Sincerely, the mobile gifting company acquired by Provide Commerce in November, is introducing the first new application to emerge from their combined forces today. ProFlowers is makes ordering flowers from your smartphone as easy as requesting an Uber, Sincerely founder Matt Brezina says. The app leverages the Provide Commerce-owned flower and plant distribution network, as well as Sincerely’s expertise in designing modern, mobile gifting applications.
Prior to the acquisition, Sincerely had been moving into the area of physical gifts, which were selected, sent and paid for via your smartphone. Initially, that came in the form of Sincerely’s app for sending gift boxes, called Sesame. But word was, the plan was to expand into other sorts of physical gifts as well, including things like wine and flowers.
Brezina explains he’s wanted to build a great app for sending flowers from the iPhone since starting Sincerely several years ago. “It is incredible that in 2014 a good flower app didn’t exist,” he says.
There are, of course, mobile apps for ordering flowers today, like that from the other big-name flower network 1-800-Flowers, but I’d have to agree with Brezina here – it’s pretty average at best. Meanwhile, newer competitor H.Bloom appears to now be more focused on business and luxury floral services – its consumer-facing iPhone application has disappeared from the App Store. Another, Bloomthat, just launched.
As for the new ProFlowers app, it does have the resemblance of something built by a startup, rather than an older, more traditional company. The app has an iOS 7 look-and-feel and offers simple imagery, as well as a pared-down selection of products so as not to be overwhelming. Today there are 40 SKUs and some curated gift options, and it offers address importing and cards with pre-written sentiments.
Check-out is easy, too, with an option for credit card scanning to speed up the process of paying for your order.
The bouquets and plants are named after famous cities and national parks, like Funston, Golden Gate, Bryant, Millenium, Shinjuku and others, and users are directed to the appropriate options by picking a sentiment they wish to express – like “Desired,” “Encouraged,” “Celebrated,” “Appreciated,” or “Comforted.” This narrows down the selection even further, allowing you to more quickly choose the right gift.
ProFlowers also ties into Sincerely’s “Thoughtfulness Engine” – the name it gave its birthday reminder tool, tied into Facebook. Meanwhile, users of other Sincerely products, like Sincerely Ink, Postagram and Sesame, will also see their same address book, billing info, and Thoughtfulness notifications automatically carry over into the new app. This makes ProFlowers feel like it’s next in the Sincerely app suite, rather than a standalone experience built to humor new corporate overlords.
The new ProFlowers app is available for download here. An introductory promo gives the first 200 TechCrunch readers 20 percent off their first order. (The promo code is “TechCrunch.”)