Offshore florists are quietly capturing local search traffic without a single New Zealand stem

The complaint that put a name to the problem

When customers searched Google for “best blooms in Auckland,” the top result was often “NZ Blooms” with “Best Blooms Auckland” sitting underneath as the clickable link. Except NZ Blooms is not Best Blooms Auckland. It is one of several New Zealand-sounding brand names operated by Bloomex, an overseas online floral and gift retailer that also trades here as Mel’s Flowers, From You Flowers and Kiwi Flowers.

Jo-Ann Moss, owner of the real Best Blooms Auckland in Avondale, told Stuff that Bloomex’s advertising was “aggressive” and “deliberately deceptive.” Irate Bloomex customers, believing they had bought from her 20-year-old business, have flooded her with complaints. “We have received more negative reviews on our Google business page from NZ Blooms/Bloomex customers than we have ever received from our own customers,” she said. Bloomex claims to have served more than 200,000 customers in New Zealand in the past year.

The mechanism that should worry every local operator

This is not a straightforward scam, and that is exactly what makes it dangerous. Bloomex is a real business delivering real (if disputed) products. What it exposes is a structural weakness in Google’s advertising auction that any local firm is exposed to.

An offshore operator with deep pockets bids in Google’s AdWords auction on search terms that include a competitor’s business name or generic local descriptors. The highest bidder wins the placement. So a well-resourced interloper can consistently outrank the genuine local business for searches that should belong to it. Moss’s remedy was to bid harder, which means her advertising costs have risen because she is now paying to compete in the auction for her own brand name.

Google wins either way. It collects revenue from the offshore operator’s winning bid and from the local business’s defensive counter-bidding. Moss tried to fight it. She sent a cease and desist letter, then attempted to trademark “Best Blooms Ltd” in August 2025, but was unsuccessful because the words were not considered unique enough, meaning no trademark complaint to Google could be upheld.

The collateral damage lands on the wholesaler

The fallout does not stop at the retail counter. Anne Simpson, production manager at export-focused wholesaler New Zealand Bloom, told Stuff that for more than a year staff have fielded near-daily emails and calls from confused Bloomex customers, including “consoling a distressed 90-year-old customer who had been dealt a disappointment.” The company’s Google rating dropped from 5 stars to 2.3 from reviews it never earned. It is now considering deleting its Google Business profile entirely and has added a disclaimer to its own ads: “Don’t confuse with ‘NZ Blooms’. No public sales.”

Bloomex NZ director of operations Andrew Lokhonia responded that the businesses complaining were commercial competitors, not independent consumer advocates. Bloomex has not disputed the mechanics of its Google strategy.

A documented, growing pattern

The florist case is the freshest example of a wave that has been building. In August 2025, the NZ Herald reported the Commerce Commission had logged 220 complaints about products from 52 fake New Zealand boutiques between May 2024 and May 2025. 1News reported 150 separate inquiries in 2025 about fake locally styled retail sites, with one scam site adopting the name Matakana Boutique, identical to a legitimate business operating since 2016. In May 2025, The Spinoff documented 107 inquiries about fake boutiques, 28 relating to Tauranga Boutique alone. Back in November 2023, Newsroom reported Consumer NZ warning these sites likely breached the Fair Trading Act.

Commerce Commission general manager Vanessa Horne stated in August 2025 that “all businesses selling to New Zealand consumers must comply with the Fair Trading Act, regardless of where they are based”. That is the law. Enforcing it against an offshore operator running Google ads is a very different operational problem.

Why the last competitive advantage is under threat

The macro picture explains the stakes. Kiwis spent $6.1 billion online in 2024, and offshore retailer transactions grew at 16% versus 12% for domestic retailers, with most offshore orders now offering free shipping and arriving within 10 days. The friction that once protected local sellers has dissolved. The one advantage left, a customer’s belief they are buying local, is precisely what paid-search impersonation erodes.

None of this is novel. In 2019, ABC News reported Australian florists demanding an ACCC investigation into identical behaviour. Seven years on, the same complaint has surfaced in New Zealand. The model has matured, not been stopped.

The practical takeaway for owners is unglamorous but urgent. Sort your trademark position before a competitor starts bidding on your name, because a registered mark is the only lever that triggers a formal complaint mechanism with Google. Monitor your Google Business reviews for misdirected complaints. And accept that your online reputation is now a competitive asset requiring active defence, not a passive reflection of how well you serve your own customers.

Sources

• Florists claim Google star ratings hurt by competitor’s similar branding (2026-08-09)
• Matakana boutiques caught in overseas dropshipping scam, shoppers duped by fake websites (2025-08-08)
• ‘Soul destroying’: Fake e-store hijacks Matakana business’ brand (2025-08-08)
• The rise and rise of fake ‘local’ boutiques (2025-05-07)
• eCommerce Market Sentiments Report 2025 (2025-06)
• The fake websites ‘misleading’ real businesses (2023-11-30)
• Florists call for ACCC investigation into ‘misleading’ advertisements (2019-07-11)