BelaStem— An Online Marketplace for Florists
By: Stephen Braunewell
Tags: Marketplaces, Middleman, Flowers, Sustainability, Farming

BelaStem— An Online Marketplace for Florists

BelaStem is launching an online marketplace for florists and floral designers to shop and buy directly from farms around the world so florists can buy fresher and more affordable flowers.

The Problem

The wholesale flower industry is crowded with middleman and multiple modes of transportation adding additional costs and added days on the perishable flowers short-term vase live. The multi-layered channels also result in a cloudy buying experience for the florists, unaware of where the flowers are grown or if they are sustainably grown.

What The Company Does

BelaStem is dis-intermediating the local/regional wholesalers and large brokers so florists and floral designers can buy directly from the farms. Florists will enjoy fresher, more affordable flowers with a wider selection. The marketplace will allow florists to shop by country, farm, flower, sustainability certification, and more. The buying experience will provide the farms the branding transparency and product differentiation, the market has always been lacking. The farms drop ship the flowers and are delivered directly to flower shops anywhere in the U.S.

Business Model

BelaStem will take a 20% commission fee, or 25% on top of the total COGS. In the short term, there is also opportunity for subscription services and in the long-term, onsite advertising.

Market

Their primary customer segments (florists and floral designers) spend more than $4 Billion on wholesale flowers every year. The secondary customer segments include grocery stores, online retailers and hotel/casinos, who spend $5+ Billion on wholesale flowers. Our secondary product offering include wholesale plants and floral supplies totaling $3+Billion. The current buying channel, being their competitors, are local wholesalers. Local wholesalers buy from large brokers who buy from the farm. The multilayered supply chain adds costs and days they can avoid with the farm-direct online marketplace.

Traction

The team has formalized agreements with domestic and international logistics partners, started onboarding farms (the suppliers) and the florists (the buyers) via social channels and an onsite lead form, have built out detailed requirements to build the marketplace, developed an RFP and interviewed 7 of the top Magento agencies in the U.S., which have been narrowed down to 2.

Founding Team Background

BelaStem was founded by Jon Haley and Jeff Gannon, two marketing professionals who launched and grew this business for another company, where they raised $3.1M in the first 18 months. With complimenting skill sets, Jon has 8+ years in ecommerce and digital marketing, in addition to expert knowledge working with and selling on marketplaces including Amazon, Jet, Walmart, eBay and Alibaba. Jeff has experience in branding and sustainability, having previously worked for Rain Forest Alliance among other top non-profit organizations.

What They Need Help With

The BelaStem team is looking for introductions to advisors and investors. Connect with the BelaStem team here.