Small Business

A rosy online business: Roses Only

http://www.switzer.com.au/small-business/business-online/a-rosy-online-business-roses-only/
Online business is booming and for developing a brand, the internet has much to offer small
businesses. A strong online presence with a convenient website helps to ensure customers
think only of your business when they are searching for services.
Using the internet as a sales tool and boxed flowers as the marketing instrument, Roses Only
has built a brand that dominates Australian online flower sales.
Men want three things when they shop for flowers, according to founder James Stevens:
speed, convenience and roses. Delivering the last of these has never been an issue for
Stevens, the product of a family of florists who have operated in Sydney since 1967. It is his
ability to deliver the other two imperatives that has seen Stevens and Roses Only
revolutionise the flower market.
Roses Only has seen rapid expansion since it was formed in 1995. The business expanded
into fresh fruit delivery in 2005. Stevens, restless with the traditional sales approach of
florists, sensed an opportunity.
I saw that flowers were overpriced, he says, noting that todays price of approximately $79
for a dozen roses is similar to 20 years ago. The feeling is that its still luxurious, but it is
affordable.
Of course, there are competitors. International giants such as Interflora and 1800 Flowers
serve huge markets, but Stevens always felt there was a market for a well-packaged,
consistent brand that focused on the flower of choice: roses. There are so many things that
go wrong with a generic flower delivery. You might not like the design or the flowers theyve
put in, or the style or colours Weve taken out all those issues. You know exactly what
youre getting with us.
Stevens is a big believer in brands. I believe my brand can be thought of if youre thinking
about buying flowers and I want it to be top of mind.
Asked to set a goal for Roses Only, Stevens once commented that he strived for a business
reputation akin to jewellery icon Tiffany & Co that is, it has not been compromised.
It would be nice to have this notional sense that the brand can grow for the next 100 years,
but at the same time the realism sets in and you say, Well, whos going to run this thing?
In the meantime, he will concentrate on doing what he does best selling roses and
gerberas, tulips, irises, orchids and lilies.
Related articles

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/entrepreneur-profile/james-stevens-business-isblooming-at-roses-only.html
Youd be hard pressed finding an Aussie who hasnt heard of Roses Only. Thats not to say
the hard work is done. James Stevens has found branding doesnt end with successful
marketing; there is also the continuous issue of brand protection. Going into the family
business wasnt high on the agenda when James Stevens was a young boy. Though he spent
plenty of time at his father and uncles Sydney Town Hall station florist, he didnt realise how
much the lessons learnt on the job were going to affect his own business life. Apart from
using his experience to back his decision to open his own type of florist, Stevens learnt a lot
about trust, or misplacing it, in those early days.
It started with a robbery, when the naive youngster left his takings unattended for a moment
and lost the lot. The high incidence of staff theft tested his trust further and, on top of
marketing, is one of the reasons the Roses Only logo is emblazoned on all his products.
Trust issues aside, the man behind the hugely successful Roses Only brand is easy to talk to,
and once he gets going on a subject hes passionate abouthis businesshes hard to stop.
Perhaps its not surprising given his signature product, long-stemmed red roses, and its
association with passion. For Stevens, the passion grows as he revisits the history of the
family business.
It started with his father visiting pubs and bars to peddle flowers to the husbands and
partners needing a powerful gesture to offer their wives and girlfriends after a few too many
drinks after work. Then came the florist set up in Town Hall station (the floor plans for which
Stevens proudly displays). He noticed there were some similarities in clientele: mostly male,
little knowledge about flowers, looking for a premium product for their sweetheart. Stevens
sensed an opportunity. And thanks to good timing and growth in credit card use, the idea took
form.
After completing a commerce degree in 1988, he went into the family business, never content
to be at the mercy of a landlord and all the skilled staff shortages common in the bricks and
mortar flower businesses. When they were presented with an opportunity to take up a lease in
central Chifley Plaza, with low rent and free fit-out, the first store was created in 1995. Not
only did he get a nice looking store in a great environment, he got access to the very market
he was looking to targetbusinessmen with disposable income.
When a former colleague mentioned she had seen a shop in Manhattan that just sold roses,
Stevens had his eureka moment. It all dawned on me. All the issues I had ever encountered
in my parents business were answered by this notion of a roses only business. It was simple,
and in terms of inventory it was easily measurable. The next step was to come up with a
name and a brand that people would initially know to call to place an order and eventually
order via the internet. The store was called Lush Flowers, and Roses Only was a section
within that store. And thanks to some cleverif expensivemarketing, it wasnt long before
Roses Only was the name on everyones lips. I wanted a name that began with the word
roses. My mother-in-law was the one who said its got to be Only. It was only after the
name was decided upon that Stevens heard from a marketing guru that only is one of the
most powerful words in the world.
The advent of the internet was what I immediately saw as my opportunity to stand out. If
you ask most people, they think were an online florist only, he says. And I was so driven

to dominate that space because I was suddenly given new technology that meant I could be at
the forefront of my industry. It cost me a hell of a lot of money; money that I couldnt
logically say I was getting a reasonable return on investment in, because there werent that
many online usersthats something thats grown over time. Despite these risks, he says,
the business survived the dot-com crash because they were still living within their means
through the stores and decided against going to the stock market to get private investors to
fund growth. I was fortunate that we were already growing the business and the brand name
through normal media channels and all we did was add the fact we were suddenly online, he
says. The difference in our success, I believe, was that we were already a trusted brand.
There was a lot of credibility added to the brand thanks to the considerable investment in
credible, above-the-line advertising on radio and in the Australian Financial Review to
promote the brand before they moved online. I definitely spent a hell of a lot morealmost
10 times morein one year than we ever spent before. Suddenly we were spending in excess
of $1 million within two or three years of starting the brand. Back then, relative to our
turnover, it was a massive punt. And its paid off in spades, but the wiser business owner
says he wouldnt do that again. I think I was just stupid. Marketing & Partnerships
However, marketing is key for the business, and Stevens says the brand is its biggest asset.
By pushing his branding harder and faster than he admits was probably not always wise, he
knows if his head office building burns down today they can still do business the next day.
Part of this is thanks to the partnerships he has made with other brands to promote his own
product; most of which have worked, some of which he says tarnished the brand to a degree.
Partnerships were initially created to align ourselves with other products, he says. The
first store in Chifley Plaza was meant to be upmarket, it was in an upmarket centre, it was
surrounded by high-end tenants, and so we targeted busy, suited men with credit cards. At
the same time, it was about making roses more affordable, but the pitch, Stevens says, had to
be upmarket. This is where it was important to associate the brand with other complementary
brands from the start. Moet and Chandon and Lindt chocolates (before they became available
in supermarkets) were chosen as recognised market leaders of upmarket products. We owe a
lot of our success to picking the right media partners, then picking the right strategic product
alliances, he says. There was a natural synergy with the giving of flowers and champagne
and chocolates and perfume, he says. It was all about things that go within the box.
We arent here to compete with your average flower shop, but we are here to provide you
with the finest quality flowers that we can pack simply in a box, and deliver. That box, now
synonymous with the brand, also plays a part in the logistics of the delivery. The shape not
only makes it easy to store the flowers without risk of damaging them, they stack neatly in
the back of a courier van or truck for easy transportation.
And delivery is the key. Although there are currently three stores, Stevens clearly
distinguishes the brand from cash-and-carry stores and the emphasis is on remote call or
email and we deliver business. Theyve even had software designed to determine delivery
times. For example, if a customer wants a guaranteed morning delivery, the software will
immediately tell them what the earliest possible delivery time is. While they can deliver
anywhere in the world, the brand is recognised in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. The
Australian office handles the call centre for New Zealand customers, with local partners
filling the orders. In the UK, most orders are handled at the head office, but calls outside

eastern and western standard time are handled in the UK, in real time, as are their online
orders.
Getting a fresh product like flowers and fruit (Fruit Only was added to the brand late last
year) from the growers to the customers would present challenges for any business, but its
amazing just how much travel these flowers have to do and still look good. As Stevens
offers the five-cent tour of the Sydney base, he points to the boxes of flowers that have been
shipped from Ecuador. Noticing my surprised look, he tears into the box and waves me in for
a closer look. Sure enough, there are dozens of mainly perfect buds looking as fresh as daisies
(pun intended).
While hed prefer to buy from Aussie growers all the time, to support local growers as much
as for freight savings, seasonality limits availability and he recently made the decision to
import flowers from overseas, including from South America and Africa. Now it is no big
deal for Stevens, who explains that it takes about three days, from the moment he places an
order for overseas product, for it to arrive in his workroom. This includes passing through
Customs and being fumigated in quarantine. We use airfreight for everything. There are
occasional problems when a shipment is accidentally unloaded on the tarmac in Dubai and
the 50-degree heat destroys the shipment, but he takes it all in his stride. Putting in place
tight quality control means the flowers tend to be in perfect shape when delivered to
customers. The quality of the flowers sent to customers is rarely a problem, Stevens says.
We have more problems with the chocolates! he jokes. Although there are occasional
problems he works to correct these by ensuring his staff are well-trained to provide only the
best quality.
He also includes reply-paid customer comment cards with each delivery, which he checks
every day. The only negative in the batch he shows me concerns a delivery driver spoiling the
surprise for one customer. Although he provides these cards, and gets a fairly good response,
Stevens has a number of willing mystery shoppers to help him gauge the quality around the
country. And we gauge a lot by virtue of the reply cards. Most of the complaints he
receives are more concerned with the logistical issues of delivery of the flowers. He uses a
mix of his own drivers and courier companies, but other partner florists he uses around the
country have to use their own delivery methods, which makes it hard to control. Establishing
rules to pass on to the partners is a starting point. Despite infrastructure problems in the
freight industry, Stevens doesnt let too many of the logistical issues with our road systems
concern him. Things that concern me more are quality issues, he explains.
Theres a central distribution system in every [major] city, he says, with warehousing for
peak periods, such as Mothers Day and Valentines Day. And when he receives orders
outside major cities, the nearest partner florist fulfils the orders using the Roses Only
packaging. Transporting stock around Australia is done largely on trucks, with the fresh
produce freighted in refrigerated trucks. Rising fuel costs arent bothering him too much,
either, thanks to economies of scale. Theres a mass of deliveries to one suburb as opposed
to spreading deliveries.
What does slow things down in the supply chain is shipping flowers from the eastern states
to Western Australia or Tasmania. Due to state laws, the flowers have to be quarantined and
fumigated before crossing these borders, and this can mean delays. Hard Lessons in Buisness
Thanks to his father and uncles experience, (his dad is still a 50 percent silent partner in the

business and they bought his uncle out), and with all the effort to get the brand into the public
arena, Stevens is adamant about protecting his intellectual property. As well as registering the
business names and protecting logos, he has also registered domain names, and similar
names, just in case.
All the registrations in the world mean nothing, he admits, if you let them lapse, as he
discovered recently. A cyber squatter picked up a lapsed domain name and tried to sell it
back to Stevens for $25,000, and when Stevens refused to negotiate, one of his competitors
took it up. Things got a little nasty for a while before Stevens prevailed, with help from
domain name authority auDa, but its one lesson hes learnt the hard way.
He advocates a cautious, slowly, slowly approach to getting into new markets, another
tough lesson for him. I was stupidly thinking the take-up of the brand would happen quicker
in new markets we entered. The classic case is Melbourne, which has taken a lot longer than
wed thought to get to where it is now. And in markets like the UK, where I took it for
granted that it was just going to happen, thats cost a lot of moneybut were not giving up
on the dream! I would start any new distribution business in a smaller rather than larger
marketget it right in the smaller market and then slowly grow into those bigger markets.
Which is why America will be the last frontier. As president of Sydneys Entrepreneur
Organisation, Stevens uses this role to pass these lessons and experiences on to others in his
group, as well as being surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs he can learn from at the
same time. My peer group has taught me a lot about things other than work, or put things
into perspective for me, possibly quicker than I might have discovered them myself. And
this, he adds, has taught him more about worklife balance and staying healthy
. I hate missing the kids before they fall asleep, and I feel very guilty if I do that. With 50odd staff members in the head office, from call centre staff through to the marketing team,
Stevens says he has put the best team together and its one that he doesnt believe his
competitors can rival, in sheer size and organisational structure. I would love to keep [them]
for a long time.
Summing up his own role in the business, Stevens says he keeps it going, through
generating ideas as well as being a sounding board for staff ideas, good and bad ones. As an
entrepreneur its one of the hardest things to come to terms withyou need to let your team
experience failure and see for themselves. Even after all these years, seeing his product on
the street still fires his passion. The biggest thrill is seeing a girl carrying one of my boxes
through town. Its that box that tells people someones gone to a lot of trouble for me. - See
more at: http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/entrepreneur-profile/james-stevens-business-isblooming-at-roses-only.html#sthash.sihL9uXp.dpuf

http://www.powerretail.com.au/macquarie-telecom/roses-only-macquarie-telecom/

For anyone in the floral business, February 14 is the busiest day of the year. When youre
Australias leading online floral retailer, performance and uptime is crucial. Heres how
Roses Only kept the romance alive on Valentines Day and beyond.
The Roses Only Group implemented Macquarie Telecoms Managed Hosting Services in
preparation for peak demand and a rush of online romantics during this years Valentines
Day rush.
Formed in 1995, Roses Only is part of a family owned business that brings together almost
40 years of retail and floristry experience. Despite having only three retail outlets, The Roses
Only Group is Australias leading floral retailer and also includes Fruit Only, Sparkling Only
and its newest brand Hampers Only. The Roses Only Group has experienced year on year
growth of 10 percent, largely through online sales, which comprise 70 percent of the
companys business.
With a significant proportion of its annual sales revenue derived from Valentines Day and the
days preceding, the Roses Only Group has to apply significant firepower to its hosting to
keep up with the spike in demand. An outage would be catastrophic not only in terms of
millions in lost revenue, but the suffering of thousands of Aussie Romeos would be on their
hands.
As part of the implementation, Macquarie Telecoms Managed Hosting solution centres
around a fully managed high availability server hosting environment, utilising shared SAN
and shared load balancing, in addition to dedicated high availability firewalls and a security
environment with highest-level ISO27001 and ASIO T4 certification. The Roses Only
infrastructure, hosted in Macquarie Telecoms fully certified and fully redundant Intellicentre
data centre, enables the Roses Only Group to manage its increasing website traffic,
particularly during peak periods with significant jumps in operational workload.
Macquarie Telecom has a strong reputation for managing mission critical technology and
websites that have highly transactional websites, with sometimes unpredictable demand,
says Michael Seder, Innovations Officer, Roses Only Group. Given the need to meet peak
demand during events such as Valentines Day, Mothers Day and Christmas, we needed a
solution which would support this volume of customers during peak periods and provide us
with the scalability to allow for our general future growth. We are pleased with the
implementation and have already seen significant benefits in our business.
The solution offers the ability to burst infrastructure on demand and also allows the company
to monitor the health of the hosted platform through the use of Macquarie Telecoms self
management tool, InView, a real time visibility tool.
A key requirement was that we needed a solution that offered strong management tools,
allowing us to increase management of the site and data network performance, and review its
health on a minute by minute basis. The type of visibility offered by InView allows us to
make better business decisions, both now and in the future, says Michael Seder.
Roses Only is another win for Macquarie Telecom, who also recently announced that News
Limitedwould become a tenant in Macquarie Telecoms Intellicentre 2, a $60 million state-ofthe-art facility in North Ryde designed to meet critical quality standards including ASIO T4
Intruder Resistant, Defence Signals Directorate Gateway certification, and Payment Card

Industry certification. News Limited is currently hosted at the original Intellicentre in

Sydneys CBD, with Intellicentre 2 set to come online in the first half of this year. As
Australia moves into the digital age and prepares for the National Broadband Network,
Macquarie Telecom is investing significantly in infrastructure to support high demand hosting
and security compliance requirements.
More Than Only Roses
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http://www.dsbn.com.au/Articles/more-only-roses
Your rating: None Average: 4 (1 vote)
According to the owner of Roses Only, James Stevens, men want three things when they shop
for flowers: speed, convenience and roses. Delivering the last of these has never been an
issue for Stevens, the product of a family of florists who have operated in Sydney since 1967.
It is his ability to deliver the other two imperatives that has seen Stevens and Roses Only

revolutionise the flower market.

Using the Internet as a sales tool and boxed flowers as the marketing instrument, Roses Only
has built a brand that dominates Australian online flower sales.
Roses Only was formed in 1995, when Stevens, restless with the traditional sales approach of
florists, sensed an opportunity.
I saw that flowers were over-priced, he says, noting that todays price of approximately $79
for a dozen roses is similar to 20 years ago. The feeling is that its still luxurious, but it is
affordable.
Naming Rights

Stevens recognised the importance of protecting his brand, but because roses and only are
somewhat generic words, he decided bring in the experts. In 1998, he engaged intellectual
property firm Spruson & Ferguson to register both the words and the distinctive two branches
with thorns image as trade marks. When the business expanded into fresh fruit delivery in
2005, Stevens trade marked Fruit Only, again with the stylised branches.
From day one I was trying to register the trade mark Roses Only, and now whenever anyone
mentions the words roses only you would assume that they are talking about our brand.
Having expanded into the New Zealand and UK markets, Stevens has the same trade marks
in both regions. He has also protected the trade mark under the Madrid Protocol international
trade mark system to cover the markets that are earmarked for possible expansion. Were not
even sure that were going to be in the US market for another few years, but weve already
got our trade mark registered there weve also got our Japanese trade marks locked up.
Garden of Growth
Stevens is a big believer in brands. I believe my brand can be thought of if youre thinking
about buying flowers and I want it to be top of mind. And as a logical brand extension,
Stevens now runs Hampers Only and Fruit Only. Hampers Only delivers boutique-style gift
hampers in the company's exclusive signature Trunk. The hampers are delivered within the
same day to Sydney and Melbourne, with Australia-wide delivery coming soon. Fruit Only
offers a wide selection of gift baskets of premium quality fruit for gifts, home or the
workplace. The fruit are presented in the company's environmentally friendly cardboard
designed to protect the orchard-fresh fruit.
On the strength of its online sales, the business has now opened successful retail outlets in
Sydney's CBD, Roseberry and West Melbourne.
Asked to set a goal for Roses Only, Stevens once commented that he strived for a business
reputation akin to jewellery icon Tiffany & Co that is, it has not been compromised. Our
Roses Only retail outlets showcase the finest flowers available, arranged elegantly by our
creative, passionate team of florists. From classic to contemporary, oriental to tropical, a
signature of timeless sophistication with every design. When asked about competitors,
Stevens says they will always be present. International giants such as Interflora and 1800
Flowers serve huge markets, but Stevens always felt there was a market for a well-packaged,
consistent brand that focused on the flower of choice: roses. There are so many things that
go wrong with a generic flower delivery. You might not like the design or the flowers theyve
put in, or the style or colours Weve taken out all those issues. You know exactly what
youre getting with us.
It would be nice to have this notional sense that the brand can grow for the next 100 years,
but at the same time the realism sets in and you say, Well, whos going to run this thing? In

the meantime, he will concentrate on doing what he does best selling roses and gerberas,
tulips, irises, orchids and lilies.
http://www.marketingmag.com.au/case-studies/inthespotlightrosesonly4231/#.Uk4B_yQwpa8
The spotlight: Roses Only
BY MARKETING ON 20 MARCH 2008
Ive been in flowers since I was five-years-old, says James Stevens. From the 1960s
onward, his parents owned a little flower shop a stall, to be exact at Sydneys Town Hall
Station. Having grown up with flowers, it came as no surprise when, upon graduating from
university in 1988, Stevens established Roses Only. He and his father now hold equal shares
in what has blossomed into a significant privately-owned business, employing 80 people and
indirectly providing work to another 300.
Just how much Roses Only has grown since the seeds were planted is unclear. Stevens is
cagey about the companys financials and will only talk in terms of the thousands of orders
placed each week. He has resisted the temptation of being ranked in BRWs various league
tables, and has subsequently never laid claim to a fastest growing title, or been crowned
head of one of Australias top private companies.
Its not something that I care to do. I dont particularly want to disclose our figures because
were a family business. We keep it pretty close to our chests, though if we contemplate
listing in a few years time well release some results, I suppose, says Stevens.
An initial public offering is likely to be the preferred option for the raising of capital for
further expansion into international markets. I feel that the real value will only come to us in
an IPO (as opposed to a private-type sale or an investor coming in) because our business and
brand is loved enough, and trusted enough, that people will pay what we would regard as a
fair price for equity in our brand.
Many aspects of the Roses Only business have evolved over the years, but the biggest change
has been to its sales channel. Originally Roses Only operated out of an upmarket shop in
Sydneys glamorous Chifley Tower, alongside Tiffany and various European designers of
haute couture. Phone sales were simultaneously managed through a call centre. The advent of
e-commerce and widespread acceptance of the use of credit cards, however, transformed the
retailer into an online business, and eventually led to the closure of all but one retail outlet.
Within a relatively short period of time, the online boom fuelled a dramatic domestic market
expansion and prompted Stevens to export the Roses Only brand overseas.
Weve gone from a single-city (Sydney) market to a business that now has distribution in 35
cities and towns around Australia, as well as Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, New
Zealand. Our signature product (the distinctly recognisable boxed roses) is available
throughout London and we distribute flowers in a different form of packaging throughout the
rest of the UK, he notes.

Stevens explains how the companys evolution online was at the same time as the explosion of
web portals such as Yahoo!, OzEmail, Optus Net and BigPond. We realised the new
technology gave us an opportunity to stand out. We wanted to dominate the new sales
channel. Prior to that, we were part of a massively fragmented flower industry.
While the vision was boldly stated, Roses Only has been relatively conservative in its
selection of new markets. That English be the main speaking language is non-negotiable so,
having expanded into the UK and New Zealand a few years ago, Singapore and Hong Kong
are next on the radar. The US is the last frontier.
Size could scare me, Stevens admits, when questioned about the opportunity presented by
the US. The size of the US market both its geographic spread and population is a bit
daunting. Id like to think Im not stupid or arrogant enough to just take that on.
He cites time and a preparedness to outlay the capital necessary to build brand awareness as
the biggest challenges in entering new markets. Certainly, he could not be accused of underinvesting in his brand. Almost from the outset, his above the line spend was in excess of $1
million and he has steadily, if not aggressively, used radio and print advertising to build brand
awareness.
A target rich environment
When Roses Only was established in the mid 1990s, Stevens target market was men in suits
with a credit card the investment bankers and corporate lawyers who make truckloads of
money, read the financial press, work late, and might not have had a meal at home for six
weeks. His vision was to make it easy for men to send roses (almost certainly red or pink),
using a credit card, originally over the phone and then online.
Martin Place suits are still priority targets, but these days 55 percent of Roses Only customers
are women typically, women who have received the product and liked it enough to send it
to their friends.
On average, females send flowers three to four times per year. In comparison, the average
male sends flowers only 1.5 times per year (birthday and anniversary only).
Stevens says men will only do what has to be done. Thats just the way it is, he reveals.
Men are have-to-do-only. Of course, were trying to break the back of that by telling men
there are those just because occasions.
When asked how much the flower business can grow, Stevens unveils his ambitious nature.
Our business has still got a massive amount of growth potential. I believe were only at
about one-third of the saturation point of Sydney; that we can grow 20-fold in Melbourne,
he states.
Anniversaries are the occasion that is synonymous with the giving of roses. Stevens estimates
there are five million relationships in Australia. His, not unrealistic, target is to get 10 percent
of that market to give one dozen (Roses Only) roses once a year.
Half a million boxes of one dozen roses, multiplied by $80 or so, adds up to some very good
reasons to make it easy for the men of Australia to express their romantic side. They do not
even need to remember their anniversary Roses Only will remind them.
Locally grown
Roses Only roses are not Australian-only roses, though the companys first approach is to
source locally in every market even down to the city that the flowers are being delivered

from. This preference is for commercial reasons, but also because the company feels an
obligation to support the communities in which it is doing business.
Growers in and around Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth supply product. If
the climate is not conducive to growing roses, as is the case north of Brisbane, they are
sourced from interstate. The last resort is to import from overseas.
Being a natural product, the challenge is to maintain quality, despite variable weather
patterns. The assurance of quality is particularly important as customers order flowers
without seeing them first-hand. We adhere to strict quality criteria when it comes to bud
size, stem thickness, foliage quality, petal quality, petal count (the volume of petals within a
bud), so its a nice, thick bud and has longevity, says Stevens. We scrutinise every variety
that actually comes through the door and were always looking at varieties, and looking at the
farms that theyre coming from.
As many of the roses are grown hydroponically, the business has not been affected by the
drought. Economies of scale have also allowed it to absorb the rising price of fuel. Most of
the farms deliver directly to fulfilment or production houses, be they florists or distribution
centres and the distribution outlets in Sydney and Melbourne are wholly owned by the
Stevens family; the remainder are independents that have long-term relationships with the
company.
Imported flowers are currently re-routed from Sydney, though that is likely to change in the
near-term. When that does happen, the company prepares the product for sale cutting stems
and rehydrating the flowers with water and nutrients to save time at the other end of the
supply chain.
Stevens reflects on the unusual way the company has grown. Every one of its distributors has
come via word of mouth, creating a closed network of flower people who are as fastidious
and anal about the product quality and the brand as we are.
Common sense marketing
Stevens majored in accounting and finance at university and, though he employs a marketing
manager, has been heavily involved since day dot in marketing the business. I call myself
common sense (hopefully) marketing and the ROI man. I think Im pretty good at seeing if
somethings going to yield or not and weve done enough to know what will work. A lot of it
is gut feel and I think Ive got a pretty good gut.
Over the years, he has enjoyed being first in his category to try new things, either above or
below the line. One example was the viral campaign, Have you ever been in love? which
was inspired by the infamous Carlton Draught Big Ad.
As it transpired, the campaign, though beautiful to watch, did not achieve the desired results.
I think we were chasing a bit too much expecting it to generate a call to action as well as
branding. I dont think you can do both that was a lesson we learned.
Stevens also admits that at two minutes running time, the viral was too long. Its the sort of
piece you watch yourself, and enjoy, but it didnt really have the humour or shock value to
prompt people to send it on, he explains.
The campaign has not been shelved altogether and may well reappear in a different format
as a cinema trailer perhaps sometime down the track.

Across the Tasman, Roses Only has developed creative campaigns including one preValentines Day sponsorship that involved boxes of roses being given away to Air New
Zealand passengers.
Stevens considers the media buy that has been most effective is the Australian Financial
Review. Running an ad (albeit a very small ad in an unusual shape) in the Financial Review
day in, day out for the better part of almost five years is probably about the best bit of
advertising that seeded our brand in Australia. Following that, I would say commercial radio
good old Alan Jones.
Right now, Roses Only is trialling a new television commercial in the regional markets of
Canberra, Newcastle and on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. Search engine marketing on
Google, Overture, ninemsn and other portals continues to form a part of the media mix.
Direct marketing is the jewel in the Roses Only crown. Over time it has built a huge database
of consumers (and businesses, to a lesser degree), who have opted in to receive the brands
fortnightly newsletter. Around two percent of recipients make a purchase from each issue.
Members who are repeat online customers are afforded loyalty discounts. Customers are also
prompted to purchase when they register for the important dates reminder service.
We have a conversion rate of about 10 percent when people come to our site. We also have a
very, very high brand awareness because 60 percent of people who go to Google actually type
our name into the search engine. Were very lucky were not paying for a whole heap of
search engine advertising people are just looking for our website with a view to buying
from us. Of those searches, we probably have a conversion rate in the order of 20 to 30
percent.
In recent years, Stevens pursuit of the lucrative business-to-business market has driven him
to consider brand extensions. Fruit Only was launched in late 2005. Hampers Only is
scheduled to go live later this year.
Stevens is confident his Roses Only customers will follow to the other ranges of delivered
gifts. Corporate clients are anticipated to generate a large proportion of sales for every
occasion when it may not be appropriate to say it with flowers.

Business venture proves rosy for James Stevens

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/business/items/200609/s1732894.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 04/09/2006
Reporter: Brigid Glanville
Now for the first of a regular feature on Lateline Business - a special profile of some of
Australia's successful business men and woman. In the first of our series we look at the
entrenpreneur who created a multi-million dollar business out of packing roses in
cardboard boxes, and selling them online. Brigid Glanville met Roses Only founder,
James Stevens.
Transcript
ALI MOORE: Now for the first of a regular feature on Lateline Business, a special profile of
some of Australia's successful businessmen and women. In the first of our series we look at
the entrepreneur who created a multimillion-dollar business out of packing roses in cardboard
boxes and selling them on line. Bridget Smith met Roses Only founder James Stevens.
JAMES STEVENS: I'm the President of the Roses Only organisation in Sydney.
BRIDGET SMITH: Entrepreneur James Stevens has made his money by selling roses. But
not from a shop or store he does all his business online. 10 years ago James Stevens was
working in his parent's florist in Sydney's CBD when he came up with a different way of
selling roses. His clients loved giving roses but James Stevens, the marketing man himself,
could see every florist did it the same way. When someone receives flowers from Roses Only
they're boxed with chocolates, pot pourri and rose oil, just to start.
JAMES STEVENS: It's a classic gift and it's one of those things that will never, ever change.
I mean they've been giving, the gifting of a dozen roses is something that's been going on, for
centuries.
BRIDGET SMITH: When Roses Only first started there were 10 stores. The shop soon
became a call centre for a growing national business. James decided that for the business to
really grow, online had to be the focus.
JAMES STEVENS: You can't be all things to all people. At this point in time we wanted to
concentrate on the online and call centre and brand side of our business. Because I don't
believe you can do all things at the same time, we probably started failing as a business when
it came to actually running the bricks and mortar side of our business.
BRIDGET SMITH: Conceding the failure of the florist shops, James Stevens put all his
efforts into promoting online. His punt paid off. Two years ago half the sales were through

online. By last year this had grown to 85% of sales.

JAMES STEVENS: We have a goal to get to a million deliveries a year at some point in time
in the future.
BRIDGET SMITH: How many are you at now?
JAMES STEVENS: Oh, I'd like to keep that, we keep that close to our chests. But I would
dare say that we're five to six years away from achieving hopefully a million deliveries a
year.
BRIDGET SMITH: James Stevens credits the expansion of his business to one thing loads of
advertising and marketing. The company spends millions of dollars a year selling its brand,
online, on the radio, in newspapers and magazines.
JAMES STEVENS: When we first kicked off the business, in the first year we would
probably have spent, almost 100% of our revenue went back into advertising and marketing,
which obviously means that we lost money in the first one or two years. It was only five or
six years ago we were still spending up to 30% of our revenue on advertising and marketing.
Nowadays it's closer to 15%.
BRIDGET SMITH: James Stevens buys roses from a number of growers to make sure there's
a consistent supply. This rose farm is the biggest supplier, providing 100,000 bunches a year.
All the roses are grown hydroponically to ensure quality and quantity that Roses Only
demands. When not in the office James spends time visiting growers in every State who are
his suppliers. The business is still growing. The latest venture is Fruit Only, which creates
gifts for the corporate world. And for the future?
JAMES STEVENS: It's very, very hard if I go back three years ago I wouldn't have known
that I would have been in Fruit Only. I see us growing our brand a lot more in the UK. I think
there's immense opportunity there, and hopefully enter a few other markets, we're in the New
Zealand market now. I think Singapore is probably the next market that we might go into.

http://www.growyourbusiness.com.au/success/petal-to-the-metal/
In just 15 years, Roses Only has gone from a one-store start-up business to a ubiquitous brand
that has earned the nations trust.
In the process, founder James Stevens has shown himself to be a shrewd brand-builder who
leverages off his understanding of the potential customer base and an innate skill to use media
to his advantage. Not a bad effort for a guy who had no master plan to be an entrepreneur.
I didnt know what I wanted to be, he admits. I didnt plan anything. Im a terrible
planner.
While he jokes that his inclination towards self-employment may be linked to his half-serious
belief that I wasnt employable, in reality Stevens concedes that becoming a business
owner had been hardwired into his DNA courtesy of exposure to his familys flower
enterprise in Sydney.
I grew up in a family business. It was almost expected of me to order people around. Thats
a horrible thing to say, but I hated seeing my dads money being squandered I would point
out the things that I saw being inefficiencies from a pretty young age the things that would
irk my dad.
That early operational involvement had a big impact in shaping Stevens and the business he
would later create.
We grew up in a retail environment where you had to serve people quickly on a railway
station otherwise youd lose a sale So from the back of the store I would actually call out
service please, can you go out the front and serve, so I suppose I took it upon myself to lead
a little bit.
The family business exposure at a young age would later prove invaluable.
He explains: I essentially worked in the family business throughout my schooling life. From
about the age of 15 or 16, in a particular set of school holidays, my father had taken a
leasehold, separate from the family flower business at Town Hall station, which was sitting
idle and so I actually took the liberty of opening that store.
Already with a keen understanding of the customer on the run, Stevens quickly demonstrated
an inherited ability to spot a market opportunity.
I realised there was a bit of a gap in the market for people to buy a one-off piece of good
quality fruit for lunch, he says. There were a few fruit barrows around, but there were no
fruit shops per se in the city and then you had a few of the supermarkets that actually sold
fruit. But with all due respect, they did a terrible job of sourcing good quality fruit. (History
often repeats with entrepreneurs, and some years later Stevens would extend his Roses Only
brand to include Fruit Only and Hampers Only.)
Still barely out of school, Stevens was proving his mettle.
In 1987, while I was at uni, I actually extended that store and we also bought a neighbouring
takeaway food business and it became a very, very large business which I set up at the age of
20, he says. Were talking about a business that probably had a turnover of around $2
million at the time.

Trained as an accountant in his early adult life, Stevens spent only about six months in his
chosen profession before the call of the entrepreneur got to him. The business bug had well
and truly bitten and in 1993 Stevens set up his first store outside a major metropolitan railway
station in an office building in Sussex Street, Darling Park, which still exists today and is the
only bricks-and-mortar site in the Roses Only Group.
Its just our way of staying in touch with retail, he says.
Two years later, the opportunity presented itself to secure a prominent corner spot in the heart
of the CBD in Chifley Plaza, a construction project launched by entrepreneur Alan Bond
before he went broke.
I think they were struggling to get tenants at the time, Stevens reveals. I didnt want to do
a generic flower shop that was pretty common. I wanted something that was going to stand
out and be different and someone had mentioned that theyd seen a flower business in New
York that only sold roses and thats when the penny dropped.
It represented the convergence of a great idea and a young man who had been socially
engineered to understand the flower-buying customer.
For years and years, people walked into my parents stores and for special occasions the men
would always buy long-stemmed roses, he says. So what I wanted to do was to be the
aggregator or the place that specialised in that particular little niche. There were other
specialities within industries already, such as Just Jeans in the clothing game and weve all
become quite specialised in the retailing environment over the last 20 or 30 years.
As mentioned, Roses Only did not come with a master plan, but Stevens did implement a
strategy that drew from his innate sense of customer profiling and what they want.
There was no plan other than the fact I wanted to target men, time-poor men, who had a
credit card, he explains. That was the target market and so I thought Id target the Financial
Review as the media I would advertise in.
That newspaper put his product in front of the lawyers, accountants and finance professionals
who were the key to Stevens success. Better still, his was the only flower shop advertising in
that space. Reflecting on that experiment, Stevens admits he went hard on the advertising
campaign and believes you cannot pursue promotion half-heartedly. Yes, it was a gamble, but
it paid off.
Another market-defining strategy the propelled the Roses Only brand was a tie-up with
leading broadcaster Alan Jones in the 1990s.
Alan Jones was becoming a reasonably powerful force in radio on 2UE so we decided to go
with Alan and I think that that gave us a broader spectrum of business people upper and
middle management within corporations who might have listened to the program, who also
had a credit card and could afford a dozen roses.
While the ad costs were significant, management did not spend outside its budget and was
determined to build the businesss name.
Outside brand, the other perennial strength of Roses Only has been the behind-the-scenes
support of a family that trusts their sons judgment.
I was very fortunate that mum and dad are very, very supportive of any decision that I make
and I hope that I can be as supportive to my children in years to come, Stevens says.
Ive made plenty of mistakes, but theyve still supported every decision. Nonetheless, Ive
made a lot more decisions that are right than are wrong and Alan Jones was one of the right
ones.

Stevens believes trusting his own gut feel has served him well since his school days at Town
Hall station. Another part of his competitive advantage is a strong network. He is a member
of the Entrepreneurs Organisation, a global alliance of more than 7500 business owners in 38
countries, which gives him access to contemporaries who are also building businesses. The
sharing of ideas and business war stories helps Stevens shape his own business strategies.
Ive always had a lot of people around me who I speak to and then I just gather my thoughts,
but ultimately youve got to make a decision and Im the person that makes that decision, he
says.
On experts and the use of focus groups, Stevens is not a fan.
Focus groups are a waste of time and if you dont understand your business, you might as
well close the doors now, he advises. Youre the focus group you need a good gut feel for
whats happening and what your customers are doing, but at the same time we measure this in
lots of ways. We get responses now online from people who arent shy to tell us if theres
something wrong or if theyve got a suggestion. We put response cards in our packs with a
free reply paid post we want to hear from customers.
Roses Only Group once directly employed about 120 people but has cut that figure to roughly
80 full-time equivalents following a change of business model that utilises fulfilment partners
in areas outside Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of a strategy that emphasises being lean and
agile, and not ignoring the challenges of the unknown.
I think at all times you need to avoid getting carried away if you see a bit of strength in your
business and in your numbers because you just dont know whats around the corner,
Stevens warns. Always be ready for this and have enough there as a buffer for the out-ofleft-field things that can happen in any business. When people ask me hows business? Im
always cautious because Ive had so many slaps in the face.
Over the years, Stevens has changed as an entrepreneur in the face of new and evolving
challenges.
I just think the stakes are bigger, he observes. When the stakes are bigger, you become a
little bit more cautious you do grow from experience and you gain wisdom.
Asked if his business success story can be put down to marketing, the product, the service or
the business model, Stevens struggles to split the key drivers.
I think its a combination. I dont think its the business model necessarily, but I think its
100 per cent attention to service, 100 per cent dedication to quality and I think those things go
hand in hand. But then you have to raise awareness of these key offerings. At the moment
weve got to raise awareness of what were doing in the hamper industry. I think were
revolutionising the hamper industry because people traditionally think that hamper is just
food in a basket. We have the most amazing music hampers after doing a deal with the likes
Sony Music and various other music companies such as Universal. We even have book
hampers.
On what the University of New South Wales gave Stevens that has helped his business dream
come true, he points to its gift of making him think.
A little bit of formality and a little bit of thinking outside the square have been important to
me, he admits. Universities are always created to make people think and its more than
making you work out the equilibrium price. Its a time of learning, its a time of mixing with
other young adults and its the talkfest of ideas that is probably a lot more important than
what you learn necessarily in lectures and tutorials.

Some academics might take issue with Stevens on that score, but the formula has certainly
worked for him and the Roses Only Group.
This article was originally published in Savvy Understanding the Entrepreneur. In Savvy
Understanding the Entrepreneur, we have put some of our finest tertiary-educated
entrepreneurs, who also happen to be graduates of the Australian School of Business at the
University of New South Wales, under the success detection spotlight.
Savvy Understanding the Entrepreneur explores the minds of our best business achievers
who reveal what theyve done to build a great company
Thorny issue for online shopping

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Asher Moses
September 17, 2007 - 5:05PM
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
Have you been affected by the scam? We would like to hear your side of the story.
Send details to scoop@smh.com.au.
Several Australians who ordered from online florist Roses Only this year have told how
their credit card details were stolen and used by fraudsters around the world.
The stolen details were used to buy items including airline tickets to Abu Dhabi, rail tickets
in Italy, hotel bookings and computers.
The issue is so severe that NSW Police has set up Strike Force Parkview to investigate the
possible compromise of Roses Only's database and theft of customer credit card details.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has launched an investigation into the steps taken
by the company to address the issue.
Roses Only made an announcement on the security breach to media after news reports
surfaced late on Friday. The company said it had been recently advised its system may have
been compromised through an unauthorised intrusion earlier in the year.
It said the security issue had now been fixed and customers would not be liable for any
unauthorised transactions.
A message on the Roses Only website said the company did not store any credit card data
in its system. It did not respond to queries asking how its customers' credit card details

could have been stolen otherwise, nor would it give the dates during which customers could
have been affected.
The Australian Bankers Association said people who were defrauded by the scam would
"get their money back" and bank customers were not responsible for unauthorised
transactions on their accounts.
Several readers contacted smh.com.au about the issue, saying they were not notified of the
security breach by Roses Only and found out only when their banks contacted them to say
their credit card details had been compromised.
They said their banks would not name Roses Only as being responsible but the details
provided, such as the dates of transactions and the types of purchases made, indicated their
details were obtained via a security breach at Roses Only.
One Sydneysider, Bruce, said he was certain his credit card details were stolen from the
Roses Only database because the scammer attempted to book airline tickets and entered his
fiance's work address under "home details". Bruce used the address as the delivery address
in his Roses Only order.
Several Australians who ordered from online florist Roses Only this year have told how
their credit card details were stolen and used by fraudsters around the world.
The stolen details were used to buy items including airline tickets to Abu Dhabi, rail tickets
in Italy, hotel bookings and computers.
The issue is so severe that NSW Police has set up Strike Force Parkview to investigate the
possible compromise of Roses Only's database and theft of customer credit card details.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has launched an investigation into the steps taken
by the company to address the issue.
Roses Only made an announcement on the security breach to media after news reports
surfaced late on Friday. The company said it had been recently advised its system may have
been compromised through an unauthorised intrusion earlier in the year.
It said the security issue had now been fixed and customers would not be liable for any
unauthorised transactions.
A message on the Roses Only website said the company did not store any credit card data
in its system. It did not respond to queries asking how its customers' credit card details
could have been stolen otherwise, nor would it give the dates during which customers could
have been affected.
The Australian Bankers Association said people who were defrauded by the scam would
"get their money back" and bank customers were not responsible for unauthorised
transactions on their accounts.

Several readers contacted smh.com.au about the issue, saying they were not notified of the
security breach by Roses Only and found out only when their banks contacted them to say
their credit card details had been compromised.
They said their banks would not name Roses Only as being responsible but the details
provided, such as the dates of transactions and the types of purchases made, indicated their
details were obtained via a security breach at Roses Only.
One Sydneysider, Bruce, said he was certain his credit card details were stolen from the
Roses Only database because the scammer attempted to book airline tickets and entered his
fiance's work address under "home details". Bruce used the address as the delivery address
in his Roses Only order.