Progressive Greetings’ physical and digital editions are all ready to read
The daffodils are in full bloom, birds are busy building their nests and Progressive Greetings’ March 2025 edition has landed, and the digital version of the magazine has been uploaded too!
Bursting with industry news and views, retailer perspectives, cracking articles and tons of product newness, it makes for a good spring clean of a read.
Love was definitely in the air with cardies reporting heartfelt Valentine’s Day sales, albeit last minute as ever. Postmark’s sales were up 8% like-for-like with 26% of sales taking place on Feb 13. Click here to read about the first spring season event of the year.
And the news pages are crammed with other trade happenings, from UKG’s new owner to Second Nature taking on the UK distribution for the Origamo collection.
With Spring Fair celebrating its 75th birthday PG columnist David Robertson joined in the banter of shows of yore, which made him realise how nostalgia is such a strong driver, something which bodes well for independent retailers. Click here to go back to the future.
Meanwhile, Cardsharp tracks the long heritage of WHSmith on the British High Street and what its imminent sale means for our greeting card sector. Click here to read what he has to say.
Something very much of the present and future is artificial intelligence. Accepting that the wonders of AI can and are proving a useful tool for greeting card publishers, PG cuts into this hot potato, delving into the threats and advantages it offers to our industry. To see what publishers and leading artists’ agent Jehane has to say on the matter, click here.
As the UK’s largest retailer, and with over 23 million households being active Clubcard users, the Tesco greeting card buying team knows a thing or two about consumer buying habits, as well as the importance of remaining in step with the public’s expectations, on products, pricing and delivering in store. PG went shopping with buying and merchandising manager Ross Lasseter and Tish Bas, lead buying manager for Paperchase and fashion stationery. To join the club, click here.
Sticking with retailers, the recent GCA’s Dragons Speed Dating event brought 72 greeting card publishers together with 21 top retail buyers for a few fast-paced hours of positive pitching, copious learning and highly enjoyable networking. Click here to join the Den action.
More retailer feedback is shared in the popular What’s Hot? section which sees a trio of leading indies reveal the ranges that are selling well for them. Click here to find out which publishers hit the hot spot.
And there’s a lovely dose of product newness in Innovations, click here to feast your eyes, while in PG’s annual deep dive into the vibrant giftwrappings sector rejoices in all the developments in the wrap scene. Click here to be suitably dressed.
“Reacting to the rise of AI we naturally feel the desire to learn, to read and be imparted with knowledge. The bookshelf depicts the need to appreciate the act of collecting things, of surrounding yourself with cherished possessions that nourish the soul,” said licensing agent and trends forecaster Hannah Curtis, of Creative Sparrow, citing the trend for book-related imagery.
“Piles of books with thoughtful titles, book cover-style designs and the act of reading all make lovely images for greeting cards.”
PG turns the pages this design trend, as well as gets chapter and verse of publishers reading habits. Click here for a flick through.
Artist Maja Lindberg, who is featured in Art Source, has a great book-related claim to fame – at the recent Wicked film premiere movie and music star Ariane Grande took an Olympia le Tan embroidered book clutch bag based on a design by Maja. To find out more about this talented Swedish creative click here.
All this and more in the pages of our lovely magazine. Wouldn’t you like to hold it in your hands so you can flick through and read it wherever it takes your fancy? To subscribe now go to www.max-subscriptions.net. However, if you can’t wait, to read the whole PG March 2025 edition online you can click here.
