Esmeralda Farms, Inc., is now offering retailers a chance to view and purchase their products, without cutting the wholesaler out of the chain.

The Miami-based distributor recently beta tested an online ordering feature, Esmeralda Direct, where retailers can see and buy from Esmeralda’s live, open-market inventory — but at prices listed by their wholesalers. The product is shipped in refrigerated trucks to the wholesaler, who delivers it to the retailer, says Mark Dubner, sales manager for Esmeralda, which grows all of its flowers on its own farms, in Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Peru.

After setting up an account through their wholesaler, retailers can order direct from Esmeralda’s live inventory. Wholesalers then bill the retailers.

“Wholesalers are in charge of all the logistics, all the billing and all the account maintenance,” Dubner says.

Mike Hurley, president of Oklahoma Flower Market, a wholesaler in Oklahoma City and a customer of Esmeralda, says even though the online feature is still in its infancy, he expects more customers to use it. The Oklahoma Flower Market is informing its retail customers about it through direct-mail and telemarketing efforts.

“The customers really like it. It’s easy to navigate and it’s delivered through the cold-chain and that’s important,” Hurley says.

The new online-buying system was beta tested in selected markets at the beginning of August 2007 and will be rolled out to retailers nationwide this month. So far, according to Dubner, more than 400 retailers have signed up for accounts and approximately 50 have already made purchases.

“Wholesalers like it because it reduces risk,” Dubner says, because everything shipped to the wholesalers has already been purchased. “Retailers like it because they can see everything that we have available.”

 

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