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22
May
Is the greetings card industry suffering death by a thousand paper-cuts?
When greetings card business Clintons announced this week it would close branches including the one in Harrogate, it set alarm bells ringing. Are people not sending cards as they used to? Or was this just one more case of the internet killing off another industry, one company at a time?
After all, Clintons has been in trouble before, being bought out of administration in 2012 and 2019, and upmarket alternative Paperchase folded in 2023.
More locally, just last week, card and gift shop Butterfly Kisses, on Oxford Street in Harrogate, announced it too would close.
Butterfly Kisses on Oxford Street is closing largely due to a sharp rise in rates.
So is the greetings card industry suffering death by a thousand paper-cuts at the hands of online retailers?
Rise in online alternatives
Well, not really. It is true that the internet has had an impact. The likes of Moonpig and Thortful – which allow customers to personalise the front of some cards as well as the message in the middle – have grown wildly popular over the last decade.
In fact, Paperchase’s demise was blamed in part on its failure to tap into this new digital marketplace. In contrast, rival Card Factory is still opening stores, buoyed by its takeover last year of online retailer Funky Pigeon.
But there is still very definitely demand for local retailers offering personal service, says Kelly Dixon. She runs Daisy Mays, the card shop in Harrogate’s Victoria Shopping Centre, with her mother Pauline Scott. The business started in the old Market Hall in 1981 and is the last of the old guard still trading.
Kelly Dixon and Pauline Scott, who own Daisy Mays card shop in the Victoria Shopping Centre.
She told the Stray Ferret:
We’ve got a lot of loyal customers, and we’re not really affected by the cards people buy online. Online shopping is more of a problem for Harrogate as a whole. It leads to fewer shops, and that means less footfall, so people end up going to York or Leeds.
Still a growth industry
As for whether people are still buying greetings cards in the same quantities as they used to, industry figures tell a cheering tale.
According to the latest industry report by Grand View Research (GVA), the global greeting cards market size is projected to grow at a compound annualannual growth rate of 1.8% to $23 billion from 2025 to 2033, and offline sales – those in shops – still hold around two thirds of the market by revenue.
The report notes that the industry is experiencing “renewed momentum, largely due to the rising cultural emphasis on celebrating milestones and special occasions”.
Staff intend to close the shop by the end of May.
Rising postage prices
Ironically, this comes at a time when the volume of post being handled by Royal Mail is dwindling fast. Letter volumes have fallen from around 20 billion a year in 2004/05 to 6.3 billion in 2024/25.
Most of this decline will be due to business being conducted overwhelmingly via email rather than letter, but greetings cards could also play a part.
Ms Dixon said:
The price of postage stamps puts people off. A second-class stamp now costs 91p, but sending a card first class costs £1.80.
So people still buy cards, but not necessarily the kind you’d post, and when they do, they often buy them earlier, so they can post them second class.
Still growing: Card Factory on Cambridge Street in Harrogate.
Customers and retailers adapting
Just as customers are adapting to rising postal costs, retailers are adapting to their changing tastes. According to the GVA report, cards for Christmas, Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day are all still highly popular, but younger customers are also more likely to send cards for Halloween.
Handmade cards are becoming more popular, and boxed sets less so, suggesting a preference for thoughtful individuality.
In the UK, sales of individual greeting cards reached approximately £1.25 billion in 2024.
Ms Dixon has noticed other trends too. She said:
People don’t send too many wedding or ‘get well soon’ cards anymore. One supplier used to do a package of ‘get well soon’, ‘thinking of you’ and ‘sympathy’ cards, and we couldn’t get enough of them – but we don’t buy them now, even though they still do them.
It’s a generational thing. A lot of younger people don’t send some kinds of cards. For example, they won’t send a ‘belated’ birthday card – they'll send a Whatsapp message instead.
A lot of companies no longer have whip-rounds and ‘sorry you’re leaving’ cards when a colleague gets a new job – maybe it’s because so many people work from home now.
Consumer tastes are changing.
But even though some areas have contracted, others have expanded to fill the gaps.
She said:
We sell more helium balloons now – even though the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has put the price of helium up – and we sell more gift bags and partyware.
Helium balloons have become very popular.
As if to prove the point, when the Stray Ferret was in Daisy Mays, a customer bought a card with a verse in it. She read it out approvingly and added:
'Words are powerful'. Malcolm X said that.
“They are,” agreed Ms Dixon. The market is still there – people will always send cards.”
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