TOP STORY Slow Burn Father’s Day

Sales steady with last-minute rush

Dads are a slow burner when it comes to greeting cards with the majority of retailers experiencing the traditional last-minute rush for Father’s Day. However, sales figures tracked at least equal to last year and, in many cases, rising on both cards and gifts despite the cost-of-living crisis, so making a fuss of Dad is working well.

“Father’s Day for us was definitely up on last year by around the 25% mark,” Milford Cards & Gifts coowner Kayleigh Hisim told PG. “It was a slow burn and then a mad rush at the end for both cards and gifts.”

For Jason Billings-Cray, the recently appointed John Lewis and Waitrose buyer for cards and collections, the store group was “really pleased” with Father's Day sales, tracking ahead of last year.

Below: Part of Highworth Emporium’s Father Day display.

Below left: Paper Tiger’s Michael Apter lapping up the Father’s Day rays.

Below middle: Cards from the pets did well for No. 14 Ampthill.

Putting Father’s Day cards out straight after Easter helped Helen Southgate, coowner at Cards ’N’ Things, Hellesdon, maintain its sales on a par with last year: “We’re very fortunate that we have a separate area in the shop just dedicated to seasonal times of the year so we never have to take off any everyday stock to accommodate this.”

At No14 Ampthill owner Jo Barber revealed that while her sales held steady, she noticed a different split in what people bought. “Daddy cards weren’t quite as strong - maybe more children are being encouraged to make their own cards this year,” said Jo. “Dad captioned cards remained strong, as did Grandad, but there was an uplift in cards from pets to their dads, such as Dog Father, thanks for the walkies, paw-some dad, etc.”

Hallmark’s charity partnership with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is focused on making cards more accessible for blind and partiallysighted people.

“Accessibility is so important - cards are all about helping people to connect and nurture their relationships, so every single person has the right to share in the joy of sending and receiving them,” highlights Claire Marsom, Hallmark’s head of creative.

In 2021 Hallmark ran a study asking people how easy it was to find greeting cards that represent them, unfortunately, a quarter of all respondents living with sight loss said that they found this difficult - with its new range, available from next month, Hallmark aims to remedy that.

The new Better Connected range not only includes Braille but also acts on the importance of colour contrast, type size, font style and the tactility of design.

Above: Better Connected is Hallmark’s new braille range with RNIB.

The rip-off merchants and copycats cause all sorts of damage to artists and small businesses, but Angela Chick Illustration has had a minor victory thanks to social media.

He added: “We had an early launch of Father's Day collections this year, nine weeks ahead of the event, as we were seeing appetite from those super organised customers, searching JL.com for cards and gifts well in advance. Though we have those keen early shoppers, the week before the event remains our biggest week.”

In Edinburgh, the late surge is the norm, but Paper Tiger md Michael Apter was “delighted” with the sunny sales at its new Morningside store which helped to track ahead of last year on like-for-like sales.

It’s always last minute at Highworth Emporium too where the gorgeous sunshine caused co-owner Aga Marsden a bit of a problem: “Footfall was significantly lower due to the heat and our sales figures are more in line with 2019.”

Up in Sheffield, Cards & Gifts Dronfield’s Carl Dunne was “shocked” there’s been no real change in sales quantities on previous years despite the price rises from suppliers. He said: “We saw good sales on comedy captions and the expensive ones are still flying off the shelf. We see high sales on the step-Dad, like a Dad and Grandad captions.”

Berkhamsted’s &Quirky had a good Father’s Day, as partner Paul Cheshire explained: “In comparison to last year, we sold more cards. Also, we notice as it’s the mums buying the cards and they seem to purchase one for every child in the family - rather than dad just buying the one card for Mother’s Day.”

An early launch for Father’s Day straight after the coronation has worked very well for Anne Barber at Market Harborough’s In Heaven At Home “From the onset it was much better than in previous years, could even be my best ever!”

The designer, artist and greeting card publisher let rip with a deserved rant in art form on social media after Chinese online fast fashion giant Shein pinched her design for her Mood Pin, and was selling copies until Angela’s public campaign forced it to stop.

“Copycats stink!” Angela said. “Shop small and shop direct. And whatever you do don’t support companies like Shein who have ripped off loads of independent artists. I’m not the only small business impacted by this. Help us spread the word as this copycat stuff is damaging so many small businesses and, before long, some of us may be gone.”

As Angela told PG: “It leaves a bad taste in your mouth seeing people carrying on supporting these big businesses that are known to rip off artists and independents. It goes beyond morals - they're supporting thieves. It's even more disheartening seeing other small businesses doing the same as you can even find loads of copies on Etsy. We are in this together and should be supporting each other, not trying to make a quick buck off someone else’s work.”

(See Cardsharp pages 24-25)

Above: Angela took to social media to tell the sorry tale of copyists.