Online florist 1-800-Flowers is partnering with a custom chocolatier to diversify its fruit bouquet offerings both on its ecommerce offering and its mobile application, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Chocolate Works will hand-craft and deliver signature Valentine’s products from Fruit Bouquets by 1-800-Flowers.com, including Mugable Bunch of Berries that features plain and chocolate dipped strawberries in a keepsake mug designed exclusively by inspirational artist Sandra Magsamen. The collaboration between the two Long Island-based companies will expand the ecommerce presence of a niche company that does most of its business during the holidays, possibly pivoting it in a direction that will prove more accessible on a quotidian basis.

“The process of partnering with a brand that can complement your ecommerce line exponentially is definitely a more streamlined effort to growing an additional product line organically,” said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis. “1-800-Flowers’ partnership to expand their line of chocolate offerings with chocolate works is a great move and a real test of the partnership in light of the largest flowers and chocolate gift giving holiday coming around the corner.

“The holiday will be an efficient test of the partnership and lend excellent statistics to the endurance of the companies continued collaboration.”

Ecommerce partnership
Despite what the company’s name would tell you, 1-800-Flowers was one of the first retailers to establish a dedicated online presence in the early days of the Internet, in addition to making its bones through a phone-in floral service in the early-to-mid nineties.

The company has evolved to the point where most of its business is done online, and it has a growing mcommerce presence, as well.

Now, Fruit Bouquets by 1800Flowers.com offers more than 100 arrangements for all occasions, and it also offers gift enhancements including chocolate gift boxes, plush toys and mylar balloons.

Valentine’s Day is the second most popular holiday for both 1-800-Flowers and Chocolate Works. The holiday trails behind Mother’s Day for 1-800-Flowers customers and Christmas Day for Chocolate Works customers.

Fruit Bouquets by 1800Flowers.com is available nationwide and the collaboration with Chocolate Works currently covers delivering fruit bouquets to residents and businesses in New York City, Long Island and Westchester. Expansion to all regions is in development.

Partnership strategy
Because 1-800-Flowers occupies such a niche segment of the market, its lack of competition allows for mobile and app development to proceed at the company’s own pace. The same can be said for its partnerships: 1-800-Flowers has more leeway to experiment with partnerships with smaller companies such as Chocolate Works because maneuvers are not as terminal as they are in higher-stakes endeavors.

One such endeavor that needed help from a partnership was Jay-Z’s streaming service, Tidal, which has struggled within the cutthroat streaming sector. Recently, Sprint acquired a third of the streaming service, and Tidal will look to finally scale its business under Sprint’s aegis (see story).

Last year 1-800-Flowers cementing its stronghold on mobile commerce with an IBM Watson-powered gift concierge that uses cognitive capabilities to tailor product suggestions for shoppers (see story).

“With the national prominence the brand has grown, expanding their line with complementary products is a worthwhile endeavor for them; consumers have a respect for the brand and any expansion will be trusted when products are also available on their site for purchase,” Ms. Troutman said. “The one thing that they should be careful of is to not step over the line and get greedy with offerings that are outside of their expected mix; other than that, the sky is the limit.”