According to the Greeting Card Association, Americans exchange seven billion greeting cards every year. But what is the purpose of a greeting card? For many, greeting cards are used to convey sentiments they find hard to express. You can illicit or convey an emotion with the written words of a greeting card. And in order to sell stationery and greeting cards, you need a competitive edge to market them.
Let’s face facts. With cards and stationery, you are directly competing with box-stores. More bluntly, you are competing with cheap, generic greeting cards and stationery products. So how can you capture part of the massive greeting card market? The key is selecting cards and stationery products that are unique and speak to your customer base.
Finding Uniqueness Leads To Success
Uniqueness abounds in the greeting and stationery card world. The key is speaking your customers’ language. Do your customers love their pets? Pet oriented greeting cards speak to these customers. What dog lover can resist a greeting card with a Great Pyrenees dog on it?
Develop your greeting card strategy by thinking outside of your normal product mix box. Think more about the personalities of your customers when selecting your stationery products.
Do they enjoy humor? Find humorous greeting cards with a twist.
Are they sentimental? Find beautifully designed cards featuring soft, lyrical verses.
Does novelty peak their interest? Find cards with motion or sounds.
There is a greeting card for every personality. All you have to do is decide which personalities visit your store.
Thinking Outside The Box
Statistically, women purchase the majority of stationery and gift cards, most of whom use fashion as a way to set themselves apart from the crowd. Add fashion elements to your greeting card selections and sales will soar. Why? Because women want personality.
Think about it. Greeting cards found at mass merchants are often impersonal. They leave one with a feeling of blandness. Adding fashionable greeting cards gives the purchaser a perception of merit.
When purchasers perceive greater value in a product, they develop a warm and fuzzy and feeling good about their purchase. Those feelings of warmth and happiness lead directly to more sales for your store.
How To Present Your Selections
Before you display your greeting cards give this test a try: Go to your local mass merchant and view their stationery and greeting card section.
Does it make you wanna purchase a card? Does it give you warm feelings — similar to the feeling you get when you’ve selected the perfect gift and you know the receiver will love it? I think not. Now ask why? It’s because they offer generic, bland cards lined up in a row without any personality.
You must create a feel good place in your stationery and card department. To do this, you must select cards that make you feel good and evoke emotion, not cards that say ah oh well it’s just a card. Cards and stationery should be full of spirit. Think about the elegance of crystal embellished “Save The Date Card,” or the magnificence of cards that are actually works of art. These cards become more of a keepsake item than a disposable name tag. Customers might even frame these cards as inexpensive works of art, turning them in home decor. Now you’ve broadened your selling to a whole other group.
The take away here is give your customers something they will find out of the ordinary.
FGMarket, I am proud to say has several wonderful suppliers who provide unique greeting cards, awesome invitations and fabulous stationery products. To jump start your greeting card and stationery product search, check out the FGmarket vendors highlighted below.