I have been fortunate to see some up to date sales data for greeting cards comparing the performance of newsagencies to department stores, supermarkets, card shops and discount retailers. The newsagency channel has achieved more growth than the other greeting card channels. We remain the number one consumer preferred destination for greeting cards with just above 35% market share. While this has fallen over the last ten years, it has increased over the last two years.
It is important that we understand our positioning and respect our leadership in this category. Too often we leave greeting card management to our suppliers. By engaging more, we could grow sales and make greeting cards even more profitable for us. Such engagement needs to go beyond looking at new ranges or having a coffee with a card rep. We need to actively work on the in-store experience, staff training and external marketing to drive card sales to their full potential.
I’ve worked with my rep on the range that we carry, we cut back on a few really slow moving cards and opened up the humour section that does really well.
Spending a little time with my rep was a great investment, letting them know it’s important to both parties to increase sales.
I now have a rep giving me advice on how to sell more rather than in the past just walking in, filling them up, and leaving.