Does the phenomenal success of Moonpig spell the end of traditional Greeting cards?
Guernsey based Moonpig, producers of online personalised cards, have grown from strength to strength since they were founded in July 2000 by Nick Jenkins. Nick Jenkins struggled through the collapse of the dotcom era and after raising further investment started to see growth until profits were first recorded in 2005. The real advancement came following their first television advertising campaign in 2006 and sales have grown substantially since then. By the end of 2009 Moonpig boasted almost 2.6million Greeting card customers. The company then established a base in Australia before launching in America in 2010. Moonpig now boast a staggering turnover in excess of £30 million. That represents more than 10 million cards!
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Amazingly other online personalised card producers have been relatively slow to follow. That is until now! It now seems that a new operator is launching almost every week. WH Smiths have invested heavily into Funky Pigeon whilst other retailers such as Marks and Spenser have also launched a competitive online personalised card store. The danger signs for the industry are starting to show. Hallmark is one of the biggest Greeting card publishers in the world and yet they too have now launched their own competing online personalised greeting card store, do they know something that we don't?
As technology moves on at an ever increasing pace it becomes easier to produce high quality greeting cards on demand without the need for massive print runs. Will this be good or bad for the card industry? More over does the personalised greeting card spell the end for mass market cards produced by the industry giants such as Hallmark and UKG?
There seems to be a very big void in people's opinion on personalised greetings. Some think that they are fantastic but equally others state that receiving a card that has been written and signed by a machine is not at all personal and they would much prefer a hand written card, in fact many people would actually be offended to receive a card that hasn't been signed by the person sending it.
There are other successful on-line card stores that offer regular traditionally produced cards that you can order for delivery to yourself so that you can enter your own message and post on to the intended recipient. A great example is contemporary card and poster publisher Icon. They have an extensive selection of design led contemporary cards for all occasions and offer express delivery all over the world.
So there are two distinctive markets that are being catered for online and it is likely that both avenues will continue to flourish in the very buoyant market sector for greeting cards.
Greeting Cards - Moonpigs Success and the Potential Impact on The Greeting Card Industry
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