Flowwow is a full-service marketplace that connects customers with local brands and businesses, simplifying the process of gift-giving. On a mission to help local brands thrive, Flowwow provides a top-tier platform, with marketing tools to support the sellers’ community and turn their passion into vision.
Currently, Flowwow has more than 7500+ local brands from 1000+ cities and operates in 24 countries. For the last year only, our platform has processed 5 million orders.
How did you come up with the idea for the company?
My friend Andrey (Flowwow co-founder) and I met in the park in August 2013. At that time, we’d already tested (read: “failed”) numerous business ideas. Our last project – a tour voucher code aggregator – showed there was an increasing demand for services that collect a lot of similar offers in one place. There was no marketplace boom in sight, however, Booking.com and SkyScanner’s success was evident.
Suddenly, I recalled a moment several years ago, when I was puzzled over surprising my mom with a gift on her birthday as I was in Greece at that time. It was a nightmare in terms of logistics to find the gift, make a payment, and then track the parcel. First surveys among our friends confirmed customers’ pains while interviews with potential sellers showed that small businesses are ready to receive orders and pay a fee.
A simple idea exchange in the park, combined with a challenge that we were willing to face, turned into a business venture in 2014. Now, you can order a cake for your friend in Paris or flowers for your family in Dubai at the spur of the moment, sitting in a Budapest café or a London office.
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How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?
2019 became a turning point for Flowwow. Our team realised that we had built a top-notch platform – a marketplace that can go beyond just the floral market. The pandemic has boosted our transformation. Thus, in spring 2020, we developed new categories for sellers, from bakeries and pastry shops to vintage clothing and handmade jewellery, and we watched how our platform helped small businesses launch online sales from scratch and introduce contactless ordering. We opened 10+ new categories in 2 months and demonstrated 2x growth with 800k orders (+77% YoY) and 98% of positive feedback.
What can we hope to see from Flowwow in the future?
In 2022, we are covering 24 countries, and it’s just the beginning. We’ll expand to new geographical locations, connecting more local brands and businesses with loyal customers from any part of the world. We will keep providing efficient tools for people to reach out to their loved ones, regardless of their location, whether it’s with the help of a flower shop in UAE or a jewellery brand in Spain.
Bringing more smiles to our customers’ faces, we will continue saving them time and money while helping businesses focus on what they truly love: their product. It is in our team’s DNA to strive towards our goals; that is why we can’t and won’t stop until Flowwow is the first service that comes to mind when our customer wants to surprise a person they love.
