Card Factory research includes reassurance of industry’s resilience
Card Factory has delivered very positive insights into the UK public’s greeting card-buying habits, sharing findings of its extensive research at its Capital Markets Strategy presentation a few days ago as well as in its recently-published Annual Report.
Coinciding with the announcement of its own impressive financial results for the year to the end of January, as relayed by PG Buzz, Card Factory’s ceo Darcy Willson-Rymer reinforced the “ongoing resilience” of the UK greeting card market, “continuing its post-pandemic recovery, with a volume growth of 2%”.
He shared that the number of UK adults purchasing greeting cards rose to 40.3million, a 7% increase from the year previous, and 827m cards were bought in total, up from 811m the previous year.
Even more heartening for the future of the industry, is that there has been “positive growth in the younger audience categories”, highlighting this is especially the case in 16-24 age group.
Card Factory’s research confirmed this age group’s card-buying habits have been increasing sizeably since 2020, 14% up in the last 12 months alone year-on-year, taking numbers to an average of 24 cards per head in the period.
Drilling down into what drives these youngsters to buy and send cards, the top reasons given were to let people know they were being thought of, how it’s more personal to send a card than a text or email, the keepsake value, and just because “it’s a nice way to connect with people”.
As part of its investment in consumer-focused data, which informs its product development direction, Card Factory recently redefined all greeting card buyers into six distinct segments – Bargain Hunters, Celebration Enthusiasts, Obligated, Joy Seekers, Indifferents and Traditionals.
In terms of other card categories’ performance of the last year, the giant greetings retailer is tracking a strong uptake in special events and occasions. For example, its Mother’s Day/Father’s Day and Valentine’s categories saw a sizeable increase of 153% on the previous year, as did Wedding, up 170%.
Top: Card Factory is appealing to six distinct greeting card buying groups in the UK
