Spring is here (almost), and so is the March issue of Progressive Greetings, sharing the industry’s news, views, and current happenings.
“We have had an amazing start to the year. January was a huge lift as we finished 10% up,” share Carl Dunne and Oliver Guise-Smith, partners of Cards and Gifts, Sheffield, adding, “As Valentine’s was fast approaching so were the storms. As Ciara hit we were greeted with a slump and some quite serious flooding. Then suddenly, two days before Valentine’s Day, we had snow, sleet, hail, heavy rain… and without much warning this time. Luckily, it seemed to subside to just leave enough time for shoppers to hit the high street. Amazingly, we saw a 20% increase in sales of Valentine’s cards year-on-year.”
Sarah Henderson, co-owner of 3 Wishes, with five shops in Dorset and Hampshire, has seen a definite upswing in the number of people making choices based on the environmental credentials of a product. “This will be the main focus for us this year. We need to be ahead of our customers’ expectations, so we will be focusing on suppliers using biodegradable flitter and continuing to choose products with little or no plastic packaging wherever possible. We are planning to replace all ribbons and bows with raffia and cotton alternatives. We have started to offer a recycling service for cellophane and hopefully we will soon be able to extend this to foil balloons.”
Reaching the end of the first trading quarter of 2020, a number of greeting card retailers reveal in March PG’s Viewpoints how it has shaped up for them, what market trends that are emerging and what new card ranges have caught their eye. Find out more about how the first quarter has fared for card retailers (click to pages 25-27).
And, taking the pulse of Valentine’s sales this year, find out if the first Spring Season was affected by the storms, plus a ‘hearty’ report of an article that appeared in The Guardian, entitled ‘Lots of Love’ in the newspaper, and ‘Enduring love: how greeting cards are surviving the smartphone’ online, click to News (click page 9).
Allusions to the mystical and magical realm is foretold in 2020, the trend for divination certainly influenced by Gucci’s famous Spring/Summer show in 2018, which cast a spell over the catwalk with its surreal and vibrant colours and mystical nuances.
And this magic of the cosmos is being reflected on card designs, along with koalas as furry ambassadors reminding us to cherish our wildlife, 90s zany prints, eco card warriors, Japanese design and craft and ‘Classic Blue’, the calming and comforting hue chosen as Pantone’s Colour of the Year in 2020 for designers. PG takes a look at some of the design trends that are in motion on cards in 2020 (click pages 29-31).
“So many greeting card retail stockists have pulled out the stops over the last year to survive and prosper in these challenging times. We’re really looking forward to rewarding retail excellence, inventiveness, passion and commitment – the greeting card retailers who stand out head and shoulders from the crowd,” states Warren Lomax, joint md of Max Publishing, who owns and organises The Retas.
With the Retas Awards 2020 search for the UK’s best greeting card retail stockists and employees underway, entries and nominations are flooding in to PG HQ.
And in tune with the zeitgeist of cherishing the natural world by nurturing nature, the theme of The Retas Awards event this year is ‘The Finery of Greenery’.
The deadline for retailers to enter is Friday 20 March with a downloadable entry form hosted on The Retas website (www.theretasawards.co.uk).
Read more in the March issue in News (click to page 11).
With the ‘green’ light shining brightly in giftwrap publishers’ and consumers’ consciousness, The Unique Paper Company has received a great response to its launch of four new everyday ranges of innovative eco-friendly giftwrap under its new Uniqueco brand. And, along with Unique, there are a plethora of giftwrap publishers who are also honing their ‘green’ credentials on the environmental issue in the giftwrap market.
Follow the giftwrap industry trends, views, news, design trends and fresh launches in Focus On Giftwrap within the March issue of PG (click to page 41-49).
Tabi Marsh, owner of Papilio at Heritage in Thornbury has come up with some great initiatives, thinking of new ways of engaging with the local community. However, Tabi’s major project of late has been the launch of Junior Retail, a training programme that she created specifically for 7-11 year olds to not only teach them the rudiments of retailing, but also to help youngsters (and their parents) to view retailing as a credible career choice.
Discover more about Tabi’s Junior Retail scheme (click to pages 50 to 51).
And, of course, March’s PG also includes new product pages Innovations (click to pages 33-39); wise words from regular columnists, card publisher Blue Eyed-Sun’s Jeremy Corner, who discusses what makes a good trade stand (click to pages 57-58), retailer JP Pozzi, who is feeling the greeting card love (click to pages 20-21).
All this in the pages of a lovely glossy magazine and online too!
Click here to read the whole PG March 2020 edition online.
