Well we know that Christmas takes a big percentage of sales, in fact sixty per cent of total seasonal card sales, but unless you can produce a box of cards and envelopes for less than £2.99 forget it, the majority of people have to send so many cards at Christmas that they simply can't afford to buy handmade.

The next best seasonal card is Valentine, with twenty five per cent of the market, but you can't spend all year making cards for just one day! so what's left?

BIRTHDAYS, Birthday occasion cards are the number one best selling everyday card, it really is the king of occasions, out selling every other type of card hands down, it's nearest rival is Anniversary with a pitiful eight per cent.

Everybody has a birthday, (the Queen has two), that's about 60 million a year in the UK alone, times that by the average cards a person receives for his/her birthday, let's say five, that's around three hundred million birthday cards a year!

So now we know the market, all we have to do is make lots of birthday cards right? no actually that's wrong, what handmade companies need to do is let Carlton, Hallmark etc. get on with that, so we can specialise in the niche markets, the ones that the big boys can't be bothered with!

This is where the handmade card can win every time, below is a break down in percentage regarding popularity of age cards from our own research

As you can see 40th and 50th are the most popular, As a coincidence customers in this age bracket often have more money to spend, this is just what the doctor ordered for handmade producers, high income coupled with special occasions.
21st and 30th are still very good with customers still willing to buy handmade.

As for the rest 18th, 70th etc. only show between one and five per cent, although the market share seems small there is still room for many Handmade producers to gain good sales.

by Jackie Barns

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