Over 40 retailers joined GCA Council members at the GCA’s Retail Forum, kindly hosted by Jakki Brown after the 2024 Henries judging.
The afternoon saw retailers share their successes and discuss ideas for promoting card sending and growing sales in 2024. See PGBuzz for full report
GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson spoke about the work the GCA is doing to protect and promote the greeting card industry, and the Cardmitment campaign that has brought the industry together to share the joy of card sending and protect our industry.
Rebecca Green, GCA council member and co-owner of Raspberry Blossom, shared some of the free toolkits that are available on the GCA website for retailers to download and use, with some already being sent out by publishers.
Kaye Thurgood from Sincerely Yours and Heidi Early, from Earlybird shared details of what they had done last year, with Heidi seeing a 16% increase in Christmas card sales due to the Cardmitment messaging encouraging customers to buy and write Christmas cards early. Sarah Laker from Stationery Supplies spoke about her Write before Christmas campaign that had seen her link up with a local coffee shop to host a Christmas card writing evening in November.
Other retailers shared ideas – tying up with library’s, schools and other local businesses to host events. Several mentioned the GCA’s Caring at Christmas campaign, which last year saw GCA members across the country visit care home’s with donated cards to start a wave of Christmas card sending in their communities.
The 10th anniversary of Thinking of You Week was also discussed. Amanda confirmed that with many major retailers already having plans in place there would again be lots of coverage for this event across the country – leading to thousands of visits to the GCA’s consumer facing Thinking of You Week website in September.
To take advantage of this coverage do tag the GCA’s Thinking of You Week Instagram with photos from your Thinking of You displays and activities you have planned – this will feed straight into the website Gallery!
GCA Free Retailer Toolkits
Below are the links to the GCA toolkits available for the last quarter of 2024. Cardmitment toolkits are being distributed with Christmas orders by many publishers, with some agents and reps also carrying them – see links below for full details.
Thinking of You Week Toolkit 16th – 22nd September 2024
Cardmitment Toolkit – for Christmas 2024, including publishers who have stock to hand out.
Caring at Christmas information and toolkit – visit a local care home in November to start a local wave of Christmas card sending
Festive Friday Toolkit 29th November 2024 – the day the industry posts their Christmas cards!
