Wholesaling to Florists: Take Stress-Free Orders and Start Selling Your Flowers
If you’ve been thinking about selling flowers to florists, chances are you’ve already bumped into some of these common questions:
What should I charge?
Which varieties should I be growing?
Should I build a wholesale website? How?
How do I reach local florists and win their business week after week?
These are all crucial questions, and we address each and every one of them in our Wholesaling Toolkit for Flower Farmers. But do you know what other questions are crucial to consider? The ones your customers are asking… of you! What are your responsibilities to your customers and how do you meet their expectations?
In this blog, we take a deep dive into the typical order management workflow and reveal the questions florists ask their suppliers before, during, and after they’ve received their flower order. If you’re new to wholesaling (or still considering if this revenue stream is for you!), you’ll get a head start on building your wholesale outfit the right way from the get-go! If you’re already wholesaling and looking for ways to increase your customer base and boost your revenue, understanding common florist pain points will help you refine your understanding… as well as your systems!
The Ordering Journey Of Your Florist Customer
If you want to pursue wholesaling as a revenue stream, it helps to understand the wholesale workflow and what a florist might expect from you as it relates to their order experience from start to end. And it’s important to know that a florist’s purchasing experience, especially from big-box suppliers that only deal with imported goods, can be… well… lacking at best. Florists of all types—from business owners who sell arrangements out of their retail location to designers who curate statement pieces for weddings and special events—are looking for smooth, reliable, and high-quality experience that they can trust every time they’re in the market for flowers. There are eight steps to the wholesale workflow, and below we tell you exactly what your florist customers are wondering at every step of the way:
Step 1: Deciding to Order
Before anything else, your florist customer is scanning for the basics: What’s available this week? Are these flowers fresh and reliable? Do I trust what I’m seeing? They’re wondering if your version of “peach lisianthus” is their version. They also want to know your policies—delivery, substitutions, returns, sales tax exemptions—and whether you look like someone who knows how to handle a wholesale order.
Hint: You’ll need strong marketing, clear communication, and visually rich availability lists to recruit and retain new customers.
Step 2: Submitting the Order
Now that they’ve decided to order, florists are asking: How fast and easy is it to get this done? They want to browse your offerings, make selections, and hit "submit"—without a lot of back-and-forth. If the process is clunky, confusing, or slow, it adds friction. And in the world of wedding prep and back-to-back design jobs, friction is a deal-breaker.
Hint: A mobile-friendly order form or website checkout is essential. The fewer steps, the better.
Step 3: Confirming the Order
Once they’ve submitted their order, florists are waiting for one thing: confirmation. Does the grower have the inventory or will I have to source from somewhere else? They want to know that you received the order and that everything they asked for is truly available. This step affects whether they can lock in their design plan or if they need to scramble to find replacements.
Hint: Send a clear order confirmation that includes exactly what they’ll be receiving. If anything is pending or low in quantity, say so right away.
Step 4: Payment
This is where clarity and ease matter most. Florists are wondering: Do I pay now? Later? Online? Can I use a card? They want to pay securely and get back to their business. And if your payment system is complicated, they may feel less confident placing another order.
Hint: Whether you invoice manually or accept online payments, the process should be smooth and the terms clear. Bonus points for automatic invoices or integrated payment buttons.
Step 5: Receipts and Records
Florists are small business owners too, and many are fastidious about their records. They’re thinking: Will I get a receipt for this? How can I track this for my books? If they have to chase you down for documentation, it chips away at your professionalism.
Hint: Choose tools that send automated receipts—or commit to sending them manually. Store your records in one central place so you can resend or reference them when needed.
Step 6: Order Update
It happens all the time: the client adds a boutonniere, or a stem gets snapped during prep. Florists are wondering: Can I add a few bunches? Swap out a variety? They need to know whether small updates are possible—and how to go about making them.
Hint: Make it easy to request changes and be responsive. If you’re using manual invoicing, reissuing an updated invoice is a simple way to accommodate tweaks and show flexibility.
Step 7: Delivery or Pick-Up
As the delivery or pickup day approaches, your customer is thinking logistics: Where do I go? When do I need to be there? Will someone be there to help? If you're delivering, they’re wondering: Will they show up on time? Will flowers get left on my doorstep if I’m not there to meet them?
Hint: Provide detailed delivery or pickup instructions, label all orders clearly, and keep everything running on schedule. That reliability turns first-time buyers into loyal customers.
Step 8: Post-Delivery Follow-Up
Even after the flowers are in their cooler, your florist customer is still asking: Do they care how everything turned out? A quick check-in tells them you’re invested in quality—and that you’re the kind of grower they want to build a long-term relationship with.
Hint: A brief thank-you message or quality check-in (especially for new customers) is a small touch that has a big impact. It sets you apart from growers who disappear after the sale.
Professional Doesn’t Mean Perfect - It Means Predictable
If this sounds like a lot, keep these three things in mind
1. Wholesaling doesn’t require perfection.
But it does require you to think like your customer and meet real expectations that work for both your business and theirs. Each step in the florist’s ordering journey is an opportunity to build trust, reduce friction, and make your farm the obvious choice. Read about more florist expectations that you may not have considered in another recent blog post - Think Like A Florist To Sell Like A Florist.
2. Build solid systems.
If you want to grow your florist accounts and boost your wholesale revenue, start by refining the systems that support every order you take. Because when your systems are solid, everything gets easier:
Showcasing and selling your product feels like zero-effort
Taking orders is clear, predictable, and efficient for everyone
Your florists trust you and choose you as their go-to supplier
Your ability to be profitable truly soars
3. Hit the “easy button” by using the Wholesaling Toolkit for Flower Farmers ⬇️
We walk you through how to achieve success - for you and your florists - regarding the 8 steps above and so much more with the Wholesaling Toolkit. We give away the tools and templates WE have used to run a streamlined ordering backend and to recruit and retain local florists as loyal members of our customer base. Glean from our 10+ years in the game and bypass newbie mistakes… like putting the reputation of your business on the line before you’ve got the right systems and marketing in place!
Still deciding if Wholesaling is right for you? Stay tuned for our Revenue Streams Compass where we dive deep into allll of the flower farming revenue streams and help you choose the one(s) that align with your personality, business goals, and production capabilities. Join the waitlist here to be the first to know when it’s available.
The Wholesaling Toolkit
For just $39, get clear, professional systems for working with florists—so you can spend less time emailing and more time growing.
🔁 Set up and refine your wholesale ordering system, start to finish
💲 Price your wholesale flowers accurately while sustaining your business
📣 Market and sell your flowers and expand your customer base along the way
🌸 TEN tools and templates are INCLUDED!