The New York Times published an interesting article August 20 by Elizabeth Olsen about how traditional greeting card companies are competing with online competition such as e-cards. Olsen says that e-card use has grown between 15 to 20 percent this year. Some of this has to hurt over the counter card sales.
Of interest in the article is news, to me, that American Greetings (John Sands here in Australia) has launched Kiwee, a site through which you can send free postcards and expressions that can be posted to MySpace and MSN accounts.
Australian newsagents often leave the greeting card part of their business up to their card suppliers. In this changing marketplace it will be important for newsagents to more actively engage in activity surrounding the card department.