New York–In his keynote address at marketing firm DoubleClick’s Insight conference here on March 1, 1-800-Flowers.com CEO Jim McCann said that sales of its flowers and gifts for personal holidays and fringe holidays now comprise half of the company’s sales.
For instance, the Westbury, NY-based company, which filled 1 million orders for this past Valentine’s Day, carved out a gift-giving routine out of Halloween four years ago, he reflected. “We introduced a Halloween teddy bear for younger audiences, bought 2,000 of them, put them online on Oct. 26, and sold 5,000–reaching a different customer,” he said, noting that the company was able to reorder enough bears to fill all the orders.
Beyond even such fringe holidays, 1-800-Flowers.com through its Website, catalog, and stores, tries to offer gift ideas for customers’ own personal special days and occasions. For instance, the company offers suggested gifts for invitees to bring to a beach house. Another recent promotion focused on gifts for School Nurses Day–truly a fringe holiday.