Flowers, greetings cross-pollinate online
1-800-Flowers.com and American Greetings' three Web sites will combine forces under a new partnership between the companies.
The two companies will split revenue earned from the relationship, although specific financial details were not released.
Also under the deal, 1-800-Flowers.com is promoting American Greetings on a co-branded page, where customers can send free electronic greetings, make individual purchases of flowers and gifts or sign up for an electronic greetings subscription from AmericanGreetings.com.
Nonfloral sales are turning into a moneymaker for 1-800-Flowers. Earlier this month, the florist reported a sharp increase in fourth-quarter earnings, from $226,000 in the year-ago quarter to $5.5 million in the quarter ended June 30.
American Greetings, meanwhile has been struggling a bit with its online offerings. The company began charging for its e-cards in December, sending traffic flowing to other, free, electronic greeting card sites. But a new study suggests that the tide may be turning; the company's Web sites together were the third-most popular online subscription service, according to a survey by Intermarket Group's Content Matrix tracking service.