This is a surprising deal from Nextra – 50% off John Sands and Ink Group cards for a week. While I’d expect Sands to be rebating newsagents at full retail, it is the message to the consumer which I question.
The discount might grow sales but will it add to business? At best, I’d expect it to pull card sales forward of when they might otherwise be achieved. People only so many birthdays, anniversaries and the like to buy for in a year. This 50% discount will not increase the buying occasions. But maybe the folks at Sands and Nextra know more about card buying habits than I do.
Nextra has a good Card Club. I think it would have been smarter to better promote this since it supports the habit basis of card purchasing. The Card Sale locks out this loyalty promotion – read the small print on the poster.
I’d rather leave these chunks discounts to the likes of Target, K-Mart and others. They are known for category wide discounting. Newsagents are more known for card quality and range than price. If someone really wants to buy a card on price they will more likely go to the Reject Shop or similar.