We have had the For Arts Sake range of cards at Forest Hill for years, they had 25% of our allocated space. While we have been happy with the performance of For Arts Sake and their cards, we have been looking to change, to continue to evolve the card offer. We have made the decision to switch the 25% of space across to the Henderson Greetings range. We looked carefully at the cards to ensure that they would suit our demographic.
What I like about the Henderson relationship is that there is no contract. This is them backing their products and services.
At the same time as introducing the Henderson range, we are working with Hallmark on refreshing their range to create a fresh new card offer.
Has anyone else received the letter from henderson cards, advising there will now be a delivery charge of $12 dollars
Yep Got mine with the statement will be speaking to the rep on the next visit!
This allways gripes me, if the company whishes us to display there product in our store then they should allow for all there costs prior to establishing there wholesale price which would include getting it to retail outlets, we dont charge them for any of our costs inrelation to stocking and selling the product, maybe we should charge say a accounting fee to process there payment equivlent to there delivery charge.
and another thing when they quote the margin we make on there product at the suggested retail price it is never calculated with the cost of the delivery included.
I approached Henderson cards around 6 months ago to service approx 40-50% of my total card area (which would have given them around 450 pockets) and was actually the front part of my shop and the first displays my customers saw but was basically told if i wanted to stock their range it would have to be a full changeover or nothing at all.
The reason why i wanted a change in that area is that the Hallmark lines i had there were pretty old and just recently and without consultation they changed me from a fully merchandised store where they came out for the previous 8 years to take orders, dust and tidy up the cards to where they don’t come out at all and i have to do it all myself. I wouldn’t have minded so much if they had the decency to at least contact me and let me know but they didn’t. Needless to say i was mightly P’d off at them.
Anyway i said thanks but no thanks to Hendersons and after what Hallmark did to me there was no way i was replacing stock with any of their other lines. That left me with John Sands who i was loathe to ask as i didn’t think they’d accomodate me as i was already with Hallmark but i was pleasently surprised when they said they were more than happy to take the 450 pockets they now occupy and they also credited back the old Hallmark cards that were replaced.
I still have around half my stock of Hallmark and i’ll never get rid of them because the lines i do have sell very well. But bringing in different themes from JS is the best thing i could’ve done and i now have a perfect mix of both ranges. Getting the knockback from Hendersons was the best thing that could’ve happened to me as my card sales have literally never been higher after the cleanout.
After all that it’s actually about 370 pockets they rejected not 450. I counted the pockets that are usually reserved for sepcial occasions like Xmas, Mothers/fathers day etc Either way we was more than surprised when they said no given the amount and position of the real estate we were offering It was actually my husband that negotiated the non deal not myself) Oh well, their loss and our gain in the end.
Steph, negotiating card company relationships takes time and give and take on both sides. They prefer to focus on everyday first and lifestyle second – most do at least. If you were focusing on cards away from every day them this may have been the issue.
Mark, i understand what you’re saying but we never even got to the stage of negotiating what range of cards we were going to put in that area. When my husband pointed out what area we were looking to replace we didn’t get any further into discussions for the ranges because as stated this particular rep wanted all or nothing and we just weren’t prepared to do that as i’m sure you would understand.
Given they’re a relatively small company compared to the big 2 we honestly thought they’d jump at the chance we offered them given the exposure they’d have recieved. I mean just under 400 pockets in prime real estate in any shop is nothing at all to sneeze at.
That’s the thing we found so baffling, the area which we offered and the way our cards are set up, these pockets are right at the start of our card section that runs all the way up one side of our shop and every customer would see them first before our entire Hallmark range.
If the rep was prepared to work with us on what we both decided were the best ranges, if we picked the right ones then many customers wouldn’t have even made it to the hallmark cards because they’d have got what they needed in the Henderson section if that makes sense.
We had no pre-concieved ideas on what particular ranges we wanted in that whole section, we were always going to discuss it with the rep and come up with the best ranges that was benificial to both parties based on their experience and ours in regards to the demographics in our area. Obviously we never got to that point as they weren’t interested so we did just that with JS who were more than happy to work with us.
As it stands we now have 7 different ranges in that area that cover many diverse themes and demographics and we couldn’t be happier with what we’ve achieved. Hendersons do have a lovely range of cards hence why we decided to go with them and as mentioned we were more than happy to sit down with them to discuss the best options in ranges for both of us but unfortunately they weren’t prepared to do that for whatever reasons only they know.
Steph, It sounds like you’ve made good choices for your business. Well done for being proactive on your card range and’owning’ the department. Too often this is not done.
So often card negotiations come down to semantics, especially if the sapce was not used for everyday cards already.
I am no apologist for the card companies. They and newsagents need to develop and manage their own relationships.
The key in any such negotiation is for everyone to understand what is actually being discussed.
We have been with Henderson now for over 6 months. We cannot speak more highly of them. Yes, they may be looking at charging a delivery fee. Our rep Paul is fantastic. Our cards are up over 18%. With a reduction in stock holding of 20%. What was originally promised has always been delivered. This was not the case with John Sands.
Greg, My experience talking with many newsagents about cards is that the apprciation of a company is first about its representatives and processes and second about its range. Once you find a good representative delivering business building service it is a challenge to cahnge.