FLOWER DELIVERY

USA Florist offers a very good selection of flowers, including bonsai plants, sunflowers, plants, baskets and corporate gifts. You can also search by seasons and upcoming holidays, which narrow down the choices quickly and easily if you're in a hurry and don't have time to look around. USA Florist also provides an array of gift baskets to fit almost any need. From a "perfect picnic" basket to "relax and enjoy" basket, the recipients of these products are sure to be satisfied.

Some of the features of USA Florist that we liked include:

•  Unique floral arrangements, unlike those offered by most other flower delivery companies.

•  The option of a custom florist-designed bouquet. Obviously these cannot be offered in photographs, but is a good option for a discriminating buyer.

•  Additional suggestions are automatically made which can add a bit of flair to your delivery.

We found the arrangements by USA Florist to be exquisitely designed. The prices are affordable and there are no hidden costs, which we found to be quite refreshing.

The website design is industrial looking and could use an update to attract customers, but if you are looking for a provider without the fluff, then USA Florist is a great choice.

Just Flowers offers a very large selection of gift giving products. Beyond the basics such as roses, flowers, and plants, they also offer teddy bears, balloons, fruit baskets, gift baskets, chocolates, cookies, wine and scented/bath baskets. Obviously this website is more than just a flower market but bring your patience if you are going to attempt to shop here.

Just Flowers has a huge selection of flower and plant arrangements many of which appear to have been designed 30 years ago. The site is clumsy and hard to maneuver quickly – perhaps it was also designed 30 years ago? We became very frustrated looking page after page at ugly arrangements given the bad layout of the site.

However, Just Flower does allow orders to be placed both same-day, or scheduled out for delivery far in advance. If you're looking for same-day delivery, orders must be placed by 3 pm in the recipient’s time zone Monday through Friday. For weekend same-day delivery, the cut off time is 1 pm on Saturday and 11 am on Sunday. The flexibility of getting flowers 7 days a week was the best features of this site and may meet some consumer needs as a result.

Another plus to the site was the customer service promise to contact the customer if there is any issue with an order to help insure satisfaction and meet expectations.

Overall, Just Flowers needs to update their website and remove pictures of old and ugly flower arrangements. After that, we could better appreciate the full service nature of this site as well as the range of gifts available.

From You Flowers offers their customers the option to send flowers to friends and family, along with plants, gift baskets, cakes, etc. With the clumsy website design, however, customers can easily get agitated if they don't know exactly what they're looking for. The navigation is unclear, which can cause a great deal of frustration. Although From You Flowers contains artistic photos, the resolution isn't good enough to make them clear for viewers.

Even with a poor website design, From You Flowers does offer unique features, which include:

•  Bonsai and bamboo plants in addition to the selection of flowers.

•  Specialty baskets to match personalities and taste, which include a coffee basket, the Grand Ghirardelli and Colossal Cookies basket.

Prices start at $29.99, which is very competitive to other providers. Customers are able to sort by seasons, occasions and types of gifts. However the bland website design, lack of quality photos, and frustrating navigation combine to drop From You Flowers to the bottom of our list.

Flowers Across America offers a wide range of flower arrangements to fit multiple needs. Whether you're searching for funeral arrangements, fruit baskets, cut bouquets or centerpieces, they have you covered. Although the photographs are small, they are clear for the viewer to see. Flowers Across American takes all major credit cards as a payment source and they only offer online ordering.

Some features include:

•  Cellophane wrapped and hand tied bouquets, which offer a more personal feel to the gift.

•  Same day delivery available Monday through Saturday to all 50 states and Canada on all orders placed by 1 pm in the recipients time zone.

•  Centerpieces, one sided arrangements and novelty arrangements are available which can meet a variety of needs.

Our major complaint with Flowers Across America is the service fee that is attached to each and every order. The prices are already about 30% higher than their competitors, and with an extra service fee of $9.99 attached to every order, you really need to pay attention to the value you're getting for your dollar. Flowers Across America does offer a wide range of products such as centerpieces, one-sided arrangements, novelty arrangements and hand tied bouquets, which is much more than their competitors, but this variety does come at a higher cost.

Customers are able to search by sentiment, which include birthdays, anniversaries, get well wishes, and more. This helps the customer quickly find what they need and move along to checkout. The website is professional and well organized, with a column on the left side for simple navigation.

Flowers Across America offers a good selection to choose from and some unique hand-crafted options. However, this comes at a cost with higher-than-average prices and an additional service fee.

You may have heard of ProFlowers. They have a large marketing and advertising budget, and have experienced rapid growth in the last few years. Their website is professional and easy to use; you can search by occasion, flower type, plants only, and price. Seasonal favorites, most popular bouquets, and special offers are available with one click of the mouse.

ProFlowers offers a wide range of products to choose from. The price range is acceptable and the flowers are guaranteed to stay fresh for 7 days. However, the delivery of these flowers leaves us less than impressed.

ProFlowers also offers some unique features that we really like:

•  A Bill Me Later option, which allows the customer to choose the option of being sent a statement in the mail to pay in full or in portions with interest.

•  An entire wedding site linked to ProFlowers, which includes a wealth of information for brides including tips, ideas, frequently asked questions and a place to hear comments from real customers.

•  Months of flowers" with deliveries of 3, 6 or 12 months of flowers. These packages range in price from $139.98 for the three months of flowers to $499.98 for the full year of flowers. This unique feature allows customers to remember their loved ones with the quick click of a button to ensure a beautiful and fresh bouquet is delivered each month.

However, one overriding factor to take into consideration is the delivery of the flowers. Unique to ProFlowers, all deliveries come through the mail in a box - not prearranged and hand-delivered like a traditional florist. Once the recipient receives the box, they must open it, remove the vase and flowers from inside, fill the vase with water, and arrange the flowers themselves. This can make for some pretty clumsy-looking flower arrangements, since most people don't know how to arrange flowers effectively. The whole delivery method also takes away from the joy of receiving fresh flowers, because the recipient must spend time out of their day "working" with the flowers and trying to make them look pretty. Instead of a joyful experience, this can easily turn into frustration - just the opposite effect of what the flowers are supposed to deliver!

ProFlowers has a very clean and professional website, and has implemented some very creative ideas with it. It's unfortunate that we can't rank the service higher because the delivery of the product is so poor.

Flowers Fast gives their users many ways to search for a product, such as price range, occasion, or gift ideas. Seasonal choices are highlighted depending on the time of year that you enter the website. For instance in spring, Easter bouquets might be showcased.

Unique elements to Flowers Fast are:

•  Customers can make special requests, choosing only the price and flower types to place in the arrangement. Then the order is given to a professional florist, who fills the order with the guidelines given. For example, if a customer wanted to spend $40 and only wanted Lilies, then the florist would use as many Lilies to fill the order as appropriate.

•  Cheesecakes and candy baskets are available to send to accompany the order.

•  Lengthy descriptions are given next to each bouquet, which might be helpful for some customers, but overall they are unnecessary comments that crowd the website.

The website for Flowers Fast leaves a lot to be desired. The website is crowded and confusing, and the photographs and graphics and less professional than the other sites in our review. Although the prices are affordable, finding what you're looking for can be painful. We suggest you try one of the top-rated selections first.

1-800-Florals has been in the business for over 75 years, more than half a century than their closest competitors. Customers can shop by product type or occasion. Deliveries can be made the same day if the order is placed by 1 pm in the recipient's time zone on weekdays and noon on Saturdays. Otherwise, next day delivery is normal if orders are placed after the cutoff. A glossary of flowers is available to view on the website along with important floral holidays, flower color trends, flower care, flower meaning, flower giving tips, seasonal suggestions and holiday reminders.

With a multitude of resources, 1-800-Florals knows what the customer wants, but the website is not as clean as it could be. Images crowd and overwhelm users, especially the ones used on the side navigation bar, which are intended to help the customer search quickly, but in reality can be quite confusing.

Prices for arrangements are average and they accept all major credit cards. Unfortunately, 1-800-Florals automatically adds a 6.75% tax on all orders, and they assess a delivery fee of $7.95 to deliveries made in the United States and Canada, and $17.95 for international deliveries. This makes the price per floral arrangement among the most expensive in our review.

Overall, 1-800-Florals is built on solid experience and a good reputation. However their website design could be far better, and their "hidden" costs raise the price for their service above the competition.