NetFlorist Valentine's Day 2012 orders up by 40 percent

Feb. 20, 2012 - PRLog -- Johannesburg February 20th, 2012 – Valentine’s Day orders were up 40 percent for South Africa’s largest and longest standing online florist and gifting retailer NetFlorist.  Altogether, over 10 000 Valentine’s deliveries were made this year.

“In the 13 years we’ve been in business, we’ve never seen anything like it on any single occasion,” said a delighted Ryan Bacher, managing director of NetFlorist.

This despite talk of the credit crunch and recession fears. Locals surprised NetFlorist by splurging in sentimental expression, spending sometimes up to R1 500 on a deluxe arrangement of roses. While the average spend was around R400, the biggest order placed was for R5 000 worth of flowers, gifts and jewellery. Combination orders like this have been made possible by the addition of two sister sites, NetGifts  and NetJewel .

Bacher attributed the increase in part to a new marketing initiative to advertise offline via printed catalogues, and also to the company’s continued brand growth in the consumer market.

The recent addition too of NetGifts and NetJewel to the group’s online stable has meant an increased range of gifting possibilities for the consumer.  Over 1 000 items are now included in the array of online gifts and this year some 60 of these were specifically Valentine’s Day-themed gifts.

NetFlorist’s five new retail flower markets in Cape Town and Johannesburg also enjoyed booming sales over the big occasion although growth figures are not available as they are all in their first year of trading.

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NetFlorist is South Africa’s largest flower supplier on- and offline. Its gifting arm, NetGifts, is the country’s fastest growing online gift store.