Like "bouquet"... but (trying to be) cooler, because shortened. The Bouqs, a flower delivery/subscription startup, just got a fragrant $30M delivered to its door (#romantic) from a Japanese investor. It's raised a total $74M, beating its flowery peers by a long stem. Now, The Bouqs is taking its flower biz to Japan's $6B flower market. Here's how it blossomed:
- Direct-to-consumer: No middlemen and straight to your door, deliveries of one-off orders or subscriptions for people who want to treat themselves on the reg. Because if bacon can be subsciptified, anything can.
- Millennial-friendly: Some examples of Bouqs bouquets: "Raspberry Rosé" (roses come complete with a fancy Compartes chocolate bar), "Lavender Lover" (succulent bouquet comes with a lavender diffuser), and other fun ones like "Wild About U."
- Farm-Direct: What sets it apart from other VC-funded flower startups like Farm Girl and BloomThat. Getting flowers straight from the farm cuts supply chain costs (and boosts freshness).
International expansion... means international competition. The Bouqs competes with less-cool-named (but bigger) companies like 1-800-Flowers and FTD in the US. Now, it's gonna have to compete with popular Japanese flower delivery companies, too.
Impulse buys have to be local buys... And flowers are classic impulse buys. "Thinking of You" flowers and "Sorry I Forgot Your B'day" flowers need to be delivered stat. You're prob gonna choose a local florist for those, rather than a Bouqs-like startup that needs a day or two to deliver. That's why The Bouqs is leaning on its subscription biz, developing its brick-and-mortar stores — and jumping into the (very profitable) wedding biz.