Arena Flowers Review

Review of flower delivery from Arena Flowers

This is the website that claims to have no middlemen and that their motto is ‘an experience delivered’. I really like the website design, giving it marks 4.5/5.

It has easy-to-use categories to browse from (eg. occasion, types of flowers, price, colour) and the photography is of very good quality, giving pictures that are big and bright. It also makes good use of words to describe each collection, making it sound quite lovely and inviting! Arena offers many excellent designs; from elegant, contemporary options to traditional posies & simple giftwraps. Currently, there is an advantage of 5% off on orders placed (perfect timing for Mother's Day!). All you have to do is type in 'flowers' at checkout time.

The ‘Mother's Day flowers’ section contains 19 different options to choose from. For simplicity and a touch of classy elegance, just choose a potted plant of pink or white orchids at £24.99 (long-lasting at up to 8 weeks or more if cared for properly!). Or, if you just cannot resist its 'Mother's Delight', a beautiful gift at only £65.99 consisting of a large hand-tied posy of pink lilies, roses and other greenery, delivered together with a 70cl bottle of Baileys Irish Cream liqueur and the trademark pink heart-shaped box of fabulous Prestat chocolates for good company! The 'Mother's Delight' is indeed aptly described!

The website also has many good quality add-on options eg. drinks (wine, port, champagne etc. from £6.50), chocolates (all sourced from prestigious brand Prestat with prices starting at £4.50), bears (from £7.50), balloons (£4.50) or vase (£4.99). You can also choose to ‘go deluxe’ on bouquet size (different additional charges apply eg. from £4).

For the ethically-minded, discerning customers, Arena has an ever-growing variety of products to suit; from 'Fair Flowers, Fair Plants' (aka FFP) accredited flowers to organic drinks and chocolates.

Most of their delivery is free, delivered either the same day or next day (dependent on cut-off times and delivery address) with specific timed slots incurring extra charge (£4.99). Alternatively, they also have a florist relay service (with an extra charge of £9.99) but this service is only available via the telephone. For those of you in a desperate hurry, they do offer ‘Urgent delivery’ (£9.99) but it is dependent on availability.

Message option is to type your own.

I ordered a ‘Pink Gift Wrap’ bouquet £29.99 on 22 Jan 08 at 12pm. Lo and behold, it was delivered on the same day at 3pm by a personal courier. Wow! That was an impressive service; so prompt, from order point to delivery.

It arrived within a cellophane wrap nicely tied in raffia. Inside was a small aqua wrap to keep stems fresh and moist. The bouquet was made up of 3 Oriental lilies, 3 pink lisianthus, 3 bright pink gerberas, 2 pink gypsophila, 3 palm leaves and 2 black cordyline leaves. The lilies were all in bud and all the flowers appeared to be well-conditioned although I did find minor damages to some stems of gypsophila and lisianthus (probably due to its delicate stems) whilst arranging them into a vase.

The message was printed onto a postcard size card, folded over with nice frontage, however it was very plain inside.

Overall, I am quite impressed with its professionalism, staying true to what’s described on the website and what’s delivered to the customer. I also appreciate the SMS texts to keep me in touch with the status of delivery as well!

You can also feel good about ordering as they are the first florist to receive the Ethical Company Award and sell Fair Trade Products

Overall this was a very positive experience. The flowers I received matched the high expectations that the excellent website photography gave. Anyone would be thrilled to receive a bunch like this from Arena Flowers, whatever the occasion.

Visit Arena Flowers

 

	Website & Ordering	Delivery	Mum's Impression & WOW factor	Overall
	The best we found. Excellent photographs	Great attention to detail	Classy and beautifully arranged	Definitely an impressive experience
	Quick and easy to use	Arrived on time and safely. Well packaged.	Great presentation	The best choice for roses.
	Wide choice, easy to use and great photos	Couldn't be bettered	Great looking flowers, just as promised	Sending flowers online as it should be
	Great website, photography and description	Well packaged, good printed gift card and delivered on time	Great bouquet with good mix of blooms all working well together	As charming as your favourite ice cream sundae!
	Fast, easy to use. Minor problem with typing gift message	Great packing, delivered on time	Beautiful roses, excellent condition	Brilliant blooms and fantastic value
	Unusual colours and interesting range.	Arrived safely, and the tissue paper was a great touch	Excellent impact	Overall a very positive transaction
	Worked well, but did not inspire	Missed delivery date, but kept me updated	Fresh, contemporary bouquet	The flowers were the best part of the transaction
	Adequate, but did not excel	Good same day service	Ordinary, plain, uninspiring	Only let down where it really counts - with the flowers
	More descriptions would be appreciated	Well protected and delivered on time	Not the 'ultimate' which was described	Average service and flowers
	Limited photographs and descriptions	Packaging could be improved and flowers delivered with no water or moisture container	Leaves much to be desired	A bad experience all round