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Bloomable’s stance on ethical digital advertising: Why we’ll always back the local florist
If you’ve been on TikTok or any online news source lately, you may have seen Durban florist Roxanne from Flowers on Kensington sharing a frustrating experience: a customer tried to find her online store, but a bigger national retailer appeared instead, under her business name. The video has sparked a wider conversation about ethical digital advertising, especially when it comes to Google Ads competitor bidding and florist name keyword bidding.
Because Bloomable’s name has come up in the broader discussion, we want to be clear about where we stand and how we approach search advertising as an online flower marketplace built to support local florists.
The bigger issue: when “competition” becomes misdirection
Bloomable has long been aware that some large online flower retailers use automated keyword bidding tools that can, intentionally or not, target the brand names of independent florists.
When a customer searches for a specific local florist by name and lands on a national retailer’s website instead, that’s not a fair fight - it’s misdirection.
- The customer doesn’t get the florist they chose
- The florist loses an order they earned through reputation and hard work
- Trust in online flower delivery gets damaged for everyone
And while some people attribute this to AI-driven ad tools, this isn’t new. Independent florists have been seeing their names appear in competitor search listings for years.
Was Netflorist wrong to do what they did?
It's a fair question, and the answer is more nuanced than the outrage might suggest. Bidding on competitor keywords is a common and largely legal practice in digital advertising. A landmark South African Supreme Court of Appeal ruling found that bidding on a competitor's trademark as a keyword to trigger sponsored search results is not automatically unlawful, provided the ad is clearly marked as sponsored and doesn't actively deceive the consumer about who they're dealing with.
The real problem in the Flowers on Kensington situation wasn't necessarily that a competitor appeared in search results. It was that the ad headline used the florist's exact business name, which could reasonably lead a customer to believe they were clicking through to that florist's own website. That's where the line gets blurry, and that's the conversation worth having.
Bloomable’s stance: we don’t bid on independent florists’ names to divert customers
Bloomable exists because of local florists - not in spite of them.
We do not bid on the name of an independent florist (partner or not) to divert their customers to us. Our advertising focuses on category searches - people who haven’t decided who to buy from yet. That includes searches like:
- “flower delivery South Africa”
- “flowers near me”
- “same-day flower delivery”
- “birthday flowers” or “sympathy flowers”
That’s where competition is fair: we’re competing for undecided customers, not intercepting customers who have already made their choice.
When Bloomable shows up in search, here’s the honest reason
If you search for flower delivery in a specific area and Bloomable appears, it’s because we have a partner florist in our network who services that region.
That matters, because it’s the difference between:
- “We can genuinely fulfil this order locally”
and - “We’re simply trying to capture traffic meant for someone else.”
The one exception: partner permission, explicitly given
There are cases where we may bid on a florist’s name, but only when:
- That florist is a Bloomable partner, and
- They've explicitly asked us to do so (or given permission) to help win them more business.
Never otherwise.
Why the marketplace model matters for local florists
The online space is fiercely competitive. Staying visible online means managing:
- SEO and technical website upkeep
- Google Ads and campaign optimisation
- tracking, testing, and constant platform changes
That’s not why most people become florists. They want to create beautiful arrangements and serve their communities - not fight algorithm battles.
Bloomable’s job is to do the digital heavy lifting so our partners can focus on what they do best. With a network of 200+ florists across South Africa, we’re here to help local florists compete online - not replace them.
If you want to understand how our model works, start here:
Sell on Bloomable
Sell on Bloomable
What we’re building next: florist profiles (opt-in)
We believe customers should know they’re ordering from a real, local florist. That’s why we’re building dedicated florist profiles on Bloomable - giving partners the option to establish an online presence through our platform.
This will be opt-in. It will never be default, and never mandatory.
A note on order allocation (and fairness)
What we can’t do is guarantee that every order goes to one specific florist. Customers can share a preference request, but orders are generally distributed equitably across florists in an area based on availability.
That’s how we keep the network fair, sustainable, and reliable - especially during peak periods like Valentine’s Day.
How you can support local florists (beyond ordering)
If you want to support local florists, one of the most effective things you can do is:
- search for them by name
- engage with their social content
- leave honest reviews
Those are the organic signals that help small businesses hold their ground online.
Hold us accountable
We’re not perfect. Advertising tools are imperfect, and mistakes can happen.
If you ever see a Bloomable ad appearing where it shouldn’t - whether on a florist’s brand name or in a way that feels misleading - please call us out. We’ll investigate, fix it, and own it.
Because being “florist-first” isn’t something we say. It’s something we have to prove.
