Bloom India, one of the largest florist services in the country, is run out of ``no fixed location'' as its promoter, Saikat Ghosh, the 25-year-old IIM-A graduate likes to say.

It is one of the few companies to have cashed in on the world of opportunity thrown up by the Internet. The growing popularity of e-commerce and its growth prospects have prompted many companies and entrepreneurs to give this medium a serious thought. A study by Price WaterhouseCoopers estimates that e-business in India is likely to grow rapidly in coming years to reach Rs 400 billion by the year 2003.

One of the main advantages of being a Net-based business is that one can catch up on work irrespective of where one is physically located. ``The India Flower shop as the homepage of the site reads is basically a service meant for the NRls who wish to get back to their near and dear ones back home,'' says Ghosh.

The modus operandi for this hi-tech flower delivery service is simple. Bloom India is linked to individual florists in more than thirty cities across the country. Orders are placed on the phone and the bouquet is dispatched from a florist in the same city to ensure that the flowers arrive at the receiver's doorstep as fresh as possible. ``Not only does this give us the advantage of being able to deliver at a very short notice, it also ensures hundred per cent error-free deliveries since each florist is familiar with his own city,'' says Ghosh.

Ghosh believes that this approach has helped Bloom India steal a march over others, who sometimes send bouquets through couriers. The basics of setting up a Net-based business are not all that different from setting one up in the real world, says the young entrepreneur. ``The need to focus on the consumer is even more pronounced on the Internet than it would be in a real world business since it is more of a pull medium than a push medium,'' he says.

How can one ensure that one's website will be the first one to show up when a guy in California wants to send a bouquet to his fiancee in Bangalore? The secret is in figuring out how the other person is likely to be thinking. Suppose you were that guy, you would probably go to a search engine and look for India related sites. Even more likely, you would look for sites related to flowers and India, or possibly florists and India. ``So for my site to show up on your search, I need to ensure that each of these words is present in the design of my website,'' explains Ghosh. Thus there are about 20 sites linked to each other. The first site was launched in January 1999. The main website is located at http://www.homestead.com/bloomindia/indiaflowershop.html or at http://members.delphi.com/gattu.

On an average as on date, there are about 8-10 people visiting each site per day. Therefore the average hit rate for the entire service is about 1,000 people per week.

Since the concept basically revolves around convenience, it is essential to make the entire transaction hassle-free. Learning from experience, Ghosh has taken care of this aspect as well. Says he ``For instance, we didn't have credit card based ordering systems initially and customers had to go through a long-winded process to make a wire transfer payment for flowers they had ordered. We found this to be a major reason why potential consumers were shying away from using the service. The week after we installed a secure credit card based ordering system, sales volumes rose dramatically,'' he claims.

The customer reactions reiterate the belief. Shravan Govil, an Internet buff, was glad to find that such a service existed when he hit upon the site while browsing through the Net looking for a birthday gift for his sister in Mumbai. ``My sister was thrilled to get the flowers as she stays by herself in Mumbai and tends to get lonely,'' he says.

A well executed smart idea, ringing cash registers and hoards of satisfied customers. What more can one ask for?