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Focus On... Stationery
There have been lots of pros and cons to the working from home (WFH) trend, but some of the positives have to be the elevation and appreciation of stationery products, that has brought benefits to retailers and suppliers alike. Added to this the state of digital fatigue looks to be expanding with younger generations grasping the delights of non-tech paper products, and delving into the joys of journal-keeping, list-making, and simply writing things down. Elphicks department store is one retailer that is taking on board the growing love of luxury stationery as it’s about to launch a Campo Marzio shop-in-shop, showcasing the timeless designs of the exclusive Italian brand. Meanwhile, the support for British business Papier, which has built its reputation on providing everything needed to support the consumer’s writing through its online-only offer, has recognised our ever-escalating stationery appetite as ideal timing to raise over £47million from investors to continue its mission worldwide. Papier’s product portfolio includes greeting cards, notebooks, invitations, diaries and planners, and it’s encouraging for the whole sector that millennials are its biggest
The traditional ‘office’ has changed forever thanks to Covid19, and the proof can be seen on the desks of today. With many people forced to work from home during the pandemic, consumers have continued to stock up on their own work essentials with more attractive notebooks and pens combined with sustainability being very much the name of the game. It’s all a far cry from the satire portrayed in TV’s classic comedy The Office by David Brent and his team at the Slough branch of Wernham-Hogg paper merchants. In the run up to the imminent Stationery Show, PG found out about how our ‘staple’ diet is much more interesting these days.
Top: WFH has allowed workers a break from the boredom satirised in The Office. Left: Campo Marzio’s products spell Italian style. Above: Papier’s product portfolio targets millennials and GenZ.
demographic, accounting for 53% of its sales, with GenZ users its fastest-growing segment. In its founder and ceo Taymoor Atighetchi’s opinion, these products address a certain aesthetic that is emerging among younger consumers, swimming in a sea of apps, where they are actively looking for alternatives to the screens that define so much of the rest of their lives. Amplifying Taymoor’s views, from a retailing standpoint that straddles both the physical and the digital, retailer Sarah Laker, who owns Stationery Supplies Marple as well 48
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
as the online Giraffe Gifts platform, opened her second bricks and mortar shop in Wilmslow during the pandemic. Tracking the buying patterns Sarah explained: “The first lockdown was a frenzy of sales as we entered into a true unknown. Everyone needed stationery - people working from home and those homeschooling their children and, alongside that, people wanted things to do like crafts, jigsaws and art products. But, as the pandemic wears on, buying patterns have shifted. We’re now selling less traditional core office stationery, but more gift stationery. I think people have got digital fatigue and are turning back to more tangible things like notebooks and journaling.”