegg says it will apply its efficiency of scale and ability to leverage preferred shipping rates to provide floral customers maximum value.
Newegg began testing online flower delivery earlier in 2021, which enabled it to validate market demand and fine-tune how it promotes floral products to customers. The company is partnering directly with farms in the U.S. and South America, which it says allows it to source the freshest flowers and plants to ship directly to customers overnight, while keeping costs down for shoppers.