About Preferred Commerce
Preferred Commerce was founded in 1999 under the name PlantFind.com®. The vision for the company back then was simple—harness the power of the Internet to solve real horticultural industry procurement issues. The foundation of the company came from over 60 years of combined horticultural experience of the founders Frank and Michael Ferraro. In this arena, they had both experienced the difficulties virtually all industry levels faced—the challenge of finding products at fair and reasonable prices.
PlantFind.com® became the first active global procurement platform in the horticultural industry. This membership subscription service now has over 4,000 active members with over 400,000 lines of inventory. Buyers can search for plants and hard goods as well as submit requests for quotes to the entire PlantFind® network. Sellers can offer goods for sale and receive and respond to requests for quotes. No more faxes and phone call, no more geographically limited business possibilities. PlantFind® members have full access to all services.
As PlantFind® grew more sophisticated, so to did the members and partners it attracted. Customer requested features were added to each release, and PlantFind® grew more powerful. Soon requests came for an entirely new type of product—a virtual trade show. Show2Net™ was developed to address this need. Now trade show organizers could extend the reach of their shows by offering virtual show space to exhibitors and show attendees. If desired, the show could even begin and end prior to the physical show. Any type of business that can be conducted on a trade show exhibit floor is possible with Show2Net™.
Business growth continued with the acquisition of GroTime™, a powerful and affordable greenhouse management software solution. Now growers could precisely control the full plant propagation process—from seed to sale.
In 2005, once again we were approached by customers looking a solution to training their employees. By now the company could tap over to 100 years of industry knowledge. We knew the problems that need to be addressed. Fortunately too, we also had eLearning experts and outstanding partners we could tap. This resulted in our Edge2Edge Learning™ division being formed. Now we are providing the most effective eLearning courses in the industry.
Our newest venture, Learn2Grow®, is rapidly coming to market. We can't talk much about it, but we are extremely excited about it. We think it will be as dramatic a leap forward as PlantFind.com® was when we formed the company.
Preferred Commerce remains true to the vision we had when the company was founded. Focus on the green industry and gardeners and provide them with the best solutions possible.