Greeting Card Market

Say it with a card

Greeting cards are low cost impulse purchase products that are being bought every day. Around the world, greeting cards are used to celebrate everything from birthdays to Valentine’s Day. Greeting cards keep people feeling connected.

Everyday is a birthday!
Everyday, millions of people around the world have birthdays. To send or give a greeting card is a way to show someone you care, and it is more personal too!

Did you know that...

  • Sending greeting cards to friends and family can be tracked back to the ancient Chinese and to the early Egyptians, who conveyed their greetings on papyrus scrolls. The Germans are known to have printed New Year’s greetings from woodcuts as early as 1400.
  • The first known published Christmas card appeared in London 1843.
  • The most popular everyday card - sending situation is still Birthday which accounts for 60% of everyday cards sold.
  • 85% of all cards are bought by women!
  • Relatively unaffected by the recession.
  • Valentine’s Day has been known as the Roman festival of “Lupercalia” since the 3rd century. In those days young men drew cards with young girl’s name on, whom they then courted for duration of the following  year. A lover’s occasion on which written greetings were exchanged  was first mentioned in the 15th century.
  • A love letter smuggled out of the Tower of London in 1445 is said to be the very first Valentine card.
  • Today, despite the prevalence of e-cards and other digital forms of communication, more people than ever are turning to greeting cards to express themselves.

 

Greeting Cards an enormous market!

  • The greeting card industry is worth over £1,3 billion in the UK, more than coffee and tea put together.
  • British people send 55 cards per person per year.
  • About 600 million greeting cards are sold every year in Germany.
  • Approximately 7 billion greeting cards are purchased every year by consumers in USA.
  • Swedish customers send more than 40 million Christmas cards every year.
  • In the Netherlands people buy 27-28 greeting cards per person per year.
  • Australian shoppers buy about 22 greeting cards per person per year.

Say it with a Card