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By MoonFlower, July 7, 2008 5:58 pm

We have just posted the first installment of “Consumer Beware!” on the MoonFlower Florist website. This was more work than we had first thought, but here it is! Part 1 is on The E-Marketer Scourge, and it’s about what consumers have to look out for when shopping for flowers on the Internet. Actually, there’s some very good advice when shopping for anything online.

Here are the key points.

• It’s up to you to watch out when shopping online, because consumer protection legislation that applies in the bricks and mortar world doesn’t work the same way on the Internet.
• There are a lot of flower e-marketers (order-gatherers, telemarketers, virtual florists, etc.) online. They’re not primarily in the florist business – they’re in the sales and marketing business.
• E-marketers will pass your order on to a real local florist, but only after they skim off a 20% (or more) commission that they don’t tell you about. You will get much less for your money than you thought.
• There’s a whole list of suspicious signs to watch for that indicate an e-marketer.
• The main thing is to verify location, and there are some simple online tools you can use for this.
• Things got this way because traditional florists were slow to get online, but some are now fighting back, like us at MoonFlower.

Read the full story at The E-Marketer Scourge. And why “Part 1″? That’s because it’s such a long and twisted tale. Look for “Part 2″ coming very soon to a website near you!