If you belong to the category of people who want to buy flowers, do read on. If you belong to the category of people who don't want to buy flowers, your time would be better spent watching a James Bond movie or reading an article on global warming.

Let me slightly digress to say that the article on global warming is recommended more vigorously than the Bond movie, unless, of course, the movie tells you how to make a better world.

Coming to the topic

As an intelligent customer, you should have a reasonably clear idea of what you want to buy. Being sure of what you want to buy significantly reduces the time you spend for searching for the products. When you are planning to buy flowers to be sent to someone, there are two important things you must never forget - the occasion and the recipient.

You must have heard it a one-hundred and seventeen times that the flowers that are associated with Mother's Day are carnations and the flowers that are associated with Valentine's Day are roses. It is occasionally nice to surprise your recipient with gifts that are not strictly traditional - for instance, gifting your beloved with lilies on Valentine's Day and gifting your mother with hyacinths or irises on Mother's Day.

When you want to do business with a website, you should be sure that their security and privacy measures are faultless because you definitely don't want your credit card number and your personal details to be stolen.

Ensure that information is transmitted over a highly secure 128 bit or 256 bit encrypted connection. Go through the company's privacy policy to confirm that your personal information will not be disclosed to third parties.

Do not purchase from florists who do not offer good customer care. Find out what their policies are regarding a delayed delivery or a wrong delivery. Good online florists have a customer care department that can be contacted via email or phone. The ideal policy regarding unsatisfactory service is ‘refund and replace'.

Some other questions that you should consider

Q: How long has the florist been around? A: The longer, the better. Q: Are the customers who have done business with them happy with the service? A: The greater the number of happy customers, the better. Q: Do they have any specialties? A: Explore those products for price and quality. They might be worth buying. Q: What is the mode of delivery? A: Plus if delivered by florists, minus if delivered by courier.

Last but not least, a serious practical concern is affordability. As a discerning customer, you have to go through different florists' catalogs in order to get a clear picture of the comparative prices of similar products.

Jobin Mathew is a regular observer of the floral industry and he occasionally writes for Theflowerexpert.com, a comprehensive source of all flower-related information. The website is dedicated to providing people with whatever information they need about flowers and as part of this commitment, has pages on online florists and how to select online florists.