Bas La-Graauw, Product Owner at Floriday, keeps busy every day developing Floriday and new features in the company's digital platform. Floriday discusses last year's developments with him.
Additional sales and purchasing opportunities
This year, opportunities for suppliers have been further extended. Bas: "Experiments have been conducted over the past year to see if there is a need for more options in Clock pre-sales. As a result, suppliers have been given the opportunity to lower the Clock pre-sales price during the day. In addition, the maximum percentage that suppliers can allocate for Clock pre-sales will be increased to 80%."
Bas also looked at how Floriday can respond to the needs of organizations with multiple administration numbers. Bas: "More and more mergers are taking place in the market. This involves sales being made on behalf of the sales organisation, while the underlying companies work with their own administration number. Some flower growers also work with multiple numbers. Specifically for these organizations, it will soon be possible to indicate per item which organization you are selling this product on behalf of."
Floriday has also been further expanded for buyers over the past year. Bas: "The Explorer has been expanded with Clock presale supply. It is now possible to search by Clock presale and/or direct supply. In addition, a new category has been added, i.e. hardware. With the increasing demand for hardware such as pots, vases, baskets, and decorations, you can now find and order hardware separately in addition to the usual pot plant combinations."
Floriday as a sector platform
Floriday's infrastructure allows additional (sector) information to be added to the process, such as Track & Trace information and sustainability information. With this, Floriday is increasingly becoming a platform for the entire sector. Steps have been made in this last year.
Floriday will enhance delivery information with Track & Trace information. Bas: 'For buyers, the Logistics section has become available, showing an overview of all delivery orders, which in the future will be enhanced with Track & Trace information. In addition, a pilot is under way in which transport orders from delivery orders will be sent to the carriers' Transport Management system. Once the driver scans the letter, the Track & Trace information can be seen in Floriday. Many suppliers also use their own transport. A scanning option has been added in Floriday, especially for them."
Floriday also plays an important role in unlocking sustainability data with the aim of increasing efficiency and transparency in the sector. Bas: "We are currently running a pilot where we are providing a digital exchange of sustainability data on used packaging materials. This concerns information from the packaging register. By linking this information to the delivery orders in Floriday, the buyer has all the information readily available."
Changes in the sector
Last year, a number of changes were also made to Floriday that contributed to the efficiency of trading between suppliers and buyers:
Bas: 'Before Floriday, suppliers faced challenges as the orders received became smaller and smaller. As orders become smaller, fulfillment and transport costs become comparatively higher. In Floriday suppliers can set minimum delivery quantity and delivery times. Last year, we further implemented validation on this so that order requests are now always checked for these delivery conditions. This is a change for the industry and obviously takes some getting used to. It is great to see that suppliers and buyers are working on this and engaging with each other. Ultimately, this is going to benefit everyone: for suppliers, order processing will be more efficient and for buyers, the supply becomes a lot more reliable."
Another practice that users in the sector had been used for years was the application of weekly prices. Bas: 'Growers and buyers had been used to weekly prices. For plant growers, being able to change the weekly price to respond to changes in the market was high on their wish list. This option became available in the autumn. Growers can now adjust the supply price 1x every 24 hours."
Improvements to the platform
Thanks to a number of changes, ease of doing business in Floriday has also been further improved. Bas explains some key changes:
Specifically for flower growers and buyers, improvements have been made in being able to work with contracts. Bas: 'Thanks to a better overview, it is now easier to see what can be called up for the week. Another request was to be able to add stickers and documents directly. This can now be actioned directly in Floriday."
The ability to make a correction or cancellation has also been updated. Bas: "The buyer can now clearly state with a reason and explanation why a correction or cancellation is needed."
Bas: "In terms of Fulfilment, features have been added that bring convenience to a specific group of users. In a large nursery, this feature provides an overview of available products and locations. Fulfillment Plus ensures more efficient order processing, which will ultimately reduce errors. This is a paid module in Floriday."
For international users in particular, it can be difficult to find a place in the world of floriculture. Bas: "By having new users complete a step-by-step plan, it is easier for buyers to connect with suppliers. The buyer can post a message on the timeline to introduce themselves. Suppliers can invite the customer to make a connection. Based on the information entered, Floriday can then make better suggestions on which supply, and which suppliers may be of interest."
Developing together with the market
It's not just the above changes that have been implemented. Bas: "The Customer and Supplier API have been further extended in 2024, aligned with platform developments. In addition, new releases are rolled out weekly and a request week was held twice. It's great to see how Floriday is taking on an increasingly central role in the sector thanks to discussions and experiments with users, software suppliers, and chain partners. Great developments are already in the pipeline for next year too."
For more information:
Floriday
www.Floriday.io