As reported on PG Buzz last week, a campaign spearheaded by card publishers and online sellers, Becka Griffin of Becka Griffin Illustration and Louise Verity of Bookishly has really taken off.
The duo are on a mission to galvanise support, initially from the online community to stop selling cards in cellobags. And it’s receiving a lot of attention. The GCA posted a link to the PG Buzz article on its Facebook page and it has been one of the Association’s most popular posts with publishers, distributors, retailers and etailers all responding.
“It’s great to see the campaign getting so much attention and from outside of our original ‘target’ of online sellers,” says Louise Verity. “We started the campaign with an initial focus of online businesses selling direct to customers. But we’ve been surprised that it has opened the conversations with other publishers and retailers as well. We totally understand the concerns of retailers with the problems around stock damage and envelope control when cards are not cellowrapped. But it is great that these conversations are even happening.”
One publisher who was inspired to go the ‘naked’ way was Alison Bick of Alison Bick Designs, who commented: “I sell cards online so I might try the naked approach for that. I sell wholesale too, but I’ve worked in a busy gift shop where customers were very rough with cards, as I think they just don’t think about it, they are in a hurry to make their purchases, and equally they won’t buy cards with scuffed edges.”
One retailer who responded to the Facebook post was Richard Armitage, owner of The Wishing Tree in Codsall, Staffordshire who commented: “I always cello cards because customers don’t care where they grab the envelope from after they’ve read the card, so you end up with cards that are too big for envelopes. The problem was worse around Christmas when people would swap dark red envelopes for white so they could go in the post. It also adds protection to cards. I would prefer recyclable/biodegradable wrap. If there was a solution to all the issues I would be all ears, not just for the environment but it would save me 5p a card too!”
