Who offers free delivery on flowers?
In a word, no-one. There is no such thing as free delivery. All deliveries cost money. Of course you will see 'free' delivery deals out there but there is no such thing, it's a fallacy. Every delivery incurs a cost, specifically for online mail order flower sellers, it's packaging (£2-£3 for a box + associated wrapping) and delivery costs (typically £6-£7). Guess who pays this? You do. The retailer doesn't incur this cost and doesn't give it to you for free.
Let's just say that you see a bouquet online for £30 with free delivery. This will not be supplied from an independent professional florist. This will be despatched from a warehouse, it certainly won't be hand made by a trained florist. It will also not be available for same day delivery. The package will be picked up from this warehouse in a box by either Royal mail, Evri, DPD or similar delivery agent. This is a direct quote from one of these companies, "Free next day delivery via our trusted delivery partners. 9/10 orders arrive on chosen date but may take up to 2 days ".
Your £30 bouquet because of delivery and packaging costs is now a £20 bunch. That's really not a lot of flowers considering our average sale is over 3 times that amount and you're not even guaranteed to get it delivered on the day you request it!
We do add a delivery charge on every order and the amount depends on the distance we have to travel. Because we employ our own delivery drivers, we are able to hand make all of our bouquets, gifts and funeral flowers and hand deliver them on the same day you order them and they are 100% guaranteed to arrive on the date you request.
When we do get asked why we don't offer free delivery or are informed that 'other companies' offer free delivery', we politely inform our customers that there are a multitude of costs involved in providing a bespoke, professional floristry service that enables them to have flowers hand delivered the same day. These include:
- Drivers wages (£10.42 per hour from April 2023)
- PAYE associated costs
- Diesel (we use on average £60- £75 per week)
- Van insurance, road tax and MOT costs
- Servicing costs and wear & tear
Some approximate yearly figures that may interest you:
- £15000 in delivery driver wages
- £1500 PAYE costs
- £3500 diesel costs
- £700 insurance, road tax and MOT
- £1000 servicing and repairs
That's a total of £21700. We barely cover our costs with the charges we add on for delivery, we certainly do not make money on these delivery charges. We absolutely prefer to be ethical and transparent with the costs involved in providing a delivery service for a bespoke, professional floristry service.