Tag: greeting cards

Greeting cards are quietly getting more valuable. Is your card department keeping up?

This is real – newsXpress helps its members grow card sales through proven evidence-based engagement at a store by store level.

This is an exclusive service and its free.

Greeting cards remain the anchor category for most shops in our network, so we watch the data closely. Our latest benchmark study of 32 newsXpress member shops, covering January to May 2026, shows average card prices rising across the board.

Every shop that reported card data saw a flat or rising average card price year on year. The network median average card price moved from $6.04 to $6.27. At the top end, one shop achieved an average card price of $8.97. At the bottom, $4.43.

That spread, from $4.43 to $8.97, is the story. Two shops selling the same category, and one banks more than double the revenue per card sold. Same counter space. Same customer occasion. Very different result.

Publishers are lifting prices and customers are paying them. The question for any card retailer is whether your range lets you participate in that shift. Our advice to members, based on this data, is practical:

  • If your average card price sits below $5.50, you have clear headroom. The fix is range curation, not price gouging. Reduce low value lines and bring in premium publishers alongside your standard range.
  • Review the range at least annually. A card department untouched for 12 months is almost certainly carrying dead stock, and dead stock costs you twice: the capital tied up and the better seller it is blocking.
  • Watch your captions. The occasions driving premium purchases deserve the best position in the department, not alphabetical order.

This is what newsXpress members receive as part of membership, at no extra charge. We analyse the data, we benchmark it against comparable shops, and we turn it into actions you can take this week. We also negotiate with card suppliers on behalf of close to 200 member shops, which gives members access and terms an independent rarely gets alone.

Cards built this channel. Managed well, they still fund it. The data says the opportunity is sitting in the average price, and most shops have not collected it yet. If you would like to see how your card department compares, talk to us.

Newsagents: Why your greeting card range might be your biggest untapped opportunity

Australian newsagents sell a third of all greeting cards in the country. The average Australian buys eight or nine cards a year. If your store has a card section, you are almost certainly sitting on more revenue than your current range is delivering.

Most newsagents know cards matter. Fewer know exactly which pockets are working and which are not. A pocket that looks busy is not necessarily profitable. A pocket allocated to a supplier because they have always been there may be returning half what a different range would in the same space.

This is where data makes a real difference. newsXpress has developed proprietary pocket-level analysis that goes through your card sales by individual pocket, identifies which are earning their space, and provides specific recommendations on what to change. It is applied to your data, not a generic template.

The results members report are worth taking seriously. One store moved 120 pockets from one supplier to another and more than doubled the return per pocket. Another cut their card range by 25%, shifted to a split-supplier model, and saw revenue rise 33%. A third split their range between two suppliers with no additional capital investment and grew card revenue by 70%.

These are not outlier results. They reflect what happens when a category that is often managed on habit gets managed on evidence instead.

Cards also reward in-store execution. How they are arranged, how signage works alongside them, and how seasonal displays draw shoppers in all have a measurable effect. newsXpress provides professionally designed seasonal collateral for members before each major card season — Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas — ready to display without any design work on your end.

If you have not reviewed your card range in the past 12 months, it is worth doing. If you want to do it with data rather than instinct, that analysis is available to newsXpress members at no additional cost.

newsXpress helps newsagents grow card sales beyond this work. We offer an active marketing program that includes newsXpress funded in-store prize packs and more – all working well to maximise the card sales opportunities.

Growing card sales is easy if you’re backed with good tools that work.

Why newsXpress is the best marketing group for newsagents who want to thrive

newsXpress is not a franchise. There are no mandatory requirements, no turnover-based fees, and no locked-in obligations. Membership costs $295 a month for your first store. Additional stores you own cost nothing.

That fee buys you access to a team of people who have owned newsagencies, managed retail floors, and spent years analysing real store data. The advice is evidence-based. It is not shaped by supplier preference or group politics.

A few things set newsXpress apart from any other group in the market.

Seasonal Edge is exclusive. Each major retail season, newsXpress funds a prize pack worth $350 or more for every member store, provides the in-store and digital marketing collateral, and runs the promotion at zero cost to the member. Some stores have reported a 20% lift in greeting card sales from this program alone. No other group does this.

The Mint relationships are exclusive. newsXpress is the only marketing group in Australia with access to the Royal Australian Mint, the Perth Mint, the New Zealand Mint, the British Mint, and New Zealand Post. Members who have leaned into coins have gone from selling none to generating $50,000 a year in revenue. These are supplier relationships you cannot access through any other group.

The card performance analysis program uses proprietary data to show you which pockets are earning their space and which are not. Members who have acted on the recommendations have recorded revenue increases of 33%, 50%, and in one case 70% — without additional capital investment.

The AI toolkit — 19 prompts built specifically for newsagency retail decisions — is live now and free to all members. newsXpress has been working in this space for over two years. These are not generic business prompts. They are built around the decisions newsagents actually face.

The group also runs its own physical shops and four online businesses, including one that turned over $2 million last year. The advice comes from running retail, not reading about it. This helps it offer practical and valuable advice from the lived experiences.

If you want a group that will be direct with you, move fast on trends, and actively work to make your business more valuable — talk to Michael Elvey on 0400 331 055 or Mark Fletcher on 0418 321 338.

The Newsagency Is History. What Comes Next Is Up to You.

In this video, Mark Fletcher holds up a copy of A Companion to the Australian Media, published in 2014. He wrote several pages for it — a section on Australian newsagencies, capturing the channel as it stood just over a decade ago.

It’s worth reading now, because the gap between then and now is significant.

Visit ten newsagencies today and you’ll find ten different businesses. Gifts, toys, cards, collectibles, books, homewares — the format has fractured entirely. Newspower, Nextra, and newsXpress all carry the word “newsagency” in some form, but the stores operating under those banners look nothing alike. That’s not a problem. It’s proof that the generic model is gone.

The pressure points are not subtle. Newspapers and magazines are down in double digits and falling. Stationery is in trouble in stores that haven’t rethought it. Lotto is moving online faster than most operators would prefer. Greeting cards are still holding, but one category does not carry a business.

The newsXpress approach is to move toward what works locally — high-margin gifts, collectibles, boutique product ranges — rather than defend a format that the market has already left behind. Members who have made that shift are trading well. Waiting for conditions to improve is not a strategy.

The history is worth knowing. The book is worth owning. But the business decisions have to be about what comes next.

Not all newsagency businesses are the same, as we note above. Those with a future are those that are moving, outside what’s expected, beyond the traditional, and this is exciting for the owners, those who work in the shops and the communities in which they thrive.

While we 100% respect every newsagent, the truth of the data is undeniable – the future newsagency businesses will be those playing outside of history, and that matters plenty.

newsXpress works with newsagents of all sizes, shapes and situations. We help newsagents enjoy their businesses more and set themselves up for a brighter future as a result. It’s hard work, rewarding work.

Our focus is on local, independent and willing.

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newsXpress supports small local independent retailers to thrive. Find out more at help@newsxpress.com.au.

Driving High-Margin Revenue Growth with the Exclusive Seasonal Edge Program

Major seasonal events dictate the financial rhythm of the Australian retail calendar. Key periods such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and the extended Christmas season present crucial opportunities to build strong local customer engagement. However, executing a truly professional, high-impact marketing campaign requires significant resources. Independent retailers frequently struggle with the costs of designing premium collateral, sourcing appealing prize packages, and coordinating digital assets across social media platforms. Without these tools, standing out from national corporate competitors becomes incredibly difficult.

To solve this challenge, newsXpress created the exclusive Seasonal Edge program.

This initiative is structured specifically to deliver professional-grade marketing support directly to our members at zero cost. During the course of a single operational year, newsXpress invests substantial funds per member to source high-value customer prizes and provide beautifully printed in-store marketing collateral. For the upcoming Father’s Day season, for example, every single member store will receive a high-end Masterpro indoor and outdoor pizza oven to give away locally. This allows even small regional shops to present a premium retail experience.

The operational mechanics of the program are completely straightforward. No complex opt-in procedures are required, and the promotion integrates seamlessly with daily shop floor operations. The trigger for a customer entry is tied directly to high-margin categories, such as a card purchase or a gift selection.

This deliberate structure encourages shoppers to explore beyond traditional agency lines, driving immediate incremental revenue. In fact, member stores frequently report significant, above-average revenue bumps, including increases of up to twenty percent in high-margin greeting card categories during active promotional windows.

Beyond immediate bankable sales, Seasonal Edge serves as a brilliant mechanism for localised word-of-mouth marketing. Because each individual shop gives away a guaranteed prize pack, a resident from your immediate community is always the winner. This creates genuine excitement and strengthens community goodwill.

The program also facilitates active collaboration among newsXpress members, who privately share their unique in-store display concepts. This shared inspiration allows every participating retailer to optimise their physical layouts, attract fresh demographics, and achieve measurable commercial success.

Seasonal Edge is a resounding success.