Strelitzia Pay was launched a couple of months ago, and I thought it would be beneficial to take an hour out of my day to explain the thought process behind our new partnership with WorldPay.
Strelitzia Pay is, in its most simple form, card processing for florists. The most visible change within Strelitzia is the new [Card (reader)] & [Card (StrelitziaPay)] buttons. If you are a Strelitzia customer, you may have noticed these new buttons. (If you’re not a Strelitzia customer don’t stop reading, this post is for you too.)
The origins of this partnership started a couple of years ago. Mark was looking for a new payment provider for our florist, Flowers by Nattrass (FBN). There were so many options, and so many hidden charges. If Mark hates anything it is paying more for something than he has to. He’s a proper Yorkshireman. But the issue we were facing, like many florists, was that we were such a small business that we didn’t hold a lot of bargaining power when it came to large card processing companies. WorldPay processes £1bn every week. We are a large local florist, but our revenue doesn’t quite fit those dizzying heights…
We realised we have hundreds of florists on Strelitzia across the UK & Ireland, and together we are stronger. In fact, together we are a lot stronger. Let’s say we start with 300 florists, that’s the same number of stores as Waitrose or B&Q have across the UK. Once we band that revenue together, we start to have much more bargaining power. So, why don’t we do just that?
We started talking to payment providers, and honestly, had a few false starts. Lots of hidden fees and promises that didn’t stand up to scrutiny. When Kelly from WorldPay approached Mark at the beginning of this year, we were sceptical and frankly wondering if our great idea was that brilliant after all. Kelly proved us wrong.
This is Kelly:
In January Kelly was looking at expanding WorldPay’s reach to small businesses across the UK and therefore was looking for partners that specialised in specific industries, like the florist industry. Step in Strelitzia; our family has been in the industry since 1959 and as mentioned above, we have hundreds of florists across the UK & Ireland that we work with or know.
It seemed like a good fit, but could we negotiate good enough terms with WorldPay to launch Strelitzia Pay? Strelitzia is a brand we have worked nearly 20 years to build. So a partnership has to sit within our brand and family values.
Kelly’s (and WorldPay’s) motto is transparency and honesty. Understanding what is on your statement, understanding your rates and being clear and up front is what WorldPay can offer. She sat down with us and decrypted both our card charges in FBN and a few of our customers’ bills. She has already saved the florist industry thousands of pounds and is teaching Mark to look out for hidden charges in customers’ statements as well. As the aforementioned Yorkshireman, Mark is taking the task very seriously. One customer thought he was paying 0.8% for debit cards, but had an extra 2% added to his card payment at the end of his statement. 2.8% isn’t quite as competitive…
So, I hear you sceptically thinking, give me a great rate. Then it’ll go up after a year. Nope. Charges will only increase if VISA and Mastercard increase their charges. In fact, we monitor card charges by revenue thresholds, and if your business reaches the next threshold, we’ll get in contact with you and offer you a reduction.
Cash flow is one of the most important factors when running a florist. We need to get paid fast to pay our wholesalers and team for the brilliant jobs they do for us every week. With the proposed partnership, payments are made the next working day, and WorldPay are working on making it next day by March 2026.
I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say we launched the partnership for FleurEx 2025. Kelly is now the account manager for all our Strelitzia Pay customers, which means no call centres, no being on hold and no speaking to a different person each time.
Who is Strelitzia Pay for?
All florists.
It doesn’t matter if you use our software or not. We can offer you the best rates with no hidden fees. Simple and clear.
I hope you found this interesting and if you are interested to know more, drop me a line to amy@strelitziasoftware.com or fill out the form below.
Keep in touch,
Amy
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