This article was written by Raquel P. Gomez and was published at Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Modern day prophets of the digital revolution like Vint Cerf (known as the Father of the Internet and Google’s chief Internet evangelist), predict that the world’s economy and commerce–the whole gamut of transactions involving money, products, and services–will be mainly done online.

Online business or selling of products and services over the Internet, allows for people in any part of the world to conveniently buy products and services at a click of the mouse or a tap of the screen. Business that go online will be able to grow the business on a global scale, reaching more markets that in the first place will be physically impossible for them to reach.

Aside from convenience and speed, the Internet could offer a financial goldmine as proven by established global online businesses like ebay and Amazon.

The Internet as the perfect place for a new business to thrive attracted Dustin Andaya in 2001 and caused the then 30-year-old entrepreneur to start islandrose.net, an online retail shop of flowers.

“At that time, there were only very few local retails onine stores. Most local websites offer services like Edsamail, but soon these websites were bought by bigger ones. I thought of the online shop as an addition to my father’s wholesale flower business.”

Andaya’s online flower shop required the services of a courier in order for the flowers that were ordered by customers on the website to be delivered to recipients. However, Andaya found it difficult to convince courier establishments to carry his products. They were used to delivering packages and to deliver a bunch of delicate flowers wasn’t their thing.

By some stroke of luck, a close friend of Andaya opened a courier service. Islandrose.net became its very first client.

By 2003, the volume of orders from islandrose.net dramatically increased, with a bulk of customers from abroad ordering flowers for their relatives here in the Philippines.

Andaya said soon the courier services began to notice the huge volume and eventually hooked up with the online flower shop. Today, major couriers like LBC, Aboitiz, DHL and Air21 deliver the flowers. These couriers go thrice a day to islandrose.net office on dela Rosa street in Makati City to pick the flowers for delivery to any point in the country. Flowers are usually delivered the next day, except for orders done before 10 in the morning, which are delivered on the same day.

Andaya is more than happy with islandrose.net, an initiative which he could claim as his “successful online creation.” He said his father’s business was already at its peak in 2001, having reached the volume of 1 million stems of roses sold in a year. With islandrose.net, which retails the flowers planted at the company’s farm in Tagaytay, the volume for roses has already reached 2 million stems a year.

Andaya shares some tips on how his business managed to thrive online:

The Internet is an equal playing field.

In the Internet businesses are highly competitive , according to Andaya. He said a good product, whether from a big or small company, will always sell online as consumers can instantly compare prices and products and decide to buy immediately as well.

Andaya said it is actually cheaper to buy flowers online at islandrose.net than from physical shops because prices are lower since customers are actually buying directly from the source.

“One dozen roses from a shop, which bought the flowers wholesale from the farm, would cost P2,500. A dozen roses ordered from the website would cost only P1,100 including delivery fee. The prices are cheaper because there’s no middle man.”

Create a website that is “customer-friendly” and relevant enough that search engines like Google would notice it. It should also convey trust.

Andaya said he wanted the design for islandrose.net to be simple and clutter-free, with only a top bar as the only place for the hyperlinked pages. An interesting part of the website is the blog area that has a lot of interesting articles about flowers, which will help people appreciate the products. There are tips on flower arrangement, flower photography, or perfect flower gifts.

The website also features a farm tour video (to show customers that the flowers do really come from the company’s farm), and a testimonials page.

Increase the traffic to your online store through online advertising.

Andaya said an online store like a physical store needs “foot” traffic in order for it to be seen, visited and recognized by customers. A foot traffic online can be done through online advertising. Andaya said islandrose.net paper clips (a text or image hyperlink to the online store) is present in many Philippine-based news protals like the Inquirer.net. Popular Filipino news portals are read mostly by overseas Filipinos, who are the major market of islandrose.net.

Expand the business by “networking” with other related businesses.

Andaya said islandrose.net has also increased its market reach by partnering with other businesses like LBC or online gift shops. “Other companies who wish to have flower deliveries added to their business, we provide that as well.”

Create a loyalty or membership club.

Andaya said islandrose.net has a rewards membership club. A first time buyer automatically becomes a member. Next purchases entitle him or her to reward points that can be converted to discounts on next flower purchases. Newsletters are also emailed to members and notices of discounted flowers are also provided the members.

Establish an effective payment system.

Payments for orders on the website are dong through credit cards. Andaya said last year islandrose.net has launched a peso payment system to reach local buyers. “When we launched our peso payment, the local market peaked up. Now we have a lot of US buyers then the local buyers.”

Andaya said it was really hard for islandrose.net to get recognized amid the global online players which have already established huge global markets. “But for a certain market niche, I think we’re already popular.”