Mother’s Day is around the corner, and many shoppers will be turning toward online flower delivery services rather than visiting their local florist.

Online flower delivery services continue to bloom because of the convenience, the wide selection, and the available personalization options. But when it comes to finding the right bouquet that is delivered fresh and on time, how do these services really perform?

To understand the quality of this online experience, we used MUiQ to collect UX benchmark metrics on five popular flower delivery websites in 2024.

• 1-800-Flowers
• Edible Arrangements
• FTD
• ProFlowers
• Teleflora

We computed SUPR-Q^® and Net Promoter scores, investigated reasons for using the websites, measured users’ attitudes regarding their experiences, conducted key driver analyses, and analyzed reported usability problems. (Full details are in the downloadable report.)

Benchmark Study Details

In April of 2024, we asked 267 users of flower delivery websites in the US to recall their most recent experience and perceptions of one of the flower delivery websites on their desktop and mobile app (if applicable) in the past year.

Respondents completed the eight-item SUPR-Q (which includes the Net Promoter Score) and the two-item UX-Lite^® standardized questionnaires and answered questions about their brand attitudes, usage, and prior experiences.

Quality of Flower Website User Experience:
SUPR-Q

The SUPR-Q is a standardized questionnaire widely used for measuring attitudes toward the quality of a website user experience. Its norms are computed from a rolling database of around 200 websites across dozens of industries.

SUPR-Q scores are percentile ranks that tell you how a website’s experience ranks relative to the other websites (50^th percentile is average). The SUPR-Q provides an overall score as well as detailed scores for subdimensions of Usability, Trust, Appearance, and Loyalty.

The flower delivery websites in this study collectively performed well and averaged in the 84^th percentile. However, there was substantial variation between the sites. FTD had the highest SUPR-Q score (99^th percentile), followed closely by Teleflora (98^th percentile), whereas 1-800-Flowers scored the lowest by a wide margin (44^th percentile).

We don’t typically see so much variation within an industry when we collect retrospective data. It’s unusual for respondents to recall substantially different experiences for some websites (in this case, a worse experience for 1-800-Flowers). We looked to corroborate these variations and found that an earlier analysis by JD Power in 2021 also had FTD as a top performer in satisfaction and 1-800-Flowers as the laggard. To understand more of what’s driving these scores we dug into the components of the SUPR-Q score.

Usability Scores

Overall, usability scores were also high across the flower delivery websites. Teleflora had the highest usability score (at the 100^th percentile) and FTD also performed very well, scoring in the 99^th percentile. 1-800-Flowers had the lowest usability score, falling in the 56^th percentile. Respondents mentioned having difficulty navigating the 1-800-Flowers website due to overwhelming options that took time and effort to sift through.

Comments related to usability on 1-800-Flowers included:

• “I will say that the website does feel a little overwhelming. Upon first looking at the home page I was overwhelmed by the amount of images, links and then a pop up appeared.” — 1-800-Flowers
• “I guess sometimes there are too many options? I like choice and variety but too many options take too much time to go through.” — 1-800-Flowers
• “I found that the website is a little overwhelming. There is a lot going on aesthetically.” — 1-800-Flowers

1-800-Flowers has a huge navigation menu, which may be overwhelming to some users and cumbersome to read through (Figure 1). Narrowing down to the right gift with such an enormous number of products could be time-consuming, and it was difficult for some respondents.

Figure 1: Screenshot of the “Mother’s Day” category in the top navigation menu of the 1-800-Flowers website. There are many website categories across the top, and each has a large number of subcategories that are burdensome to read through.

Teleflora has fewer categories and subcategories, which makesit easier to navigate (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Screenshot of the Teleflora homepage. Teleflora has six main categories in the top navigation menu, whereas 1-800-Flowers has double that number.

Loyalty/Net Promoter Scores

Four out of five of the flower delivery websites had positive Net Promoter Scores. The average NPS for this group was 24% (more promoters than detractors), which is above average for Net Promoter Scores in our SUPR-Q database. FTD was the most likely to be recommended (with an NPS of 47%), and 1-800-Flowers was the least likely to be recommended (−2%).

When looking across SUPR-Q subscales, the flower delivery websites had the lowest scores for Loyalty. Like the NPS, FTD had the highest loyalty score (97^th percentile) while 1-800-Flowers had the lowest (36^th percentile).

Unsurprisingly, respondents reported being most likely to continue using FTD and least likely to continue using 1-800-Flowers.

Comments related to NPS and loyalty included:

• “The prices are a bit high compared to some local florists, so I might recommend those over 1-800-Flowers sometimes. Otherwise, love 1-800-Flowers.” — 1-800-Flowers
• “I would recommend it if someone needed flowers. The fees are very high so I’m not sure I would strongly recommend it.” — FTD
• “The website is good, but the last purchase I made from them did not turn out as pretty as usual. That is the only hesitation I have.” — ProFlowers
• “Some people already have a favorite florist, but I would definitely recommend my favorite to them. Teleflora has one of the most transparent delivery processes I’ve seen. Their real-time delivery tracking is fantastic.” — Teleflora

Websites and Mobile App Usage

As a part of this benchmark, we asked respondents how they accessed the flower delivery websites. All respondents reported using their desktop/laptop computers (this was a requirement for participation in the survey), with 72% also using mobile websites and 27% also using mobile apps. Comments about the flower delivery websites related to the mobile app usage included:

• “I had an exceptional experience with the ProFlowers mobile app and would highly recommend it to others. I also found out that the app is user-friendly, efficient, and reliable, making it a standout choice for sending flowers on the go.” — ProFlowers
• “I would recommend to anyone that likes to just quickly and easily use their device to place an order for family or friends. I think it’s very convenient so that is why I’d recommend. I have close family living out of town and many out of state, so it’s always easy for me to send flowers. I think others would also feel the same.” — 1-800-Flowers

Users reported visiting the flower delivery websites on a desktop or laptop computer a few times per year.

Purchase Satisfaction

Across the websites, 81% of the respondents reported making a purchase on a flower delivery website in the past 12 months. They were also asked how satisfied they were with their recent purchase. Those who used FTD were the most satisfied, while those who used 1-800-Flowers were the least satisfied (a statistically significant difference).

Reasons for low satisfaction with 1-800-Flowers delivery included:

Quality of flowers: “The flowers came wilted and not like they were in fresh condition. Their customer service was not able to provide me with a refund, but a coupon for next time.”

High price: “I wasn’t satisfied with my purchase because I feel as though I could’ve gotten a better deal from a local flower shop.”

Delivery issues: “The flowers were late and delivered to the wrong place.”

UX Problems

We examined verbatim comments to better understand the problems users experienced.

Lack of Price Transparency

Among the top reasons respondents disliked the flower delivery websites were high prices and hidden fees at checkout. This was mentioned as an issue on all five flower delivery websites. Respondents were especially frustrated by the lack of transparency with pricing and were surprised by the final cost after multiple fees were added at checkout.

Comments related to price transparency included:

• “Fees at the end can make your purchase more than you were intending to spend.” — Edible Arrangements
• “I was happy with the final outcome but didn’t really understand the pricing until I added something to the cart. Maybe I missed something while I was looking, but I would have liked the pricing to be more transparent.” — Teleflora
• “Some frustrations that I’ve had with the website is the website not being upfront and direct about how much the cost of the flowers is going to be.” — 1-800-Flowers

On 1-800-Flowers, users had to go all the way through the checkout process, which included adding delivery instructions and the recipient note, before they were able to see the final price (a problem we identified in our 2018 analysis). This felt like a lot of effort for users to expend before seeing the cost breakdown (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Screenshots from the 1-800-Flowers website. The image on the left shows a screenshot of the item page for two dozen red roses with a price of $59.99 for the bouquet only. The image on the right shows the bouquet’s price at checkout, which jumped to $83.41.

Flowers Not Arriving as Advertised

An advantage of the retrospective approach we used in this analysis is that we could ask respondents about the whole experience, from ordering to delivery. While respondents generally rated their purchase satisfaction high across the flower delivery websites, disappointment with the final product was a common theme in the verbatim comments.

Respondents mentioned receiving flowers that were wilted or looked smaller than the advertised bouquet (Figure 4). This outcome was especially disappointing to users who felt that the flowers were expensive to begin with.

• “My and my colleagues have had bad experiences when getting things from 1-800 flowers. Every time has been a disappointment. It’s a good initiative but things should look exactly as the picture for what we have to pay.” — 1-800-Flowers
• “The last order was not at all acceptable. I was so embarrassed. The plant was half dead and pathetic in size. I was mortified and so was the person who received it.” — ProFlowers
• “It’s hit or miss in my experience. Some flowers come very nice and look really pretty, while some flowers come wilted. Their Customer Service is not the most understanding as well.” — 1-800-Flowers
• “When I purchased from Edible Arrangements it was to congratulate someone on getting into grad school. I marked this on my order but the cookies were decorated for a birthday. This was frustrating but the cookies tasted good.” — Edible Arrangements

Figure 4: Screenshot of two reviews on the Edible Arrangements website citing orders that came in poor condition. One does not need to look far on flower delivery websites to find negative reviews regarding product quality.

Popups and Clutter Wilt the Flower Buying Experience

Clutter was a common frustration for respondents across the flower delivery websites (Figure 5). Users on all five sites felt that the web pages were busy. Some users also mentioned annoying pop-ups when first coming to the website advertising deals and discounts for signing up with an email (Figure 6).

Figure 5: Screenshot of the 1-800-Flowers homepage. Respondents felt overwhelmed by the number of products and other options on the website. The colors were overly bright and distracting to some.

Figure 6: Screenshots of pop-ups on the Edible Arrangements homepage (left) and the ProFlowers homepage (right). Respondents were annoyed by the frequent pop-ups on the websites.

Respondents were asked to rate how cluttered they thought the websites were. 1-800-Flowers was rated significantly more cluttered than FTD, ProFlowers, and Teleflora.

• “I think it’s a fine website but it’s a bit much. I find myself experiencing a bit of fatigue because there is so much going on. It gets the job done but it could be toned down.” — Edible Arrangements
• “I don’t like that there are at least three pop ups that show up when the website loads. The first says enter your email for 10% off when signing up for their email list. The second offers another discount. It’s too much and too many pop ups that I have to close before I can even do what I came to the website to do, which is shop and spend my money. It’s distracting.” — Edible Arrangements
• “Because there are so many products featured on the website, it can feel a bit cluttered at times. I think the website design could be streamlined a bit for easier navigation.” — 1-800-Flowers

Summary and Takeaways

An analysis of the user experience of five flower delivery websites found:

1. The user experience differs widely by site: While the flower delivery websites in this study collectively had above-average SUPR-Q scores (84^th percentile), FTD and Teleflora scored very high while 1-800-Flowers was below average. The FTD website was most likely to be recommended and 1-800-Flowers was least likely.

2. The lack of pricing transparency is frustrating. Across the flower delivery websites, respondents reported feeling surprised by the overall expense of the flowers, especially when fees were added at checkout. Users must go through a considerable amount of effort before seeing the final price. Users would clearly appreciate better price transparency up-front and clear information about any associated fees.

3. Products sometimes do not come as advertised. A common issue for all five flower delivery websites was dissatisfaction with the delivered product. Flowers sometimes came wilted or looked smaller than pictured on the website, which was obviously disappointing to users.

4. Cluttered websites and large inventories encumber the experience. Overall clutter, pop-ups, and an overwhelming number of products were among the top issues mentioned by respondents on all five flower delivery websites. This extra clutter made it difficult for users to navigate the flower delivery websites. 1-800-Flowers was rated as the most cluttered website of the group.

For more details, see the downloadable report.