Project description
Smart solutions for sustainable floriculture
The worldwide cut flower industry is worth billions. Keeping up with demand requires an intricate supply chain of workers, farmers, wholesalers, traders, florists and markets. Delivering them quickly requires the use of a 'cold chain' so they stay fresh. The EU-funded FLOURISH project aims to improve current processes with the use of digital technologies like artificial intelligence. One example is a special software platform that can facilitate interaction between retail suppliers and supermarkets. The new platform will also give supermarkets a greater role in selecting the assortment of flowers. It will be launched first in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. These three countries were chosen because of the high percentage of flowers being sold via supermarkets.
Objective
BloomyPro, located at the flower The variety of flowers at a supermarket is drastically minimized compared to the endless number of flowers that are available. A result of the risks associated with managing inventory and profit margins of short life products as flowers. Trading of flowers in this market still happens via time-consuming, old-fashioned steps involving physical selection of bouquets that fast, customer demand-based decisions on assortment impossible. While emerging digital technologies as AI could greatly improve processes, the current way of working does not allow implementation to this. At Bloomy, we want to change this and embark on a digital revolution with our software platform that facilitates the interaction between retail suppliers and supermarkets. Our team has a solid track record with >25 years in the floral industry combined with experience in entrepreneurship, marketing and commercialization of in digital solutions. BloomyPro has >6000 3D images to design and present your digital flower assortment connected to real-time day-prices and inventory. The platform is designed for a new way of trading to overcome current risks with flower sales and give supermarkets a larger role in determining their assortment. Active users are currently retail suppliers yielding an annual revenue of €200 000, and we are seeking to expand to supermarkets where BloomyPro can have a significant impact. Well-illustrated by our market study showing that TESCO can reduce 7.5% waste and 10% flower-associated cost by using BloomyPro. We aim to market BloomyPro as Software as a Service to large supermarkets with initial focus on UK, DE and FR. Strategically choses because of a high percentage of flower being sold via supermarkets and a retail market dominated by only a few large players. With the FLOURISH project we aim to strengthening our market insight (barriers, business model) and prime for growth to enter this market (marketing strategy and technical feasibility).
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managemententrepreneurship
- social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical transitionsrevolutions
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringdigital electronics
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
1424 LD AALSMEER
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.