Flowers Inc Balloons B2B Site
Flowers, Inc. Balloons and Beacon Technologies remain strong partners one year later.
Flowers, Inc. Balloons, the world's largest supplier of balloons and coordinating gifts has gained considerable success over its 20 year history by emphasizing customer relationships. One year ago, On July 8th, 2002, they successfully carried this premise into the online market with the launch of their customer-focused web site (www.flowersincballoons.com). New and existing customers immediately discovered how easy it is to become an authorized web customer and more importantly, how easy it is to find and order a wide variety of merchandise needed to keep their retail stores fully stocked.
Customers are able to quickly locate Flowers, Inc. Balloons standard products, take advantage of Web Specials, and find out “What’s Hot” or “What’s New”.
Beacon Technologies, a Greensboro, NC eCommerce Solutions company, partnered with Flowers, Inc. Balloons Management and IT staff to define, design and build a visually appealing, intuitive, high-performance and feature-rich B2B website. Many challenges were encountered throughout the development process. 11,000 unique products were logically categorized and custom search filters were designed to allow online shoppers to quickly find a specific product or a collection by season, size, themes, or characters. The data and images for their many products are passed from the Flowers Inc Balloons' back-office systems to the Internet to provide same day product information. Cherryl Gilmore, Senior Project Manager for Beacon Technologies, stated that “Much of the project success can be attributed to the synergy between Beacon’s and FIB’s technology teams. The Flowers Inc Balloons’ team had a firm grasp on their product line and what they wanted to achieve with their online business. Beacon’s IT expertise, specifically with large eCommerce projects, enabled the site to be designed, built, tested, and launched in a very short time frame. Jimmy Newland, Flowers, Inc. Balloons’ IT Director concurred. “We selected Beacon not just because of their technical proficiency, but also because of their personality, which is critical in these types of partnerships. I was elated with the Beacon team for completing the project on time and within budget. This is something few IT vendors have been able to achieve.”
Beacon continues to partner with Flowers, Inc. Balloons to add new features, perform routine maintenance, and strategize on e-Business solutions.
Mr. Newland states, “We have been extremely pleased with the success of our website. The response has been tremendous and the sales have exceeded our expectations.” He also noted that the percentage of registered website users who are new customers for Flowers, Inc. Balloons is a tribute to Beacon’s Search Engine Marketing services.
Due to the success of this website, Flowers, Inc. Balloons has engaged Beacon Technologies to define, design and development a second B2B website featuring their new Burton and Burton Home Décor product line, scheduled to be launched by year-end.
About Beacon Technologies
Beacon Technologies excels in providing internet search engine marketing services, primarily through search engine optimization (organic placement) and paid placement strategies. The company provides varying levels of services to companies of all sizes and verticals nationwide. Beacon also delivers high end web graphic design, web software development, content management solutions and dependable hosting services.
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