“I grew up in a greeting card family – my dad is an avid Hallmark shopper, and my grandma has always been known on holidays and birthdays to display all her cards on the kitchen table,” said Flake, a wedding and event planner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It’s not all bad news for greeting cards.įor example, it’s a myth that young people aren’t buying them.Īs a millennial steeped in social media, Elizabeth Flake doesn’t want to give up the tactile and personal experience of giving and receiving cards. But "we are definitely at the point where we really feel like we can stabilize that trend.” “Our Hallmark Specialty stores have declined over the years. Lindsey Roy, chief marketing officer and vice president of the Hallmark Greetings business, said the company has “experienced some of the same overall market dynamics” but that cards are “pretty flat” overall. The company also cut about 28 percent of its retail square footage from 2013 to 2018, according to CoStar. over the last five years due to a decline in profits, according to IBISWorld. Industry sales leader Hallmark Cards has cut more than 1,000 jobs in the U.S. The Cleveland-based company declined to comment for this story. IBISWorld estimated that American Greetings' revenue declined by about 16 percent over the last four years. And the company replaced CEO John Beeder in February after only about a year on the job. The industry’s second-largest maker, American Greetings Corp., sold a majority share of itself in April to private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. The disruption is rippling through the traditional greeting card industry. “One of the huge factors impacting that is technology and social media and the ability to contact people for special occasions through these platforms,” said IBISWorld analyst Tanvi Kumar, who has studied the industry. Here's whyĪmericans are still buying more than 6 billion cards per year, according to the Greeting Card Association, which did not provide more detailed statistics on trends in the industry.īut greeting card industry sales are declining at an annualized rate of 3 percent through 2023, according to market-research firm IBISWorld.Īnd retail space occupied by greeting card stores declined by more than 27 percent from 2013 to 2018, according to real estate data firm CoStar Group. Talk show technology: 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' had a different look on Monday. “Do we really need the amount of lineal footage that we've got in greeting cards?” he said on a conference call earlier this month.Īpple streaming service: With yet another streaming option, Apple TV+ brings us further into age of the 'unbundle' Walmart is “reimagining what we’re putting” in stores, said the company's U.S. “More and more people are using text and email and e-cards, and fewer people are buying cards, so that would be one area” where the company expects to cut back, Hourican said. He said the retailer, which has some 9,600 locations, is shifting more space to health care products after determining that greeting cards are not selling well, using an internal analytics tool. To be sure, there are encouraging signs in some parts of the business, including premium cards that cost more than $10, budget cards that cost less than $1 and personalized options.īut Kevin Hourican, president of CVS Pharmacy, told USA TODAY in an interview that the company has too much aisle space devoted to greeting cards. Now, major retailers, including CVS and Walmart, are poised to cut back on cards, and greeting card companies have closed hundreds of standalone locations. Many people are giving up cards in favor of digital alternatives or are simply sending fewer cards between major holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Greeting card companies need a sympathy note. Watch Video: Explained: Why we celebrate with Easter baskets
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