As trialled a little while ago in our New Year’s resolutions post, I’m pleased to announce that we went live with a new website yesterday, in partnership with Cancer Research UK, the UK’s leading cancer research charity. The website, the Cancer Research Flower Shop, allows flower lovers to send all of our flowers and make a donation to UK’s favourite charity at the same time. In an “FAQ” format, here are the key points:
How Does It Work?
It’s pretty simple really. Customers go to the Cancer Research UK flower shop and order, just as they would on Arena. The site has been rebranded to fit with Cancer Research UK’s branding etc, but operates exactly the same as the Arena Flowers website. There should be no discernible difference in user experience and all prices etc will be exactly the same as on the Arena Flowers site. Customer services will also be handled by Arena’s customer services team.
The main differences are that two categories of gift items (chocolates and wines/champagnes) are not available (in order to comply with Cancer Research UK’s policies) and recipients will receive a message card with the Cancer Research UK branding letting them know that a donation was made as part of the purchase. Another difference is that the flower shop will offer UK deliveries only to begin with (ie no international flowers).
How Much Is Donated to Cancer Research UK?
A whopping 20% of the gross order value (excluding any delivery costs, though we seldom charge for delivery anyway) is donated to Cancer Research UK. At the end of each month, we’ll tot up all the orders through the site and send a cheque to Cancer Research UK for the amount raised. We’ll keep you posted about how much is raised over time (subject to confidentiality requirements, obviously). It should be a good amount as Cancer Research UK will be promoting the shop through its own channels and driving flower buyers to the site.
Isn’t It Bad For Arena’s Business To Give Away 20%?
No, we don’t think so. Firstly, we won’t spend any money marketing the site as, legally, we are just a supplier to Cancer Research UK. Cancer Research UK are the ones who will be marketing the site. So, given we are not paying for any marketing, we can afford to give our “marketing budget per order” back as a donation. Having said that, our marketing budget is nowhere near as high as 20% so we are not going to be making a huge amount of money out of sales through this site.
However, we are not going to be losing money and we believe that this is a very worthy cause and we’re absolutely delighted to be supporting it. Plus, of course, we will also benefit from things like building more scale into our own business, possibly some nice PR and feeling like good eggs when we go to sleep at night.
Will Arena Marketing and Promo Codes Cross Over With The Cancer Research UK Flower Shop?
No, not regularly, apart from the odd post like this one. There is a reason for this; customers who place orders through the Cancer Research UK flower shop will become customers of Cancer Research UK and all the marketing opt ins etc will be with Cancer Research UK and not with Arena. The two entities (Arena Flowers and the Cancer Research UK flower shop) are separate and will operate independently from each other. This will apply to any promo codes or incentives offered too; promo codes for Arena Flowers will not necessarily work on the Cancer Research UK site and vice versa.
What About Gift Aid?
We’re working on gift aid. Watch this space! You can already add a donation to your basket in the Cancer Research UK checkout, to top up the donation to Cancer Research UK. The full donation amount, net of costs (eg credit card charges), will be passed to Cancer Research UK.
So that’s it. Hopefully all very straightforward. We’re very pleased with this initiative as it works well for all concerned and helps raise money to combat one of the UK’s biggest killers, whilst happily spreading great flowers at great prices even wider. Please let us know what you think or if you have any other suggestions.
Thanks!
UPDATE:
We got a nice quote in from Simon Ledsham, trading director Cancer Research UK, who said:
“We’re delighted to be working with Arena Flowers. Not only will you be giving beautiful flowers with each purchase, but you will be helping us to beat cancer at the same time. Thank you for your support.”
If you found this post interesting, you might also enjoy our other posts about good causes and fund raising and you might also enjoy our posts about ethics and the environment.
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