Sales of greeting cards have fallen 13% in the last five years.
Topline: 110-year-old greeting card company Hallmark is revamping its business to cut costs and shift more focus to online sales, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night, just days after competitor Papyrus filed for bankruptcy protection, which critics say is due to social media and text messages replacing paper cards, among other emerging consumer and cultural trends.
- According to the WSJ, Hallmark is consolidating its card and retail operations, which includes 2,000 independently owned stores across the country, in order to allocate more resources toward its online business and to build new brick-and-mortar offerings (but it’s unclear what those would be).
- Although Hallmark owns several hundred of its own stores, a number of independently owned shops are closing of their own accord.
- Papyrus, which is over 70 years old and owned by parent Schurman Fine Paper, will close all of its 254 U.S. and Canadian locations as a result of declaring bankruptcy; about 1,400 workers will be without jobs.
- The Washington Post reported Friday that Papyrus never recovered from the Great Recession and was unable to find a buyer or negotiate lower costs with landlords and suppliers.
- Both brands are by no means disappearing; American Greetings, which owns the Papyrus brand, will continue to sell the cards in 20,000 locations across the country, while Hallmark has a bevy of related ventures under its purview, including the hugely popular Hallmark Movie Channel.
- Greeting card companies are taking a hit from declining sales as well as the shift to e-commerce, as shopping malls—which have housed many card stores—continue to shut down.
Crucial quote: “It’s death by a thousand emojis,” said Columbia Business School professor Mark Cohen, who leads retail studies there. Critics say that Americans now prefer to send text messages or post on social media to commemorate special occasions, instead of mailing individual greeting cards.
Big number: 13%. That’s how much U.S. greeting card sales have fallen over the past five years, according to the WSJ, despite pulling in sales of $4.5 billion in 2019.
Key background: Founded in 1910 and headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, Hallmark is still owned by the Hall family and generates $4 billion in annual revenue. The company expanded its business holdings over the decades, and now counts Crown Media Networks—parent of the titular Hallmark Channel, as well as kids’ art supply giant Crayola—among its ventures. Schurman Brands was founded in 1950 in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, by Marcel and Magrit Schurman. Papyrus began as an importer of fine European paper products before expanding into gift wrap, notepaper and greeting cards. At its height, Papyrus operated more than 500 stores.
Tangent: Another competitor in the greeting card space? Robots. Companies like Handwrytten, Scribeless and LetterBot use robots to replicate human handwriting on greeting cards.
