31. August 2010 by admin.

Reaching Out
After spending several years concentrating on personal fulfillment and “cocooning”, Americans are now focusing outward, seeking to connect, enhance and nurture their relationships with others.

Friendship cards, encouragement cards and other everyday non-occasion cards are proving popular in meeting this need, and continue to show the greatest sales growth of all card categories. The desire to reach-out with greeting cards appears to be strongest with Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, who are likely to view family and friends as the most important priorities in their lives.

The Designer Look
Greeting cards featuring high-style looks, inventive designs, unusual paper stocks and eye-catching embellishments are gaining favor with consumers who are seeking “something special” in their card-giving. This has led to the creation of more handcrafted cards, cards that are intricately designed or innovatively engineered, and cards incorporating ribbons, feathers, glitter, beads, etc. Despite their higher cost, the designer-fashion flare and artistic uniqueness of these cards continues to win the favor of many card purchasers.

Preserving Memories
Generation after generation, people have been saving greeting cards to remind them of the special relationships and events in their lives. Rather than tuck their keepsake cards in a dresser drawer or cedar chest, many consumers are now formally organizing and preserving their greeting card collections to enjoy time and again. “Scrapbooking” with greeting cards has become an especially fashionable way to document and share memories of special occasions. Similarly, many retailers now sell decorative boxes and files designed specifically for storing keepsake cards. They often include special pages or dividers for jotting down notes and dates.

The Internet and Greeting Cards
E-mail and other electronic methods of communicating have given Americans a convenient and inexpensive way to keep in contact with friends and acquaintances. Interestingly, the increased use of electronic forms of communications seems to be bolstering rather than reducing sales of traditional greeting cards.

Some sociologists believe this is because the Internet has allowed people to increase the number of relationships they are able to maintain, which they then subsequently strengthen by sending traditional greeting cards. Others believe E-greetings are a form of communication that both senders and recipients recognize as transient and treat accordingly. As such, they turn to traditional greeting cards to establish an emotional connection that can be saved and cherished.

I have 6 packages, starting from about $3 up to $457.

The 1st one is $2.99/card, that allows you to send out any 2panel greeting card to anywhere in the world, including postage. This package allows you to send any of the 15,000+ cards we have in our online system, even create your own CUSTOM (by uploading pics from your computer) cards.

The 2nd one is $49 (SOC Box) - ($29 for lifetime license of the system, $20 for 10 cards w/stamps). Allows you to send out 10 2panel greeting cards to anywhere in the world, including postage. This package allows you to send any of the 15,000+ cards we have in our online system, even create your own CUSTOM (by uploading pics from your computer) cards.

The 3rd one is $99 (one time fee) - this does NOT give you ANY cards to start with, but it DOES allow you to choose any cards we have plus allows you to create any CUSTOM cards (basic uploading pics from your computer) you want, and you buy postcards at .49 each, and greeting cards at .98 each (then add postage) (uploading pics is an additional .49 (total, not per pic)).

The 4th one is $199 (one time fee) - this gives you 50 greetingcards to start with, and it DOES allow you to choose any cards we have plus allows you to create any CUSTOM cards (uploading pics from your computer) you want, ALSO we have many templates, clip art and more you can use with this - like digital scrapbooking (create layers and more), and you buy postcards at .49 each, and greeting cards at .98 each (then add postage) (uploading pics is an additional .49 (total, not per pic)).

The 5th one is $398 (one time fee) - basically gives you a system JUST LIKE MINE, where you can buy AT MY COST. this gives you 100 greeting cards to start with (reg $98), the personal handwriting font with 4 siggys (reg $49), and the ability to use all our 15,000+ cards and make your own CUSTOM cards, PLUS the option, if you want to do autoship, to get future postcards at .31 each, and greeting cards at .62 each. (uploading pics is an additional .31 (total, not per pic)).

The 6th one is the ENT package that is a ONE TIME $457 fee, ($59 yearly renewal) and you can earn $ - contact me for more info on this one.

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12. August 2010 by admin.

General Facts
U.S. consumers purchase approximately 7 billion greeting cards each year, generating nearly $7.5 billion in retail sales.

More than 90 percent of all U.S. households buy greeting cards, with the average household purchasing 30 individual cards in a year.

The average person receives more than 20 cards per year, about one-third of which are birthday cards.

Greeting cards range in price from 50 cents to $10, although counter cards typically cost between $2 and $4. Cards featuring special techniques, intricate designs and new technologies are at the top of the price scale.

The exchange of greeting cards is one of the most widely accepted customs in the U.S. There are cards for virtually any occasion or relationship, and they are widely available. Approximately 100,000 retail outlets around the country carry greeting cards.

Women purchase more than 80 percent of all greeting cards.
Although women are more likely than men to buy several cards at once, men generally spend more on a single card than women.

There are two categories of greeting cards — Seasonal and Everyday. Total card sales are split approximately 50-50 between the two types.

The most popular Everyday cards are Birthday (60%), Anniversary (8%), Get Well (7%), Friendship (6%), and Sympathy cards (6%).

The most popular Seasonal cards are Christmas (60%), Valentine’s Day (25%), Mother’s Day (4%), Easter (3%), and Father’s Day (3%) cards.

There are an estimated 3,000 greeting card publishers in the U.S., ranging from small family-run organizations to major corporations. GCA-member publisher companies account for approximately 95 percent of industry sales.

Nine out of 10 Americans say they look forward to receiving personal letters and greeting cards because cards allow them to keep in touch with friends and family and make them feel they are important to someone else.

Although e-mail, text messaging and phone calls are valued by Americans for helping them communicate with family and friends, the majority of Americans say they prefer the old-fashioned handwritten card or letter to make someone feel truly special.

Studies show that people normally buy 10 greeting cards a year, but have a NEED for 70 greeting cards a year -
Why don’t they buy those? It’s more expensive, it’s inconvenient, it’s time consuming, and they forget - We have a fix for all the above - contact me today~

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