Having helped thousands of people celebrate birthdays over the last decade, yesterday (Monday 17 September) online greeting card shop, Love Kate’s marked its own milestone – with cards and cake to itself!
Ten years ago, Kate Malt virtually stumbled into this industry, looking for a new challenge. Kate now considers this challenge to be her biggest passion (and her third child), as she has managed to create an online greeting card shop that her customers seem to love almost as much as she does.
Kate runs Love Kate’s with her husband Chris and a small handful of great staff, in sunny Cornwall, offering customers the choice to shop for greeting cards and gifts online via their web shop as well as on Ebay and Amazon.
After 10 years of hard graft, Kate says her business is “booming” having despatched over 110,000 customer orders in the last year alone.
Kate is full of praise for the broad cross section of card publishers and gift companies who now supply Love Kate’s, “which has helped to fill two storage units full of amazing cards and gifts,” she says, citing Second Nature, Talking Pictures, Woodmansterne as some of her favourites. Kate recognises that “It is important to possess a variety of stock, which is why we are thrilled to finally offer the huge range that we do, as it means there is something for everyone”.
A firm believer in the kindred spirit, for over the last two years, Love Kates has been supporting the charity Post Pals, sourcing and donating 50 greeting cards a month for the charity to send to sick children in hospital.
“We have been overwhelmed by support from so many in the industry, enabling us to donate approximately 50 cards a month to Post Pals – well over 1,000 cards now. We’ve had donations from Second Nature, Nigel Quiney, Holy Mackerel, UKG, CardMix, Blue Eyed Sun, Woodmansterne, Carte Blanche, Ling, Paper Rose/The Art Group, The Art File and Pigment, as well as from our own stocks of cards. We are now looking to line up more donations for the coming months,” Kate told PG Buzz a few weeks ago. (https://www.pgbuzz.net/viewpoint-a-sense-of-belonging/)
Kate is now gearing up for next week’s Thinking Of You Week which she has supported right from the start, fanfaring its happening on the company’s website. Writing on a dedicated blog on the Love Kate’s website, Kate reveals, “I love to surprise people with an unexpected card. My daughters used to love receiving something special in the post at University when they were missing me!”. She goes on to explain to consumers that there are “no specific rules involved in Thinking Of You Week other than sending a thoughtful card to another person. You could send one to a special family member, an old friend, or even someone you don’t know. You could just be wanting to say hello, say sorry, congratulate someone, tell a joke, or just say… thinking of you!”
There is no doubt that Kate is delighted that the business she started a decade ago is doing so well, and is playing its part in encouraging card sending.
As Kate pointed out: “In this day and age of multiple communication mediums, it’s upsetting that we are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, but greeting cards are very powerful. A hand-picked card, and a carefully worded personal message, really can make people smile. And that’s what it’s all about.”
Top: Online card and gift site Love Kate’s is celebrating its 10th birthday.
