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The floral industry and flower delivery (Floraqueen) is huge all around the world, with people often sending flowers to loved ones on the other side of the planet. Even before the advent of the Internet, the florist industry has always been one of the forerunners of international distribution and delivery systems. From a consumers perspective, the process of ordering flowers is quite simple, however, what goes on behind the scenes is often rather complex. In order to send a flower order to an international destination, a number of separate parties need to be involved, including the customer, the local florist, a relay service, and a destination florist.

Because flowers need to be fresh when they are delivered, it makes little sense to actually send them around the world. Instead, the floral industry has set up channels of communication and commerce between individual affiliated florists in separate destinations, through dedicated floral relay services. A floral relay service is also known as a floral wire service, and basically facilitates the transaction that takes place between two individual florists. A relay service is a third party company that offers proprietary networks of commerce and communication, along with clearing house services and affiliate marketing schemes.

The first ever floral wire service was established by a group of 15 United States florists in 1910. This group was called Florists’ Telegraph Delivery Service or FTD, and is still around today under a slightly different name. The Florists’ Telegraph Delivery Service is now Florists’ Transworld Delivery, due to their expansion in the international market. There are other large proprietary groups that offer relay services around the world, including Interflora, Teleflora, and 1-800-Flowers. International flower delivery is still a huge business in the 21st century, with most local florists and websites being affiliated with one of these large relay services.