“To minimize the challenges of starting operations across the pond we chose to partner with a successful and well established printing company based in the U.K. instead of starting our own.”

Interview by Mike Sullivan

The greeting card section of the grocery store just got a whole lot bigger. It went online. Greeting Card Universe is the world’s largest greeting card store. Selected artists from all over the world have created over 500,000 cards, announcements, and invitations to fit any special occasion imaginable. Customers have the opportunity to personalize their cards and have them shipped directly to the recipient.

Mindy Rosso is the Co-Founder of Greeting Card Universe. After leaving a background in sales and integrated marketing at IBM, Mindy now manages many aspects of Greeting Card Universe.

MO:
500,000 cards is a lot of inventory! Can you tell us about how Greeting Card Universe works? How do freelance designers get their cards on the site?

Mindy:
Harnessing the power of several different technologies we’ve been able to serve an untapped segment of the paper greeting card market, uncommon and hard to find cards. First, our cards are designed by freelance artists from all over the world creating our valuable and ever growing community content. Second, Greeting Card Universe essentially has a virtual shelf space with print on demand (POD) technology affording us to carry an unlimited numbers of designs since a card is not printed until it is ordered. This also affords us the ability to print a single card and results in virtually no waste of printed cards gone unsold. Lastly with the power of search technologies (search engines and our onsite search) shoppers are able to find exactly what they are looking for quite quickly. For example, “Happy Birthday card for a Step Sister with a yellow rose,” no problem.

For artists it is very easy, affordable and liberating. They join our artist community online by creating a free account, setup their storefront, familiarize themselves with our guidelines and start uploading their designs. Literally within minutes they can start selling their greeting cards online. When cards sell the artists earn royalties, up to 60 cents per card and are paid on a quarterly basis.

MO:
Besides having the largest selection, what do you believe distinguishes Greeting Card Universe from the corner Hallmark Card store?

Mindy:
Our tagline rings true that we offer “any card imaginable”. Greeting Card Universe is not constrained to a physical shelf space like brick and mortar stores. We are not limited to offering only the “best selling” or generally popular cards. We carry greeting cards in niche areas and for uncommon occasions you’d never find at Hallmark. For example, greeting cards for every relationship you can imagine (birth mom, bus driver, god father, step Aunt, Spanish Teacher, etc. ) and every single age, not just the landmark years. Also greeting cards for less mainstream holidays like Diwali, Persian New Year, Feast Day of St. Joseph, Festivus and life’s daily trials and celebrations like congratulations on first lost tooth or becoming a U.S. citizen, get well after appendectomy or gastric bypass surgery and so much more. Additionally at Greeting Card Universe if you don’t find what you are looking for our community of artists can create new custom designs at no additional cost within 48 hours. The ease of ordering online, adding custom inside text and photos, and having it mailed is an invaluable convenience for shoppers.

MO:
You are based out of California, but recently opened a production office in the UK to accommodate European customers with faster deliveries. Tell us about the challenges of opening this production office abroad?

Mindy:
The growing greeting card market in Europe is important to us. We simply were not getting cards mailed to them fast enough especially in the United Kingdom. A growing number of our artists reside outside of the U.S., 1,000 artists to date, and are creating cards that hit the sweet spot of the European markets (different languages, cultural holidays, local sentiments & flare) thus Greeting Card Universe offers a collection of cards with worldwide appeal. To minimize the challenges of starting operations across the pond we chose to partner with a successful and well established printing company based in the U.K. instead of starting our own. Together we are now offering local customer support to better serve this market. And making it even easier Greeting Card Universe supports multiple currencies; U.S. dollars (USD), British pounds (GBP) and Euros (EUR).

MO:
I noticed that your site has a Free eCard section. Can you tell us about the decision to promote eCards as well as traditional cards?

Mindy:
Online there is a lot of confusion when you say or search for “greeting card”, automatically people think eCard. It’s an offering that just cannot be ignored online. There is a very valid space for eCards particularly for last minute greetings when a paper card just won’t get there in time. Also with social networking redefining relationships the term “friend” is now used quite loosely. You might want to send a eCard to these online “friends” vs a paper card and chances are you have their email address handy but not their physical mailing address. Lastly, there is also a market for something in between the two. We will soon be offering electronic versions of our paper cards for a nominal fee. Something more elegant than today’s typical eCards but delivered electronically.

MO:
Greeting Card Universe offers cards in many different categories. What are the next steps for your company? Do you plan to branch out into other printed materials other than greeting cards?

Mindy:
We will stay focused on greeting cards and do that really well vs adding the assorted pots and pans like T-shirts and mugs but we are looking into offering related card products like note card and jumbo sized cards as well as flat postcards. On Greeting Card Universe shoppers have always been able to customize the inside of a card with their own text and photos. And our artist community has always created custom card designs on request at no charge. However with a significant growth trend of allowing shoppers to customize the cards themselves Greeting Card Universe is now offering highly customizable card designs where shoppers can customize both the front and inside of the card themselves. The most common custom cards are photo cards but this custom trend is spreading beyond the traditional winter holidays.

MO:
I ordered a card from your site and was given the option of signing in with Facebook at the end so they could remind me of my friend’s birthdays. This is an AMAZING marketing technique. Could you tell us about this strategy and any other unique marketing strategies you have implemented?

Mindy:
Greeting Card Universe’s parent company, BigDates Solutions, is the leader in online reminder service solutions and the creator of one of the biggest apps on Facebook called Birthday Calendar with over 45 million installs. So as a company we are rooted in important dates & special occasions and are Facebook savvy. The Facebook connect feature on Greeting Card Universe is a natural fit to easily populate reminders and help people remember friends’ birthdays and when to send them a card. Next on the list, we’d like to make sending paper greeting cards as easy as possible so Greeting Card Universe for the iPhone is likely not far away.