I am just interested to find out how other card sellers did in the run up to Christmas.
I had quite a disappointing December despite new designs and promoting. I have actually sold more cards since Christmas on all my sites than I did in December.
I am just wondering whether Christmas cards are generally bought in packs and people are too busy thinking about presents! Next year I am going to concentrate on building up my range for the new year. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and birthdays do sooooo much better!
I didn’t get around to making any for my shop as I was making them to give to family and friends. But I intend to add a few next Christmas.
I’ve no idea how well Christmas Cards sell on here but I have found people buying my Christmas tags and the cards I’ve sold so far have been either cross stitch or embroidery cards.
So I’m thinking I’ll be making cross stitch Christmas cards for next year.
Personally I buy my Christmas cards in packs and not individually and I will tend to buy them from institutions/charities I want to support, whether it’s the V&A museum or Oxfam. Having said that I do sometimes buy packs of cards from designers if they catch my eye (I did this year) but, as I said, I don’t buy individual cards for Christmas, only birthdays/mother’s day (I only have one mother!) and so on.
More and more people that I know are stopping sending out the masses of Christmas cards that they used to and giving the money to charity instead.
Thanks for starting this discussion - you beat me to it!!
I didn’t list any Christmas cards this time but I sell them at fairs. This year I noticed that no card seller was doing well at these venues, in fact at a couple of fairs I was close enough to them to see that they had no sales at all. I just wonder whether the days of the Christmas card are over, thanks no doubt to the fact that you can buy them on the high street for ridiculously low prices. Interestingly, Christmas decorations don’t seem to be doing well at fairs either, and there is a significant amount of “commercial” ones left in my local shops. As far as fairs are concerned I do well with the photographic cards during the rest of the year, and when there used to be large local fairs, photographic Christmas cards did well (in fact I nearly sold out in 2014).
I think you could be right about the “not sending” trend. Frankly, charity cards give such a small percentage to the charity/charities supported that it makes more sense to make a donation I suppose.
That’s interesting what you’ve said about Christmas decorations, at the fairs I’ve done my recycled glass stars have been by far and away my best seller so it must depend…although I suppose a star is not necessarily just for Christmas.
The other half and I get our cards printed for us with one of his photos (photobox make a very good job of it) but buy them early on when the packs are on ‘2 for 1’ type offer - its expensive enough sending them round the world without having to fork out masses for the cards as well. (we also need to make sure we have them early enough to make posting deadlines for Oz and the far east). We are getting to the point where we don’t bother sending any but the other half does like inflicting his photos on a wider audience than just me so it might continue for a few more years yet.
For Christmas 2014 I made “snowflakes”, the ones where you can buy the pre-soldered wires and decorate them accordingly. (Oh dear … I sound like an “assembler”). I sold the lot and had to make more, which was lucky because I had a repeat purchase of 2 of the second batch, so clearly someone was happy! This year I sold just one; nobody else was selling them so it wasn’t a competition problem. I also make them with a view to being usable all year round (ie not just in red and green!) so I’m not sure what is going on. I wonder whether it is local or national?
Perhaps it’s just snowflakes that have gone out of fashion?! I make glass snowflakes too and I sold a load of them last year but nowhere near as many this year… who knows?
I bought all my Christmas cards from fellow designer/makers as I really wanted to support other UK small businesses and the ‘Just a card’ campaign. I bought personalised ones for close family and packs of cards for everyone else.
I sold 1 of my larger cards on here and one of the packs of smaller cards, I didn’t do too bad at craft fairs but it was mainly larger cards that went unlike last year when I nearly ran out of multi packs. I think I need to invest in a crystal ball for next Christmas to see if I can forsee what will sell well
Thanks for bringing this up Emma! I recently got asked about my Christmas card sales by a relative and in truth, I haven’t expected many sales at Christmas for a while. There is so much competition from retail shops that I don’t expect a massive rush at Christmas anymore. Even my family doesn’t by individual cards, they usually get them from the card shops, which in fairness, have very nice designs! (the designer in me loves them and can’t help it!)
Now I just concentrate on the others days, Father’s Day remains the most popular
I sold one set of Christmas cards and three packs of gift tags between the beginning of September and Christmas. During the same period I sold 9 non-seasonal cards. I’m thinking maybe this is the key to sales. When the b&m shops fill their shelves with Christmas cards and move other stock out, I’ll start listing birthday, new baby and sympathy cards that people can’t find!
This was my first Christmas on here, and was happy with the sales of christmas cards l had, but it was the packs of 3 that l sold the most, so will most likely do more of them in the future.
I didn’t sell that many on Folksy but I then did list them quite late on. At fairs, my cards were a real best seller as I grouped them into special offers for multi-buys.
Everyone is different but in my circle, I still sent about 80 cards and got back pretty much the same. I buy in packs (no I don’t send my own - how daft and something I will change for next year!!!). For friends and family I usually buy individually.
I think with the advent of Facebook, I’m not convinced people are spending less on cards overall. I think the days of sending everyone one in your address book may be dwindling, but then I do think people are happier to spend more on close ones and for those on FB, a Merry Christmas everyone to more distant acquaintances is becoming the norm. You can get some staggeringly beautiful cards for well less than a fiver (sorry poor English!) and I think most people would pay that for a loved one (if they didn’t make their own of course).
Next year, I will send everyone one of my own cards and have the added bonus of it being almost like a marketing campaign!! Better get working on those new designs then…
If I tried to send mass produced cards I don’t think my family would talk to me occasionally I have bought handmade ones that I’ve seen on here & are perfect for a particular friend/relation but other than that it’s my own handmade cards and I do get complemented on them and have had people buy from me afterwards
I send my own cards to family, friends and neighbours … but I’m usually too busy to make one for my husband! I used to make his but frankly I’m running out of ideas for the sort of card he likes - perhaps that should feature on my New Year’s Resolution list?
Better get working on those new designs then…