Floward continues to flourish


December 27, 2022 | By Rupkatha B

Floward continues to flourish

With plans for the company to go public in the next two years, Floward continues to flourish. Founded by Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani and Mohammed Al Arifi Floward is an online flowers and gifting destination. In 2017 Floward was born in Kuwait and soon expanded to cover all the GCC countries and the UK. The brand guarantees same-day delivery across the board through its own refrigerated fleet to ensure arrangements arrive fresh to customers.

Floward sources its flowers daily from growers and farmers around the world and partners with local and international brands to offer a wide range of gifts. With an aim to further strengthen its position as a quick commerce gifting platform Floward recently acquired a Kuwait-based fragrance brand Mubkhar with presence in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain specialising in fragrances and essential oils. The brand has also turned profitable and maintained healthy growth over the past 12 months.

In an exclusive Q&A Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, Chairman & CEO of Floward shares the brand’s evolution and future growth strategy.

What was the main inspiration behind setting up Floward?

Five years ago, the fresh-cut flowers industry in the GCC was estimated at $1.5 billion with less than 0.5% of it being online. The industry was dominated by traditional brick and mortar stores with no clear leader offline and online. With that in mind we decided to establish Floward following the pure play e-commerce business model. What that means is we buy our own flowers and arrange it in-house at our fulfilment centres across all our locations. Once an order is placed, we prepare it and manage last mile delivery to our customers.

It’s been five years of Floward – could you share some major year-on-year growth highlights?

Although Floward started operating in 2017 we began expanding rapidly in 2020. Since then, we’ve witnessed exponential growth of over 40x and now we operate in 36 cities across 9 countries in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and the UK.

Has last mile ever been an obstacle? If so, how did you overcome this challenge?

Addresses are a major logistical issue in our region, and we are no strangers to that challenge. Collecting addresses has been difficult but GPS helped us. In addition, through our automated communication tools (SMS, WhatsApp) senders are now able to send their gifts through us even if they don’t have the recipient’s address. Instead, the process is automatically managed with the recipient and thus we take away the burden from the sender.

How do you leverage technology in your business to manage inventory, analyse data, strategise product creation to ensure profitability?

We sit on a database of more than a million users, and we think there are many ways to utilise data for creating a better experience, which includes leveraging machine learning, artificial intelligence, pricing algorithms, logistic optimisation and category management, among others. We are the fastest growing [online flower and gifting] start[1]up in the MENA region due to the rapid pace of our geographic expansion. To maintain this growth, we need to focus more on depth rather than breadth. This includes expanding our gifting categories, having scientific category plans, improving our UI/UX, utilising our data etc.

Tell us about your future innovation/expansion plans.

Innovation is at the heart of Floward. We are constantly innovating across all our functions to exceed clients’ needs and expectations. Our efforts are now focused on expanding our gifting offering and improving our user experience with plans to take the company public in the next two years.

Please share three tips to build a resilient and sustainable business.

  • Work towards your vision
  • Build the right team
  • Always have the TAM (Total Addressable Market) in mind

On a bad day, where do you seek inspiration from?

I run every day, as it helps me put all the right checks/balances on my day and reflect all pros/cons of my actions. My brain deep dives into the problem, breaks it down to smaller pieces to understand the root cause of it and look for the optimal solution.

 

Previous Article Next Article

SHARE

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE /


Rajiv Warrier, Chief Executive Officer, Choithrams

Since the launch of its first store in the UAE five decades 

Continue Reading

March 20, 2024 | By RetailME Bureau
Dr. Dhananjay Datar Chairman & Managing Director ADIL Trading Co. LLC

Dr. Dhananjay Datar Chairman & Managing Director ADIL Trading Co. LLC holds 

Continue Reading

February 29, 2024 | By Rupkatha B
Hani Weiss, Chief Executive Officer, Majid Al Futtaim Retail

In 1995 regional retail conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim introduced Carrefour to the 

Continue Reading

February 26, 2024 | By RetailME Bureau
Prashant Parameswaran, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tata Consumer Soulfull

Tata Soulfull, a leading name in the ‘good-for-you’ snacks and breakfast cereals 

Continue Reading

February 22, 2024 | By Rupkatha B
Jean-Luc Graziato, Chief Commercial Officer of Majid Al Futtaim – Retail and Alia Al Harmoodi, Acting CEO of the Environment, Health and Safety Agency

Majid Al Futtaim – Retail, which holds the exclusive franchise to operate 

Continue Reading

February 20, 2024 | By RetailME Bureau
Krishna Dhanak, Managing Director, Alpen Capital

In an exclusive interview Krishna Dhanak, Managing Director, Alpen Capital shared insights 

Continue Reading

February 19, 2024 | By Rupkatha B
Majed M. Al-Tahan, Co-founder & Managing Director, Danube Online

As digital transformation across the retail industry continues to accelerate, the expectations 

Continue Reading

December 19, 2023 | By RetailME Bureau
Frederic Levy-Perrault, CEO, Al Raya Supermarket

Saudi Arabia-based grocery retail chain Al Raya Supermarket serves over 100,000 customers 

Continue Reading

December 15, 2023 | By RetailME Bureau
Ahmad AR. BinDawood, Chief Executive Officer, BinDawood Holding

BinDawood Holding has a rich Saudi heritage, spanning over 50 years, 38 

Continue Reading

December 13, 2023 | By RetailME Bureau
Majid Al Futtaim Retail commits to Collaborative Impact Goals at COP28

Majid Al Futtaim Retail, which owns the exclusive rights to operate Carrefour 

Continue Reading

December 8, 2023 | By Rupkatha B
BinDawood Holding Company earns Honorary Shield for Compliance Excellence

BinDawood Holding Company has earned an Honorary Shield, a distinguished recognition by 

Continue Reading

December 6, 2023 | By RetailME Bureau
First Movers Coalition for Food to create up to $20-bn value chain for sustainable farming

The World Economic Forum, with support from the Government of the United 

Continue Reading

December 5, 2023 | By RetailME Bureau




Download Images RetailME Magazine