Selling greeting cards to shops

How to make money selling your own greeting cards to shops

Sell your own range of greeting cards to shops and galleries and make a good profit

How greeting card retailing works

Before you decide on how to market your greeting cards, it is important to understand how greeting card retailing works. Take for example, a greeting card that retails for £2.40. This is a perefctly reasonable retail price for an attractive card, packed in a clear 'cello' bag, with a good quality envelope. This retail price will include 40p VAT, (which goes straight to the government) and the retailers profit. Most greeting card outlets need to make 100% profit on greeting cards, as they have a lot of overheads to pay for. This means that a greeting card which retails for £2.40 will have been bought in by the shop or gallery for around £1.00

So how much can I make?

You make the difference between the wholesale price (The price the retailer pays you) and the amount of money it costs you to buy in the greeting cards. When you start out and are testing designs or images, you may not make a lot of money. In fact if you only order a few cards, you may just break even or even make a loss. It is important to realise that this does not matter. You have a plan!

So how do I make good money from my greeting cards?

The secret, as with any enterprise, is careful planning. Start off with a few greeting card designs or images and see what sells. Once you know what sells, you can increase your order quantities and enjoy the benefits of much cheaper printing prices. For instance, 1000 5 x 7 single sided greeting cards currently cost around 30p each (plus VAT) to print, so you are making around 70p on each card you sell to the retailer for £1.00. Eventually, you can register for VAT and get the VAT back. Even if you just double your cost price you are making money.

An example

We will take 5 x 7 greeting cards as an example as these are very popular. (A5 cards are the same price anyway and 140mm square cards are cheaper). 200 5 x 7 single sided greeting cards currently cost £93 plus VAT. That price assumes that they are all the same design. However, if you split the quantity into, say, five designs, then each extra design within the order quantity adds an extra £10 = £40 extra.

So you will have paid £93 plus £40 for 200 cards. A total of £133 (plus of VAT course, so a final total of £159.60). This means that each card will have cost you 80p - not much of a profit if you sell your crads for £1 each to the retailer. However, you now have some samples AND some stock to sell. We suggest that you pack your cards individually in glass-clear cello bags which only adds a few pence to the price but ensures that you cards remain clean and saleable when on display. Greeting cards that are not packed in cello bags soon get scruffy and unsaleable.

The next step

Once you have established that your designs or images sell as greeting cards, you can gear up to making real money. 1000 5 x 7 single sided greeting cards currently cost £304 plus £10 for each design. So if you order 250 off each of four designs, then your cost price per card, with the VAT is around 40p giving you a 60p profit on each card!.

Where can I sell my greeting cards

Your target market is independant shops, not multiples. Most retailers are happy to accept new and attractive designs. The market is not just greeting card shops either as many other shops also sell greeting cards. Think gift shops, florists, corner shops, service stations, baby shops, picture framers, galleries, museuums, garden centres and many more. If you love in a holiday or tourist area your choices are even greater. Everyone buys greeting cards and most people are delighted to find something different to the usual run-of-the-mill standard designs that the supermarkets sell.