While the famously traditional holiday shopping season that takes place in November and December constitutes the busiest time of the year for most brands, for many, like modern floral brand Bouqs, Valentine’s Day represents the year’s bright spot. This year, Bouqs anticipates sending over 7 million stems for Valentine’s Day — 1.2 million expected to be roses.
Founded in 2012, Bouqs counts more than 300,000 monthly floral subscribers and has delivered over 230 million stems nationwide. An impressive feat considering the unique challenges that come with combining perishable products, unpredictable logistics and high consumer expectations, which the company’s chief executive officer Kim Tobman says are tied to emotional life moments. Not to mention projections for increased late orders from consumers, especially with the holiday landing on a Friday this year.
These challenges are why Tobman and the Bouqs team have instituted a “logistics of love” game plan for this upcoming Valentine’s Day season, aiming to tackle the supply chain and sourcing with precision and meet consumer expectations for on-time delivery.
“Valentine’s Day is a peak season for us because it’s such a time-sensitive, personal occasion for our customers. Reliability and preparedness are top of mind,” said Tobman who added that planning for Valentine’s Day begins seven or eight months out.
“The first step is to look back at our assortment and analyze what worked and what didn’t, so we can pass that feedback to design and start the design process with our farm partners,” said Tobman. “For Valentine’s Day, we see a shift in our customer demographics, with male shoppers jumping closer to 60-70 percent — opposite of the rest of the year. We get into their mindset and address their pain points and motivations.”
To meet these demands, Bouqs makes the offerings “foolproof,” catering to “men shopping late” while tapping into the Super Bowl season.
“We know guys want to look good, so we make it foolproof to shop for flowers and support that with proof points such as quality, freshness and 45,000 5-star reviews,” said Tobman. “More than 50 percent of our orders come in the week of Valentine’s Day [and] we scale our media accordingly by starting broad and targeting males more aggressively starting February 1st. And after prior-year learnings where football references outperformed, we’re leaning into that theme this year.”
To safeguard deliveries during peak seasons, Bouqs has implemented a proactive strategy with its delivery partner to reduce the risk of delays caused by high demand. This includes enabling same-day delivery in select cities through retail partnerships with Whole Foods and Alfred’s in Los Angeles. “These channels alongside its dedicated delivery partner ensure a more robust and dependable delivery system even during the busiest periods.”
On Monday, Bouqs is launching the most foolproof way to order Valentine’s Day flowers with its “Quickie Bouq,” a one-click rose pre-set to deliver in time for the holiday. And to help capture the attention of consumers, the brand is also offering two exclusive collaborations alongside an array of new add-ons to choose from including a plush teddy bear.
The first collaboration joins forces with Bark Box, the toy and treat dog brand. The Puppy Love offer keys into pet parents’ love for their dogs which, according to research from the National Retail Federation in 2020, has amounted to consumers spending $1.7 billion on pet gifts for Valentine’s Day. The bundle comes with two dozen red roses and a Bark Box rose-shaped dog toy. Tobman described the collaboration as “romantic, sweet, friendly and fun.”
“Bark has been a fun partner to work with,” said Tobman. “We see ourselves as both in the businesses of spreading joy. Theirs is through pets, ours through flowers and combined we are hitting all different types of love people share.”
The second is a collaboration with the sexual wellness brand Dame. Bouqs has partnered with Dame for its Good Vibes bundle for the last two years and has seen it sell out each time. Included in this year’s bundle is the Bouqs Deluxe-sized Strawberry Shortcake arrangement paired with a Dame vibrator. Tobman told WWD that when collaborating with Dame for the first time in 2023 the package was so popular that Bouqs needed to request more inventory.
Bouqs x Dame
“We take a customer-first approach when it comes to collaborations, through the lens of occasion and recipient, leaning on data we have access to,” said Tobman. “For example, for Valentine’s Day, we know that top recipients are: wife (26 percent), friend (17 percent), girlfriend (16 percent), mom (14 percent) and daughter (5 percent). We try to partner with brands that have similar ethos and values [and] when possible, we love to highlight smaller, women-owned brands that prioritize sustainability. We also try to find brands that we love as consumers — it’s exciting to introduce our customers to products that we love and use.”
Tobman added that Bouqs learns so much from working with other brands, “whether they’re clueing us into a trend they see in the market, sharing some unique customer insights, or sharing marketing tactics. We were surprised to learn about challenges against marketing a sexual wellness product, for example, limitations on social media and less of a response from media than we expected due to the nature of the product.”
Looking at the current economic landscape, Tobman said that the Bouqs team is “cognizant of inflation and tighter wallets,” and aims to provide options to all consumers. Offerings include options for a span of budgets including bouquets under $60.
Tobman said that the brand continues to be important to Bouqs to always meet the needs of customers and its business partners. As such, Bouqs remains dedicated to sustainability through “direct partnerships with farmers in South America and North America, ensuring traceability, eco-friendly sourcing and consistently high-quality flowers.”
