Interflora: Proposing at the right moment

A registration prompt positioned so that customers will not ignore or skip over it.

The Site

Interflora is the Coke and Marks and Spencer of the retail florist world, a brand that is both synonymous with its service and an assured quality mark.

Run by its 58,000 member florists as a trade association, the Interflora flower delivery network covers 140 countries. Its website supports the complete ordering process, from choice of flowers to nomination of recipient, personalised messaging and payment.

The final stage of the process is an ‘Order sent’ confirmation page that also offers the customer the chance to register with the site. It gives a clear explanation of what this involves in terms of retaining data from the preceding order (payment details are not included) and how this can be helpful to you. For example, setting up your own order history and creating automatic reminders of special occasions.

The Takeaway

Prompting site users to register and create a personalised account is not a revolutionary idea in itself, but Interflora shows that how smartly it is used is an important factor in how effective it will be.

Whereas many sites make their pitch for registration on the home page, Interflora focuses first on the mutual priority of any retail transaction, converting the visit into an order. It then chooses to insert its registration prompt at a point in the sales journey that customers will not ignore or skip over: confirmation that the order has gone through and of the order number for reference.

As an added attention-holder, Interflora highlights the chance to win a bouquet of flowers in return for registering. And it simplifies the registration form to ask only for an e-mail address and password.

First published on 03 July, 2003