Minneapolis Florist Website
There has been a Florist and Flower Shop with a Greenhouse operation at this corner in Minneapolis for over 112 years, there is allot of history here and we hope to continue for many more years with our family business and our wonderful new Florist Website!
We started with our very first web site in the fall of 1997 - (orchidz.com - still online as we published it) -
From day one we have produced our own web sites, back then there was very little in the way of web resources for a web site. I learned out of necessity how to publish a basic web page and then, the more complex web sites, complete with home made images!
At the time, we contracted the hosting of this first site, for 2 years, and soon realized we needed much more that provider could provide - We then contracted with 2 different providers for the the next 9 years and leased dedicated web server, service. A dedicated server, then a 2nd for my web development work as I learned how to do the web programming that drives the ecommerce engines of the web, as again, early on, there was no such thing as a shopping cart that would serve the needs of the florist, so out of necessity, I learned how to do this web ecommerce programming work.
I met a person in the early days in a web programming news group, Uli Pfelier, who lives in Germany that became a fast friend. We have combined our skills and best efforts to bring this new ecommerce platform, finally, to fruition for our flowershop! - This has been a 4 year project as we have literally written all of the code for the programming of the software that drives the site, done all of the testing, created the layout, the web presentation in what we call our spare time (really there is no such thing) - this is truly an exclusive website, like none other on the web - we have many features built in that will make this a success - This site will even run itself for a whole year, making sure there is never an out of date holiday or seasonal presentation on the home page, our ez-seasons module. These presentations, can even change the overall site layout with these change of presentations - we call it 'change of seasons' - also there are many tools built in to help us with many marketing areas - including a robust coupon tool, drawing event, even a rewards system - we even have an exclusive 'one click shopping' as part of the reminders system feature...
The catalyst for this new site, was a client believe it or not, name Rose who had an order for Secretaries Day, and our site, as so many ecommerce sites, especially flower shop, florist sites can only accommodate shopping for one occasion with one delivery destination, she had several destinations with many people to order for! This posed a monumental task for ecommerce 4 years a go and quite a challenge today! Thanks to Rose, with our new site, you can shop for as many people at as many destinations as you can possibly imagine! Monday I will call Rose to thank her for her inspiration, and the order that launched a four year project!
This project was unfortunately interrupted for 18 months by a bad motorcycle accident I had, where I was run off the road by a taxi van driver that told police I was going too slow on Wirth Pky... Just in front of the Clubhouse (a 25mph zone). But odd as it may sound without this delay and change of mindset in the project along the way the site would not be what it is today, this clarification came to me during a stressful time for me, when I was unable to work on things after the accident with conversations with my friend Wade at Woodlane Flowers, here in town.
Last summer, to help with this new ecommerce platform, to actually bring it to life we needed much more web server power that what our leased web server service was able to supply, we searched for a local provider and found ipHouse in Downtown Minneapolis, interviewed them and found a very knowledgeable staff, discovered they had an expert partner in the business, Mike Horwath, that offered, out of the kindness of his heart, after hearing about our flowershop, my goals and what I was trying to do (... and in the long term change this industry with my many other projects...), agreed to help me set up my own dedicated web serving system that would be co-located at their secure data center in Downtown Minneapolis -
I bought 2 HP Webservers and a new super duper Dell File Server for my 'System' based on recommendations from an early days of the www pal of mine, Sam Moats, who always had told me me "One Day Phil, When You Are Ready, Here Is How You Should Be Serving Your Web Sites". So I took Sams advice...
With this info and the new web servers in hand, more like on the cart as they each weigh 80-100lbs it was off to ipHouse and the magician Mike, he did the engineering for the amazing setup of the system and installed it and hooked it up to the 'internet' and I was up and running as my own 'web service and internet service provider'!
For this wonderful work, Mike Horwath is my hero as this system, purchased by me, set up by him, has been running without incident since last August!
This has been truly a team effort on many parts, and honestly if I did not start out with my mindset of independence in 1997, I would have never met my friends Sam, or Uli and Certainly not Mike and for that matter, Rose, none of this would be possible, with the combined continued support of all of these people we hope this will project work well for us for years into the future.
We thank them as well as our flower buyers for the wonderful support that keeps all of this going.
As part of the site launch, will be offering a discount on all deliveries, including Valentine's Day, when people mention the new site or order via the new site! Enter coupon code vday-09 for $5.00 Discount on Metro Flower Delivery - This coupon is good forever for one use!
wow... not sure where to stop....
aaah the phone is ringing...
off to sell some flowers
many thanks for reading this very long post
Phillip Murphy
Crystal Lake Floral Design
Orchids By Murphy
Minneapolis
