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Where your flower money actually goes
Follow a single order through both paths and see how much of what you pay becomes actual flowers.
Here's something most senders never see: when you order from a big flower website, a local florist usually still makes and delivers your arrangement. The website is a middle layer that takes your order, keeps a cut, and passes the rest along. More of your money becomes flowers when you skip that layer.
A real example
In our own experience running and working with shops, a typical online order looks like this. You pay around $120: roughly $80 for the arrangement itself, plus a ~$20 service fee and a ~$20 delivery fee. After the wire network's commission and assorted flat and “coverage” fees, the local florist who actually designs and delivers it nets somewhere around $40 — close to half of the arrangement price, and a third of what you paid.
Industry sources put the wire network's sending commission in the rough range of 20–29% of an incoming order, before additional membership, per-order, and clearinghouse fees that whittle the florist's take down further. Order the same arrangement directly and the florist keeps nearly all of it.
It's not just the florist — it's your town
$68 vs. $43
Of every $100 spent at a local independent business, about $68 recirculates in the local economy, versus about $43 at a chain (Civic Economics' Andersonville Study). Buying from the shop down the street keeps more money in your community.
None of this means national sites are villains, or that you were wrong to use one — most people simply never had the breakdown. Now you do: order direct from a real local florist and more of your money becomes flowers, and stays in your town.