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NEWS TOP STORY
Cracking Easter Card retailers ‘hoppy’ about third Spring Season The mild weather and a later Easter date pushed up sales for card and gift retailers for this year’s third spring seasonal event, with demand exceeding supply in many cases. Strong window displays and instore graphics from specialist multiples such as Paperchase, Scribbler, Clintons, Card Factory and John Lewis served to prompt consumers to stock up on their Easter cards, while indies were also able to make the most of the new ‘free to download’ Easter PoS from the GCA website (created by UK Greetings) to promote the event. “Easter this year caught a few retailers out, who underestimated the demand for Easter cards,” commented South-West sales agent Rosie Trow. “This is the one season that favours the independent card and gift shop, as the more mature purchasers will gravitate there first to look for their cards rather than when they are at the supermarket. In addition, we now have a more established ‘family’ send of people wanting to keep it touch.” These words were echoed by Fiona Fabian, owner of Papyrus in Glasgow: “We just about ran out of single Easter cards, with a few days to go, so I had to rummage around to find some old stock we keep in case of emergencies!” Rachael Barnes, co-owner of Dragonfly Cards and Gifts in
Below: Part of the Easter display of Dragonfly Cards and Gifts. Below middle: Easter PoS available for indies to use from the GCA.
Find a new tagline for greeting cards
Knaresborough, confirmed a cracking Easter trade too. “Easter is now bigger for us than Father’s Day. The trend in recent years for Easter decorations has helped, as we now sell as many Easter gifts as we do cards. We had an Easter tree decorated in the window of the shop and that drew people in.” Another Retas award winning retailer, Pete Whiteman co-owner of DzoDzo, Woodbridge, told PG that his sales of Easter cards were up around 8% on last year. “It is the one season that’s getting bigger and more important every year. We have introduced many smaller publishers to enhance the range from the larger companies to provide us with something that sets us apart from the crowd.” Clintons’ VP marketing and eCommerce Tim Fairs said the specialist multiple was “really pleased” with its Easter sales. “We’ve had significant growth versus last year, and seen a massive demand for cello card packs, confectionery and plush.”
Sign of the Times ‘Christmas comes twice a year with Easter trees and gifts’ was the attention grabbing headline of an article in the Times newspaper, which proclaimed that Easter is fast becoming the second biggest retail event after Christmas, worth an estimated £550 million in 2016, according to research firm Mintel. The Times celebrated that one of the biggest trends is Easter gifting, with sales of gift bags up 125% on 2016. Sales of Easter products have doubled at John Lewis. Greeting card and seasonal buyer Lisa Rutherford is quoted: “A lot of families take time out to come together to celebrate, and Easter is no longer simply about chocolate eggs, but making your whole home feel special in the same way that you would at Christmas.” It’s a trend Sarah Barker, head of UK creative at IG Design Group, has noticed becoming bigger and bigger in the UK with a growing market for crackers, bunting and small trinkets. “Decorating the home at Easter has always been big in Europe, but not so much in the UK,” says Sarah. “But we are definitely seeing that changing.” There’s been a significant shift in Easter greeting cards over the years with single cards now much more prevalent. “There hasn’t been a huge shift in style, with religious cards and cute/spring cards still taking the bulk of the market,” says Sarah. “But this year we’re seeing simpler design, bringing in the feeling of hygge with watercolours and natural tones, but also a more editorial approach to design with feel-good quotes such as ‘somebody loves you’.” Above: An Easter display at John Lewis in Oxford Street. Left: Sales of Easter gift bags are up this year.
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
The GCA is on the search for a new tagline that can be used across the industry – by retailers, designers and publishers – something short and sweet that sums up the importance of the emotional connection that greeting cards make. While the initial plan is for the phrase to be used to promote Thinking of You Week, the tagline will be used to promote card sending generally. The GCA has already been inundated with some great ideas, but the more the merrier. “I had every faith in the creativity of our members, and have been blown away by the wonderful phrases they have come up with so far. Keep them coming – the deadline is May 19. The best ones will be put on show at PG Live for people to vote on and then ratified by the council in mid-July,” said Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA. Please send any ideas of a new tagline to Sharon Little at gca@max-publishing.co.uk. Above: A card means so much.
Rhymes With Orange continues to trade One of the central London’s core independent card retailers, which owns New Frames and Rhymes With Orange, went into liquidation recently, but both stores continue to trade, having been bought back by a new company headed up by former owner Brent Milburn. Cards and New Frames Limited - trading as Rhymes With Orange on Great Portland Street and New Frames on Beak Street – went into liquidation. However, keen to continue to trade and protect jobs, Brent continues to trade as a new company (RWO London Limited) and business continues at Rhymes With Orange and New Frames. “It was with great regret that we had to liquidate the company, but we were left with no option,” says Brent. “I cannot thank our suppliers enough for standing by us and being so understanding. At least now we have a chance to continue and remain as one of the few independent card retailers in the centre of London.” Above: Business continues at Rhymes With Orange.