Reinventing the Flower Shop

French Florist was once a struggling flower shop in Los Angeles. Here's how it transformed into an innovative franchise that's taking on the industry.

- by JASON FEIFER

In 2018, Michael Jacobson was fresh out of college when he got an unexpected call. His uncle had been running a local flower shop called French Florist for 40 years, but he was burned out and wanted Jacobson to help him sell it. Jacobson said yes—but the more he learned about the floral industry, the more he realized there was a bigger opportunity there.

The way Jacobson saw it, all local florists suffered from the same three problems. First, most orders came through aggregators like 1-800-FLOWERS, whose commission and fees often took north of 40% of a sale's revenue. Second, local shops couldn't buy directly from flower farms, so they had to go through expensive middlemen, which reduced the freshness of the flowers. And third, local shops were working with outdated technology. If Jacobson could solve all of these issues, he figured, he could build a competitive business—so he became the CEO of French Florist, and transformed it into a budding franchise that has 18 locations. Here, he explains how he did it.

How did you free yourself from that 40% cut to aggregators?