Congratulations-To the
Flower auction VBA in Alsmeer Holland.
Yesterday the 19 of June they launched their first virtual clock. Yes buyers at the auction in hall E will be using the virtual
clock to buy their flowers.The first flowers to be sold this way will be the Gerbera,Aniturium, and Chrysanthemums.
On this day in clock 10
buyers will be buying the flowers only with the picture of the flower, not with the flowers themselves. Why all this
fuss?
This technology allows for a quicker sell, and quicker logistics. The problem in this,
In the biggest of Hollands auction it can take up to 4 hours from the minute you buy the flowers until they arrive
in your depot. Flowers bought at 0700 in the morning, will arrive to you depot maybe at 10:00-1100 If you have to make these
flowers into arrangements you will not be able to get them on the road until afternoon, and that means that your whole distribution
ends up in the evening. So basically its 1 day lost.If you have to fly them out of Holland, you also lose a day.
The Dutch have always been proud of the way they grasp their business, and they have tought the rest of the world how
things should be done.
"You just don't buy a flower without seeing it" has always been their motto
Well if the VBA Holland's largest
flower auction is telling the wholesalers
and buyers
that they have to start buying their flowers through a virtual clock with just a picture of the product maybe they are
trying to tell us something.
Maybe they understand that logistics and moving the flowers quickly is important.
Maybe the idea of seeing what you buy has a very high price that will be paid by your next customer down the line.
Smmol 3-4 days and the flowers are in you shop- directly from our farms oh and by the way c h
e a p e r than any alternative you have.
Eyal
Adapting New Tools to an Old Trade
We all have tools of the trade.Some tools we use every-day some we take for granted.
Here on my farm just like all other modern farms I have a tractor-its a 70 h.p Fiat.I also have attachments such as the
plow,bed-shaper,cultivator,sprayer,plastic spreader etc...Some of these tools, like the sprayer I will use more often, others
I will use maybe once every few years.
Then there are the small tools we use, the hand cultivator,or hand held sprayer all the way down to the clipper.
It is fascinating to see how people use the same tools in different ways. Not less fascinating is to see the adaptation
process of different type's of tools.
The flower shops of course have tools of the trade, in the New England area all the florists have these walk in see-through
fridge, where the flowers are kept fresher for a longer time and at the same time the buyer can walk in and choose
from the different selection. I even saw these fridges in some of the supermarkets. To me its amazing, because here
in Israel where the climate is so much warmer no florists have these fridges. there can be a few reasons, maybe
there is no need to stock up flowers, or the shops here just carry a day or two of supply, or the turnover is different,
or maybe the electricity is too expensive.
One proven fact is prevailing-technological changes improve performance.
and in many cases especially in our business its imperative.
Marketing tools
Leaora just came back from another marketing tour in New England.We knew that in order to get to as many shops as possible
we had to find a good solution to navigate quickly, easily, and with a minimum gadget-badget-widget type solution. After much
research I decided it would be the GPS that would save the day and get the job done.
GPS-global positioning system is a device that is picked up by a number of satellites and knows exactly where, you are.
Now all you have to do is tell your little friendly machine your destination and it will navigate you there. Leaora is not
a gadget freak so It had to be super friendly. We bought the
Navman icn 630. It has a wide screen,color maps, it talks to you (male or female voice),and you can get instructions in feet(miles) of meters(kilometer)
Leaora's job was to expose SMMOL to as many shops as possible, the naveman did the job superbly.
In my opinion a Technological advancement means
producing more for cheaper and making more money.
For the florist it means buying the flowers for cheaper (not cheaper quality flowers), and that's what smmol does,
On the farm that means producing more flowers cheaper,
For the marketer it means getting to as many potential customers more quickly.
Eyal
