Australian Newsagency Blog

A blog on issues affecting Australia’s small businesses, newsagents, media and small business generally.

Entries Tagged as 'Greeting Cards'

Oversupply of greeting cards

May 11th, 2009 · 7 Comments

As part of helping a business recently I reviewed stock on hand for greeting cards.  One card company was found to have more than thirty pockets with ten or more cards per pocket.  In three cases, there were twelve cards.  In thirteen pockets there were  two designs with more than three cards for each of […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · Newsagency management

Excellent Mother’s Day sales

May 10th, 2009 · 2 Comments

The day before Mother’s Day is usually the busiest of the Mother’s Day season.  This is when Dad and the younger kids get out to buy cards and gifts for the first time in the season along with others who shop at the last minute.  All of the stores in which I have a financial […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · retail

Discounting Mother’s Day stock

May 9th, 2009 · 9 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day for tomorrow to all the mums reading this. On a business note – I have been surprised to see some newsagents and other retailers discounting Mother’s Day products for the last week, even longer. One shop I saw was offering Mother’s Day cards for 25% off from two weeks ago. […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · retail

More than one Mother’s Day card

May 7th, 2009 · 1 Comment

I have put in some counter time this week and have been surprised by the number of sales of Mother’s Day cards where two or more Mother’s Day cards are purchased.  Even guys were buying two or three cards.
This may be premature but Mother’s Day feels very strong this year.

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Tags: Greeting Cards

Free camera for mum

May 5th, 2009 · No Comments

The pink camera we have as our Hallmark Mother’s Day Giveaway is a great promotion. I like that it is a local prize – one of our customers will definitely win. This is important given that we are pitching local shopping at every opportunity. A national prize does not have the same local […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · newsagency marketing

Money for Mum

May 1st, 2009 · 1 Comment

The marketing collateral from Intralot promoting scratch tickets as gifts for Mother’s Day looks enticing when placed with greeting cards.  While this is not how it was intended to be used, I saw it at our Frankston newsagency today - in with Mother’s Day cards.  Enterprising!  I’d love a camera trained on this and see […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · retail

Mother’s Day in newsagencies

April 30th, 2009 · No Comments

Mother’s Day is the second biggest season for greeting cards on the newsagent seasonal calendar.  It is beaten only by Christmas and is around 50% ahead of Valentine’s Day. While card sales equal only 20% of Christmas, is a very important season, generating considerable additional traffic in newsagencies.
Like most newsagents, we are pursuing every opportunity […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · retail

I told you so – a new line of greeting cards

April 29th, 2009 · 1 Comment

We have been testing a new line of greeting cards at our newsagencies and our Sophie Randall businesses.
The I told you so range was conceived and written by Jason Schwarten, manager of our newsXpress Forest Hill store. The original artwork is by Vienna Chen, our graphic designer at Tower Systems. The cards are […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards

New Simpsons card range popular

April 28th, 2009 · 1 Comment

The new Simpsons card range from Hallmark is popular.  We are seeing excellent results in our stores.  Since the range is right at the front of the shop, it is working as a good drawcard.  Licenced product like this Simpsons range is important for newsagents since shows us as being current.  The card department plays […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards

Supporting Secretary’s Day

April 18th, 2009 · No Comments

We are supporting Secretary’s Day or Administrative Professionals Day as it is called now.  We have a small selection of cards available and some appropriate gift lines.  While this is not a major retail season, we felt that we needed to have an offer if we want to call ourselves greeting card specialists.
The more we […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards

Mother’s Day in newsagencies

April 17th, 2009 · No Comments

With Easter later this year the pressure was on to get Mother’s Day out and into promotional space.  It is an important season for us in terms of sales of cards and gifts.  Mother’s Day is also important in connecting us with the National Breast Cancer Foundation though the sale of Hallmark cards as part […]

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Tags: Gifts · Greeting Cards · newsagency marketing · retail

Promoting Cardplai cards in Frankston

April 15th, 2009 · No Comments

Our team at Frankston created a display featuring Cardplai music download cards and the latest issue of jmag which features cardplai next to the counter.  This is a clever promotion.  Cardplai is struggling to gain traction - promoting with a music title is designed to attract the appropriate demographic to the offer.  The alternative is […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · retail

Easter eggs and Easter cards on the iPhone

April 11th, 2009 · 5 Comments

Who needs to buy the real thing when you can send Easter cards and Easter eggs using a new application on the iPhone?

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Tags: Greeting Cards

Easter card sales up in newsagencies

April 7th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Easter card sales are up on last year in the newsagencies for which I have sales data.  I’d expect to see the season end with double digit growth in some stores.  This is excellent given the economic conditions and that, at this stage, the same growth is not being seen for Easter Eggs.

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Tags: Greeting Cards

Graduation gifts sell well

April 1st, 2009 · 2 Comments

We’re pleased with the range of graduation gifts we have found, the yellow mugs especially.  Graduation is a good season for us with cards and gifts - from primary school through to university.  Indeed, having good graduation gifts on display helps drive good card sales and this, in turn, gets people shopping the rest of […]

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Tags: Gifts · Greeting Cards · retail

New fixturing successfully promotes cards

March 24th, 2009 · 2 Comments

We are getting good comments from customers shopping the new speciality card fixturing at our Sophie Randall shop at Toorak.  Click on the image for a larger copy.  We continue to play with product location within the fixturing - constant change works well for sales because of the regular customers who love cards.  I’d note […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · retail

Easter plush delivering excellent sales

March 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

The table of Easter plush and related gift items we have located in our card department, at the front of the shop, is achieving excellent results.  Each week is better than the last. Since we do not have a defined gift department as such at our Forest Hill store it is a challenge for us […]

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Tags: Gifts · Greeting Cards · retail

Happy St Patrick’s Day

March 17th, 2009 · No Comments

In addition to traditional St Patrick’s Day cards, Hallmark has provided this and some other fun cards.  Our St. Patrick’s Day card sales have been good - we are getting known for these smaller card seasons.
St Patrick’s Day is the big day, one day of the year, for the Irish Echo newspaper.  Unlike other ‘foreign’ […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · Newsagency opportunities · retail

Going early with Easter pays off

March 16th, 2009 · No Comments

We are not timid when it comes to promoting seasons nor are we late to the party.  It is hard to enter our Forest Hill store and not pass Easter cards, plush and Darrell Lea products.  The display in the photo (click on the image for a larger version) is the latest created by our […]

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Tags: Gifts · Greeting Cards · retail

Easter card and gift sales strong

March 13th, 2009 · No Comments

Going out early with Easter cards and gifts is paying off - sales are good.  I’d be surprised if we are not more than 10% up on last year by the time we reach Easter Sunday in April.  Easter is a feel-good season so sales growth amid the doom and gloom stories makes sense.  Easter […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · Newsagency opportunities · retail

Promoting UK Mother’s Day (Mothering Sunday) cards

March 8th, 2009 · 1 Comment

With Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day in the UK) a few weeks away, we are promoting a selection of cards and some gifts appropriate for mailing in our newsagencies.  We promote all minor seasons as we see ourselves as a greeting card specialist.  This attention to the minor seasons pays off over time.

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Tags: Greeting Cards

Introducing the new card range

March 3rd, 2009 · No Comments

We are introducing the new Hallmark baby card, gift and packaging range with a display at our counter rather than across in our card and gift department.  This front-of-shop corner location has more foot traffic so it makes sense to show the new range off to more shoppers.
I like the decision our team made to […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · giftwrap · retail

Monkey business for Valentine’s Day

February 14th, 2009 · No Comments

Our team at Frankston has come up with a range of gift packs for Valentine’s Day. The one which intrigues me the most is the Monkey Business pack. Inside there are a couple of monkeys and a bottle of passion massage oil. Their goal in using themes with the packs and giving […]

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Tags: Gifts · Greeting Cards · retail

Entering the Valentine’s Day zone

February 13th, 2009 · No Comments

My understanding is that males are more likely to buy a card from a newsagency than other outlets. We are trying to tap into this at Forest Hill by bringing Valentine’s Day cards right to the front of the shop, at the lease line. Rather than scare the guys off with too much […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · retail

Valentine’s Day in Frankston

February 4th, 2009 · No Comments

The team at our Frankston newsagency have created a wonderful display for Valentine’s Day, part of which can be seen in the photo. The centrepiece is the coffee machine which one lucky customer will win. Around this they have placed a selection of our Valentine’s Day gifts and behind is the start of […]

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Tags: Greeting Cards · marketing · retail