Delivery playbook for flower and gift shops

Someone orders a bouquet at noon for a surprise at five. The sender is not even in the city. All they can do is trust that your shop will get it there on time and looking lovely.

Flowers and gifts are about occasions. Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, festivals and apologies. If the delivery misses the moment, the order has failed, however good the bouquet was.

This playbook is for flower shops and gift or retail stores that deliver with their own riders.

The delivery challenge for flower and gift shops#

• The moment matters. Orders must arrive on the day, and often by a certain time. MiniDrop has no exact-time booking, so you choose the moment each order leaves.

• Fragile goods. Bouquets lose their look on long routes, and gifts break.

• Busy seasons. Wedding and festival seasons bring many orders at once.

• The sender is far away. They are not at the door, and they want to know it arrived.

• Mixed parcels. A phone case and a carton are very different loads.

What your customers expect#

• The bouquet or gift arrives on the right day, at the right time.

• It looks the way it did on your shop's page or in the shop.

• The sender can check on it and know when it has been delivered.

• The recipient is treated politely, and a call is made first if needed.

Your delivery setup#

Riders. Use your steadiest riders on occasion days. A retail store can also use its own shop staff in quiet hours: anyone you add as a rider signs in to the rider app and gets trips like a regular rider. Add extra riders for wedding and festival weeks.

Timing. Write down the delivery time on every order, and work out the leave-by time. Keep the order ready in the queue, then dispatch it when it should leave, by hand or at fixed times of the day.

Packing. Wrap bouquets so they stay upright, with a little water source if the trip is long. Pack gifts with padding and a "fragile" label. Dispatch bulky items on their own, rather than stacked with small orders.

How MiniDrop fits your day#

1. 1

   Step 1: Create the order with the recipient's details

   Each delivery has its own customer name, phone number and drop address, so the recipient can differ from the buyer. Create an order.

2. 2

   Step 2: Keep it ready, then dispatch at the right time

   Orders wait in the queue. Press Dispatch now when the bouquet is ready, or set fixed dispatch times. A short delivery priority puts the most time-critical order first.

3. 3

   Step 3: Approve the route

   Look at each rider's route on the map, then approve. The rider gets the trip, and the customer's tracking link becomes available. Review and approve routes.

4. 4

   Step 4: Share the tracking link

   The sender, or anyone you share the link with, can follow the rider and see the delivered status. The link carries your shop's name and logo. Share the tracking link.

5. 5

   Step 5: Confirm and review

   The order shows when it was delivered. Check your orders at the end of the day. Track orders and history.

Make it a yearly habit#

Occasions come round on the same dates every year: Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, festival weeks, wedding months. Write down your busiest days and how many orders each brought. Add riders and settle your dispatch times a week before, not the day before.

Save every customer and recipient address you can. When the same sender orders again next year, the delivery takes a few taps, and you have more time to make the bouquet.

Mistakes to avoid#

• Dispatching everything at the last moment. Leave-by times exist so that a delay on the road does not ruin the occasion.

• Stacking a bouquet with parcels. Send flowers short and early, and bulky items on their own.

• Forgetting the recipient's phone number. The rider may need to call when the gate is closed.

• Not telling the sender. A sender who gets the tracking link feels looked after, and orders again.

Occasions come back every year. A shop that delivers well is remembered when the next one arrives. Read how home delivery grows a local shop's sales for more.

Your occasion-day checklist#

• Every order has a delivery time and a leave-by time.

• Recipient name, phone and address are checked.

• Bouquets and gifts are packed for travel and labelled fragile where needed.

• Extra riders are added before wedding or festival weeks.

• Time-critical orders are dispatched first.

• Tracking link sent to the sender.

• Undelivered orders reviewed the same day.

Frequently asked questions#

To see more for your trade, read about delivery for flower shops and retail stores. Then try it with your own riders.

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