Tag: card suppliers

Most shops sell greeting cards. Few make what they should from them

Australian newsagents sell a third of all greeting cards bought in this country, and the average Australian buys eight or nine cards a year. Cards are a high margin habit purchase. Most shops still make less from them than they should.

The problem is rarely the supplier. It is the pockets. In almost every card department, some pockets earn their space many times over while others sit close to idle. Without data, you cannot tell which is which.

That is where our work starts. newsXpress has developed proprietary pocket-level performance analysis, exclusive intellectual property not available anywhere else. We apply it to your own sales data and return specific recommendations on which pockets are earning their space and which are not. There is no charge for participating members.

The results are why we keep talking about it. One member moved 120 pockets from one supplier to another and more than doubled the return per pocket. Another cut card pockets by 25%, moved to a split supplier model, and grew card revenue 33%. The list goes on: a 70% revenue lift from splitting cards between two suppliers with no capital outlay, and a 50% lift from replacing $2 everyday cards with a better margin mix.

The analysis is ongoing rather than a one-off. Run it, make changes, then run it again and see whether the changes worked. Card departments drift over time, and the data catches the drift before it costs you a season.

“On implementing newsXpress’s card advice, I saw 76% growth in cards over 12 months. Their strategies contributed to an overall sales increase of 57% in the same period.” — Matt Donkin, newsXpress Mount Lawley, WA

There is no restriction on which card suppliers newsXpress members use. We hold preferred terms with Henderson Greetings, Waterlyn, Hallmark, Simson, Affirmations, Vevoke, Paper Street and Spirit, but the goal is not to push any particular supplier. The goal is the best possible return from the space you give to cards.

If cards are a wall you fill rather than a category you manage, there is money being left on the counter. Call Michael Elvey on 0400 331 055 or email help@newsxpress.com.au and ask about the card analysis.

Greeting cards: the category most retailers quietly underperform

You should be enjoying double digit growth in card sales. That’s the base line, the standard. We say this because we see so many achieving this. Look at your numbers, see for yourself what you’;re doing.

Greeting cards remain one of the strongest categories an independent retailer can own.

Australian newsagents sell about a third of all greeting cards in the country, and the average Australian buys eight or nine cards a year. Despite that, most stores leave real revenue on the table.

The problem is rarely the supplier. It is usually the way the space is managed. A card wall can look full and still perform poorly, because a large share of pockets earn very little while a small share does most of the work. Without pocket-level data, it is almost impossible to see which is which.

This is where careful analysis pays off. newsXpress has developed proprietary pocket-level performance analysis that shows exactly which pockets are earning their space and which are not. Applied to a retailer’s own data, it returns specific, actionable recommendations rather than general advice.

The results members report are striking. One store moved 120 pockets from one supplier to another and more than doubled its pocket return. Another cut card pockets by 25%, shifted to a split model, and lifted card revenue 33%. A third split cards across two suppliers with no capital investment and saw revenue rise 70%. Replacing low-margin everyday cards with a better mix delivered a 50% lift for another.

Importantly, none of this is about pushing a single supplier. newsXpress works with preferred terms across Henderson Greetings, Waterlyn, Hallmark, Simson, Affirmations, Vevoke, Paper Street and Spirit, and members are free to choose. The aim is simply the best possible return from the space allocated to cards.

As one member in Mount Lawley put it after acting on the advice, cards grew 76% over twelve months and contributed to an overall sales increase of 57% in the same period. Those are the kinds of gains available to any retailer willing to look closely at a category they may have taken for granted.

To see which of your card pockets are truly earning their space, ask newsXpress about a pocket-level review. This is a proprietary service from us that is key to helping so many retailers make more money.