With Glee fast approaching, Glee Daily News took the opportunity to delve into the world of greeting cards to understand what is so special about them. We met with Andy Paterson, Woodmansterne’s Sales Director, and Kate Leach, Head of Marketing at Woodmansterne’s very impressive Milton Keynes Distribution Centre and offices.
Andy has vast experience in the industry, with the last 12 of his 30+ years spent with the publisher. Andy’s passion for the category is infectious and he strongly believes card sales can grow even more in garden centres. He and Kate were able to share some interesting facts with us, combined with some ideas on what to consider.
Greeting cards: The facts
- The greeting card market is worth more than the sales of tea in the UK.
- Volumes of single greeting cards through garden centres has grown by 11% since 2021 but fallen slightly in volume by 0.4% across the UK as a whole.
- Kantar, which Woodmansterne works closely with for insight, reports that the garden centre share of the UK greeting card ‘pie’ is now 2.3%.
- An estimated 26.2m people in the UK bought a card in 2022, and on average there are 11 trips to buy cards annually.
- 85% of all card purchases are made by women.
- Retirees and empty nesters (households where the ‘kids’ have moved out), account for 50% of UK card purchases. The most growth is now coming from the pre and young family category.
- Many mixed category/variety retailers, say greeting cards are one of, if not the most, cross shopped product in their stores, ending up in a ‘basket’ with something else.
On card department location
Andy explained these statistics help understand how garden centres can capitalise on opportunities to sell more cards. Card buying demographics are perfectly aligned with garden centre core customers, and encouraging them into a well-lit, curated, and positioned card department will undoubtedly grow sales. Centres with footfall from the restaurant to the card area have seen significant improvements in sales.
After all, cards are a genuine small value, everyday purchase, and if there is a credible choice it’s not just one card that gets bought. Gifting and house plants are also obvious adjacencies.
On price
Andy went on to say: “In some cases there is a reluctance to stock certain ranges because of price. Ironically, few will complain that a coffee is well over £3 nowadays and how long does a cup of coffee last? Just imagine, how sales revenue would increase if you had a new range of cards that you could credibly sell at the same volume as an average £3 per card, rather than £2.50?” Kate adds: “Customers are spending money on a lovely lunch or a great breakfast and if they are spending a considerable amount on a beautiful gift or a plant, why would they not want to buy that perfect card to make it even more special?”
The average card costs less than a cup of coffee.
On multiple purchases
Dwell time in centres would suggest that core customers are likely to be less time-starved and generally more organised. Therefore, if the card display is attractive, enticing and has genuine variety, it will encourage multiple purchases.
Variety is key
With more than 300 greeting card publishers in the UK, there are plenty of options to choose from. But how much time do we have to get out of our day-to-day tasks and realise the potential? Many garden centres devote a great deal of space to greetings cards so have an opportunity to create more compelling displays than many other retailers, providing there is a wide breadth of choice. Andy challenges us to check how many captioned cards are ‘doing the same job’ and how often are you unable to buy a card for a close relation in your own centre?
Below, one of Woodmansterne’s popular Emma Bridgewater designed cards.
Display performance
Whilst space may be easier to come by in a garden centre, Andy feels that just like every other category, there needs to be appropriate financial scrutiny.
“Our primary company core values at Woodmansterne are ‘Relationships First’ and ‘Be Authentic’. We genuinely live by these every day and there cannot be a better example of combining the two in the relationships we have with our customers. Retailer needs are genuinely at the forefront of our minds. We’d rather encourage, alongside ourselves, another publisher’s product or range to compliment sales. We provide detailed display analysis to help review and curate the optimum display. There are many occasions where our new customers have been able to reduce card options and therefore reduced inventory investment, but still see healthy increases in card sales!”
There’s no such thing as a silly idea!
Andy and Kate, whose experience is very much in marketing and promotion, have other ideas to promote visits to the card area.
- Reward loyal cafe customers with an opportunity to earn a free card. A stamped loyalty card would drive footfall into the card department and help cross-pollinate purchases.
- To ensure your loyal everyday card customers come to you first for Christmas, why not consider a ‘first Christmas card free’ reward for multiple everyday purchases over the preceding months?
- Merchandising cards in other areas of the centre can also help sales. Indeed, placing cards and pick up gifts leading into the till area, also proves successful. Andy knows that garden centres have an opportunity to grow sales by adopting the same snaking queuing systems that Primark and TK Maxx use, because his wife and two teenage daughters fall for it every time!
Here to help!
The Woodmansterne team would be delighted to help you boost your card sales, even if you believe they are already wonderful. “There are always opportunities” Andy explained, “You’ve just got to be prepared to look. We have years of expertise in publishing cards, planning card displays and helping with the most appropriate order and delivery process. We manage the whole category for some garden centres, and can provide the required design variety by supplying designs from ourselves and over 20 ‘Best in class’ UK card publishers, in a single order/delivery.
We can also help provide the innovative display fixtures to help your department look its best. We appreciate that this solution can be scary at first, but ask around - it’s liberating, and you need not have any less influence or control on your ongoing card offer.”
Get in touch
One of the team is always available for a chat, or even a visit, to help us all sell more of the products we clearly love!
GLEE Stand: Hall 8-20 20E20-F21
Call: 01923 200 600
Email: hello@woodmansterne.co.uk
