Signed, Sealed and Delivered

To me, there's no better feeling in the world than opening up my mailbox to find a handwritten letter resting inside. Giddy with excitement, I typically tear open the envelope (my father would be horrified by my blatant disregard of using a letter opener) and hold the card firmly in my hands, savoring and soaking up every last detail. The weight of the paper, the design, and of course, the sentiment impressed by the human hand.

For some, this may sound plain silly. How can you derive such value from a simple index card which in most cases contains less than a five paragraph essay, often scrawled in messy handwriting? Many ask me - does an e-card evoke the same emotions? To which my answer is a resounding "no." There's just something about paper cards that spellbind me.

For the record, it's not just receiving cards either. I love shopping for greeting cards, stationery, notepads, etc. Name an occasion and I've probably bought a card for it. I gladly hand over my hard earned cash for beautifully designed or simple stationery. It's not uncommon for me to spend $50+ when I sent out tent pole holiday cards for events like Valentine's Day, Easter, or birthdays.

How un-Millennial of me, right? That's what I thought too, that I was a rare bird out there with a love for tangible things. I thought that paper was dead, that there were was no way the stationery business could survive the internet. Look at the carcasses of businesses that bit the dust to the internet titans: Blockbuster, Borders, Toys R Us. And the products they sold - VHS, DVDs, CDs, books and non-electronic toys.

Add on top the woes of the USPS who continues to see a decrease in first class mail over a five year period (in 2013, 65.8B first class mail was sent compared to 56.7B in 2018). A testament that consumers are increasingly turning to digital means such as email and text message instead of licking or affixing stamps to paper for everyday, general communication.

Despite these trends, there's still a market for greeting cards and stationery. It's actually doing pretty well in spite of the migration to digital. Research firm AnythingResearch projects 3% revenue growth in the greeting card industry in 2019. You may not be impressed with 3% so chew on this number - 1.5 billion. That's how many seasonal holiday cards were sent in 2018 over a thirty to forty day period.

Why is that? Why has greeting cards/stationery had more staying power and avoided being reduced to bits and bytes? In my humble opinion, credit is due to the companies that have adapted to meet the needs of the customer.

Unlike Toys R Us, Borders or Blockbusters who relied overwhelming upon their brick and mortar stores - greeting card companies have diversified. They understood that their customer's buying habits, price points or channels of distribution may change but their central desire remains the same - to convey emotion through some medium - digital or tactile. Through a card.

Here are a few cases in point in which these companies adapted to changing consumer trends -

Medium

As I said earlier, it comes down to the sentiment being expressed and today, companies provide you two primary avenues - digital or hand-printed cards. Obviously, there's more money in hand-printed cards. Companies like Hallmark can charge you anywhere from $0.99 to $10.00 per card.

Creation

In the old world order, consumers had virtually no role in the creation of cards. Today, that power dynamic is inverted as more customers prefer to personalize (aka provide their own photos and use a template). Companies still provide the option for traditional cards (what you see in grocery stories) but overwhelming Millennials like myself prefer to create our own narratives.

Channels of distribution

Perhaps the one with the greatest amount of experimentation and most interesting to watch. Unlike other industries who rely upon the internet as a purely transactional space, greeting card and stationery companies have taken it a step further.

Today, I have many options as a consumer. I can buy online and have cards shipped to me. I can buy in-store. I can buy online and have someone handwrite my personalized message AND send it for me (no stamp, no hand cramp, nothing).

Recently, some companies are even dipping their toes into subscription boxes (one of my new favorite companies Sugar Paper is offering a "monthly essentials" or "mix and match cards").

Another reason card companies have done so well? The popularity and integration of digital photos into the card business.

You've heard the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" - nothing rings truer to me today. That is, photos are replacing the traditional card. We no longer communicate just in characters and words. Instead we default to images (real photos, gifts or emojis) to tell our respective stories.

Take my refrigerator and kitchen counter as examples. They are currently canvased by cards for "Save the Date" or "Thank You" or "Christmas" cards. Of these cards, it's a 50/50 split of traditional to photo based cards. That may not sound impressive to you but when I think back fifteen years when mediums such as Instagram or Shutterfly didn't exist - nearly all of these same sentiments would have been conveyed by paper cards with no personalization with the exception of the words inside.

It's easy to look back and say "of course consumers are going to want it this way," it's far harder to have that vision and get buy in from within and outside the industry. I'm sure Blockbuster, Toys R Us and Borders would reiterate these sentiments.

Some of you may think greeting card companies have reached the peak of their innovation - I say not so. I believe there is significant more opportunity for these companies to grow beyond their core business and push personalization even further.

Take Minted for example. It is a company that utilizes crowdsourcing and data to run their business. For the unfamiliar, Minted is a digital photo card, announcement, invitations, art & home décor company. Basically, the company provides templates for users to personalize cards for any occasion (as my family has been inclined to do for holiday cards). And those templates are selected through crowdsourced opinions of designers or paying customers - not designers or creators in a stuffy, corporate office building.

Think of the possibilities if you could outsource creativity to non-employees and then resell it as a service. It could be limitless which is why I think this industry is just getting started.

One final sentiment before signing off this week - thank you to two special people for inspiring this week's blog post. What I wrote above was true - opening my mailbox and receiving your card was the highlight of my week.

Until next time.