Indies, groups and multiples knock back fears as card sales hold firm
The one thing everyone wants to know as soon as the new year sales begin is whether the preceding festive season has been a cracker or a turkey on the retail front.
For both independent greeting card retailers as well as the big boys it looks to have been a lot better than many feared, especially on the single card front.
“Exceptional” was how Scribbler co-founder John Procter described festive trading at the 37-store group. “We saw an 18% increase across all Christmas products for the eight weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Our single card sales were up 10%, pack sales were up 15%, gift sales were up 40%, gift packaging was up 17%, stationery showed a 15% increase while party products were up 10%.”
Tesco’s buying and merchandising manager Ross Lasseter told PG Buzz: “Single cards had a fantastic performance. We saw high single-digit year-on-year growth in both volume and value on single cards,” and he said revenue was in line with the retailer’s plan even though boxed cards sales were down.
And Abi Wilson, head of buying and design for celebrations at Sainsbury’s, Argos, and Habitat, concurred: “On plan – we were thrilled with the performance which was up on last year.
“We have certainly seen the switch out of boxed cards and into singles cards over the last few years as the cost of stamps have increased. Boxed cards remain important, but in a smaller way than five years ago.”
“Marvellous” was the Christmas verdict from Mark Janson-Smith, MD of the Postmark group of 15 stores in London, Birmingham and Glasgow, and he added: “We couldn’t be happier with our results. Overall, our like-for-like sales were up 10.4% in the Christmas category for the eight weeks leading up to Christmas Day.
“Our single card sales were up 9.3% and relations cards were up 7.2%. We had a healthy overall sell through of 85% on single cards. Packs showed a modest 1.3% increase, and we saw an excellent 94% overall sell through. Our gift dressings sales were up 10%.
“Our fears that card packs would be down after the well-publicised price rise on first-class stamps, thankfully, were unfounded.”
Expanded singles sales was also the story at Earlybird in Stoke Newington, Barrowford’s Presentation, Yarnton Home & Garden, and Hugs & Kisses in Tettenhall.
At the seven-strong Home Counties group House of Cards, co-owner Miles Robinson admitted his predictions of a fall-off in boxes and packs were definitely off the mark with some lines up nearly 20%, while Jo Sorrell is reminding herself – yet again! – to increase stocks of her bestselling bumper boxes of 30 cards from Tracks for Cardies in Stevenage.
At Reflections, co-owner Philip Nield was very happy with the record Christmas at the Nantwich store, “we sold more Christmas singles and boxes than ever before”, and he added: “Charity card boxes and packs far outsold the generic ones – I do feel the greeting card industry should receive more recognition for the huge amount we raise for charities every year through the sale of charity Christmas cards.”
At House of Cards and Gemini Greetings in Battle and Heathfield, owner Ryan Shoobridge was happy overall although admitted it was a near thing as it all came together very late.
“A lot of people seemed to shop much later, Christmas Eve especially,” Ryan explained. “Normally we find it starts to wind down by about 2pm but in the afternoon we still had a shop full at both my shops and the takings were higher than normal for that day.
“Overall trade ended up OK and we kept up with last year. Single cards sold really well, we probably sold as many as normal, but boxes and packs were down 10%. Packs and boxes sales seem to have slowed down over the last few years which I really think is because of the price of stamps. We heard customers talking about it in the shop, many commenting directly to us that they’ve stopped posting as many as they used to.”
Liz Kemp had a similar experience at her two Kemps stores in Maldon and Wetherby, where she also matched the previous year’s sales “despite the weather and economy, but it was a slightly scary slow start”.
Sensing trade would be less buoyant, Liz bought in less seasonal card stock with the packs remaining the better sellers than singles, and she commented: “Interestingly, our general greeting card sales this year are up and we continue to work hard at the curation of this collection and build on our reputation for choice, style and point of difference.”
It was an “immense” festive period at Set in Leicester where co-owner Stuart Delahoy was very thankful for the Jellycat phenomenon: “Thanks to that little wobbly cat our trade was beyond all expectations! By carefully managing our Jellycat account, we never ran short of stock, despite the lack of a few bestsellers. We saw growth of over 30% compared to last year and that was previously the best yet.
“Our Christmas card sales were strong, contrary to the ridiculous stories coming out of John Lewis, and continue to be the bedrock of our offering.
“The outrageous increase in stamp costs must have had an effect, but we had a lot of buyers shopping right up until December 24 for cards being delivered in person – price did not appear to be a barrier, with a lot of the £3.50, £3.75, and £3.99 price points selling through.”
Buying in twice as many single cards worked at Objectables in Folkestone where co-owner Tim Gould saw a near sell-out.
He told PG: “Trade as a whole went pretty good. We matched the 1-24 December 2023 sales at about 4pm on Christmas Eve. So, all in all, very happy. A few people mentioned the price of stamps, but finding that special card right for an individual is much more what our customers are looking for.”
There was a 20% rise in single card sales at Berkhamsted’s &Quirky where co-owner Paul Cheshire had “tried to improve our single card offering”, choosing to cut back on festive boxes as the supermarkets’ offer was at a lower price than last year, and he added: “We experienced a last-minute rush for our relations and cheeky cards, areas we’ll look to further expand on for 2025.”
Cilla & Camilla director Richard Barker was very satisfied with the Beaminster, Bridport and Sherbourne stores’ performance where card sales were “to our surprise, better than last year, up by around 10%” which all meant he was very pleased to nab top-up stock at short notice in mid-December.
Richard added: “Both packs and singles did equally well. We only buy charity packs as this is what the majority of our customers expect. We’re more design-led with singles, where there was little price-resistance up to around £3.99.”
And at Baileys in Ainsdale, Crosby and Maghull, co-owner Penny Bailey declared herself “absolutely delighted”, explaining: “We had a remarkable, if slightly unexpected, Christmas trading period. The lesson learned is to stay in my lane and ignore the negative press!
“We traded over 8% up on last year across all three stores. Surprising, but very much welcome, is the news our Christmas card sales were up 13%, with boxed cards sales up 22%! I’m absolutely buzzing.”
The full Christmas Trading viewpoints will be covered in the upcoming February issue of Progressive Greetings and in detailed PG Buzz stories.
