With the retail lockdowns having played very much into Moonpig’s hands last year, easing its launch on the stockmarket, all eyes were on how the online operator has fared since all bricks and mortar greeting card and gift retailers have been able to trade.
The answer was there for all to see yesterday (December 9) when it revealed its half year results for the six months to end of October 2021 which did reflect a return to the high street, causing a dip in Moonpig’s turnover and profits, but not by much.
Group revenue decreased by 8.5% year-on-year to £142.6m, with Moonpig seeing a 10.2% reductio while Greetz, the group’s Dutch-based equivalent, dipped only 2.6%. However, the greater rate of year-on-year reduction at Moonpig reflects the fact that the brand’s trading was particularly strong during summer 2020.
The group impressively delivered some 19.5 million orders in the last year from Moonpig and Greetz, more than double the year before.
The results statement detailed that Moonpig experienced ‘elevated rates of customer purchase frequency’, which were higher than expected at the start of the financial year but then saw a month-on-month decrease as lockdown restrictions were progressively relaxed.
Moonpig has continued to invest in its greeting card offer with its global design platform now featuring over 33,000 card designs. It underwent a significant ‘onboarding’ of new publishing partners and designers as well as committing to several new licensing properties, including exclusive partnerships with Team GB, the British and Irish Lions, Peter Rabbit and Warhammer.
Highlighting some key greeting card developments, Nickyl Raithatha, ceo of Moonpig stressed how it has “leveraged the breadth in our card design range to launch campaigns offering free cards to consumers for missions that are currently of relatively low order volume, to drive purchase frequency and raise awareness of our offering in these areas. We saw a 180% year-on-year increase in orders of Diwali cards this year, and a free Thank You card campaign drove year-on-year orders growth of 360% for this mission during August.”
However, real growth has come on the gifting front with almost half (48%) of all its sales being on gifts, including via its partnership with Virgin Wines, the launch of fragrances, improvements in its ‘letterbox’ gifting range and expansion of the branded toys offering. The latter saw a 50% year-on-year growth in sales of toys with the group working with more recognisable toy brands, including Mattel, Barbie and Nerf.
The results announcement also highlighted the strides the Moonpig group has made on the sustainable front, and how it is on course for 100% of its paper, card and packaging to be sustainably sourced by 2022. It has recently obtained full Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) chain of custody certification for its UK operations, which means that its manufactured products are now fully certified across the Group.
It has undertaken an extensive review of all of its purchased third-party packaging and envelope SKUs and is now working to ensure that all are certified by either the FSC or The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) or comprise more than 75% recycled content by 2022. It has also ensured that all of its card, packaging and envelopes are 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable.
Looking to the future Nicky said: “With revenue more than doubling over the past two years, we are confident that we have achieved an enduring transformation in the scale of our business. The long-term opportunity remains vast, and we have never been in a better position to capture this growth.”
To view the current Moonpig Christmas advert click below.
Top: A still from the current Moonpig Christmas advert.
