Far East Flora lifts conversion rates by 15% with a unified financial platform

Introducing Far East Flora

Far East Flora has been putting down roots in Singapore since 1965. What began as a family-run nursery has grown into the country’s largest horticultural business. 

Today, FarEastFlora.com powers the group’s eCommerce growth, operating multiple online brands in Singapore and beyond. 

As transaction volumes increased across channels, so did the complexity of managing payments. Transactions flowed across different systems, currencies, and workflows, making it harder for teams to track payments, manage cash flow, and maintain a consistent customer experience.

What once worked for a smaller operation became increasingly difficult to manage at scale. FarEastFlora.com needed financial infrastructure that could support its next phase of growth.

The challenge

Growing an omnichannel business through a patchwork of disconnected platforms

FarEastFlora.com managed payments across multiple disconnected platforms, with customer checkouts, bank transfers, and internal workflows operating in silos. This made it difficult to maintain a clear, real-time view of transactions as order volumes grew.

The pressure was felt most acutely at checkout. Orders were often tied to birthdays, anniversaries, and other important occasions. When payments didn’t go through, the team had to manually switch between systems to investigate issues, while the clock ticked on unfulfilled orders.

In a business built around celebrating life's important moments, that kind of friction doesn't just slow things down – it risks lost revenue and erodes customer trust.

Ryan Chioh

Deputy Group Managing Director of Far East Flora Holdings and Managing Director of FarEastFlora.com

"Flowers are an emotional business. When a payment fails for a birthday or anniversary order, it can really upset customers. Payments have to work every time, because trust is on the line."

The same complexity showed up on the other side of the ledger. Paying suppliers across Asia and South America meant manually comparing FX rates across banks and remittance agents, securing internal approvals for each payment, and waiting up to three working days for transfers to go through. Managing costs and settlement timelines across different providers made it difficult to forecast cash flow accurately and maintain supplier relationships.

Reconciliation added another layer of friction. With customer payments and supplier payouts sitting in separate systems, the finance team had to manually match thousands of order IDs to payments across platforms. The process often stretched month-end closes to almost a week, with each new brand adding more complexity, manual work, and blind spots.

Without a clear, real-time view across payments, the team couldn't track margins or cash positions accurately, making it difficult to plan cash flow confidently or spot issues before they became problems. FarEastFlora.com needed a single financial platform that could connect pay-ins and payouts as the business scaled.

The solution

Putting down the financial roots for omnichannel growth

FarEastFlora.com partnered with Airwallex to consolidate customer payments and supplier payouts on one platform, starting with checkout. 

With Airwallex Checkout integrated into its Shopify stores, the team now has real-time visibility into every customer transaction from a single dashboard. When issues arise, they can quickly identify and resolve them without switching between systems while orders wait.

Behind the scenes, Airwallex's AI-powered optimisation engine intelligently routes transactions, retries failed payments, and flags suspicious activity in real time – so more payments go through on the first attempt, reducing lost revenue and improving the experience for customers when it matters most.

The team can also offer local payment methods like PayNow and WeChat Pay without operational overhead, giving customers more ways to pay while keeping checkout simple and secure. For bulk corporate orders typically settled by bank transfer, a secure one-time Payment Link can be generated and sent in seconds, keeping every transaction visible on the same platform.

On the supplier side, Airwallex replaced the slow, manual process of comparing rates across banks and remittance agents with round-the-clock access to competitive interbank FX rates. Lower spreads and more predictable costs mean better forecasting and fewer margin surprises at month-end.

Ryan Chioh

Deputy Group Managing Director of Far East Flora Holdings and Managing Director of FarEastFlora.com

"Before Airwallex, money was coming in through one place, going out through another, and we had to stitch things together. Now it all sits on one platform. We can see customer payments and supplier payouts side by side, in real time, and that has improved the way we run the business."

With pay-ins and payouts unified in one platform, reconciliation is now faster and more reliable. Instead of juggling multiple platforms and manually reconciling thousands of transactions, the finance team can close the books more efficiently, freeing up time to focus on more strategic work that moves the business forward.

The result

With Airwallex, FarEastFlora.com no longer operates in the dark. The team has a real-time view of every inflow and outflow, helping the business protect its margins, improve decision-making, and deliver better customer experiences as transaction volumes grow. 

• Cart abandonment has dropped by 20%, while payment success rates and conversions via Payment Links have both increased by 15%, strengthening revenue capture across channels. 

• International supplier payments now settle in around one working day, down from up to three working days previously, while remittance charges have fallen by around 33%.

• Reconciliation time has been reduced by 20%, saving the finance team roughly one full working day per month.

With every transaction flowing through one platform, FarEastFlora.com now has something fragmented payment systems couldn’t provide: a complete picture of how money moves across the business. Having a single, connected view of how money moves across the business also opens the door to AI-driven optimisation. The team can manage spend, predict cash flow, and make decisions based on the full picture, rather than fragments of it. 

Looking ahead, FarEastFlora.com plans to bring employee expenses onto the same platform with Corporate Cards. The team will be able to issue virtual cards instantly, with automatic categorisation helping the business extend the same visibility and control it has over payments to company spend. 

With stronger financial roots in place, FarEastFlora.com now has the conditions to grow, adapt quickly, and continue flourishing as a modern omnichannel retailer.

This publication does not constitute legal, tax, or professional advice from Airwallex, nor does it substitute seeking such advice, and makes no express or implied representations / warranties / guarantees regarding content accuracy, completeness, or currency. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [[email protected]]. Airwallex (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (201626561Z) is licensed as a Major Payment Institution and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.