As part of its move toward selling its product exclusively online, Fort Worth, Texas-based Bice's Florist has begun buying a number of flower-related domain names and redirecting the traffic from those domains to its Web site. So far, the company has purchased 35 to 40 domains with names such as FlowerNut.com, eflowersite.com, and nationalfloraldelivery.com.

Bice's Florist owner, Keith Riewe, says he chose the domains because they were catchy names that consumers remember from ads. For instance, Riewe came up with the name FlowerNut.com after seeing an ad with the phrase Computer Hut. But since FlowerHut.com was already taken, Riewe decided on the similar FlowerNut.com.

In addition, Riewe says he purchases domains that consumers would type in on their own when looking for an online florist. Riewe says he also looks for short character counts and specific terms that a user may enter in a search engine.

So far, the strategy seems to be paying off for Bice's Florist. Riewe notes that his company has increased traffic by 47 percent to some 68,000 unique visitors a month, and has increased sales by $1.5 million. Riewe says he tracks which domains work the best and as a result can spot underperforming domains, although he plans to keep them all.

"Bice's Buys Up Domain Names to Boost Traffic and Sales"
Internet Retailer (07/03/08)

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