Card Isle has reinvented the greeting card business model with print-on-demand technology to bring profitability, a great shopping experience, and personalization to the struggling e-commerce grocery greeting card category.

Online grocery shopping is growing, Greeting Cards aren’t keeping pace

Over the past two years, consumers have been purchasing groceries online through e-commerce platforms more than ever. Unfortunately, retailers are finding that online basket margins are much thinner than those purchased in-store.

• Online grocery purchasing is up by 50% and is expected to rise further this year, according to McKinsey
• A significant portion of grocery retailers see low profitability in their online grocery business according to the State of Digital Grocery: Growth at the Cost of Profitability report

There is a growing disconnect between the online shopping experience that consumers desire and how profitably grocers can provide those services to consumers. A major trend affecting online basket profitability is the difficulty of selling high margin general merchandise (GM) and impulse products, including greeting cards, online.

• There is a $50 million “commerce gap” between in-store and e-commerce grocery shopping, according to a report by ChaseDesign.
• This commerce gap is partially driven by less opportunity for impulse shopping in an online grocery store.

To bridge this commerce gap, grocery retailers will need to find innovative solutions, like Card Isle, to market and sell high profit GM items to their online shoppers.

Does it need Bananas on it? The Traditional Greeting Card model doesn’t work for e-Commerce

As you read this article today, it’s likely that your store is struggling to provide a profitable e-commerce greeting card program. Most grocery stores are choosing to offer a small, 24-36 SKU, subset of their greeting card rack online or are choosing not to offer greeting cards online at all.

Shops that are providing cards online with solutions from traditional retailers are struggling for a variety of reasons.

• Limited selection - The same store is offering 24-36 SKUs online while providing over 2000 SKUs in-store.
• Out-of-stock best sellers - During peak holidays, best sellers may be out of stock and still offered online causing a need for substitution.
• Substitutions are awkward - The sentiment based value of a greeting card makes it difficult and invasive for an associate to recommend a substitution.
• Inefficient pick times - Substitutions and the typical disorganization of a greeting card rack make greeting cards a time intensive pick.

Take, for example, the text exchange below which illustrates the difficulties an actual associate encountered when attempting to find a card substitution at a leading midwestern grocery chain.

The substitution just does not work. Not only was time wasted, but the overall exchange created a negative customer experience.

Don’t be discouraged, and don’t let the complexity of selling cards online stop your team from capturing additional sales from the busy Mom who needs a last-minute Happy Birthday card, the party planner who’s ordering a cake from your bakery, or the forgetful husband who can’t remember when Valentine’s day is. Selling greeting cards through your e-commerce platform doesn’t have to be complicated or a bad experience for your customers.

Card Isle's print-on-demand approach solves your grocery e-commerce greeting card pain points.

Card Isle has a turnkey solution that enables consumers to design and personalize greeting cards on your e-commerce website, and then print them on-demand at your stores.

A seamless customer experience

With Card Isle, your customers will have the ability to select, personalize, and add greeting card designs for any occasion to their baskets. All cards can be edited with a unique message and some designs even allow for photo uploads.

• Provide an endless aisle greeting card shopping experience with over 25,000 SKUs and cards for every occasion.
• Cross-sell greeting cards with floral, bakery and gifting items, just like in-store.
• Return actionable greeting card search results for all occasions.
• Every card can be personalized!

Card Isle sources their content from independent greeting card artists from around the US and the world. This makes our content both locally relevant, timely and always fresh! But it's not just your customer’s who will love Card Isle. Your associates will too!

The easiest pick of the day for your associates

Save your associates time and your store money. When fulfilling a Card Isle card, your associate will simply trigger a print from their shopper app or workstation, and the card will be printed on-demand at a small desktop-sized greeting card printer in your e-Commerce staging area.

Your team will never be out of inventory, have to substitute cards, search for inventory, run out of best sellers or send leftover seasonal cards to the landfill.

• We manage your Inventory - Card Isle tracks your ink, cardstock and envelopes to make sure you always have the card printing supplies you need.
• Crazy Good Customer Service - If for whatever reason you may need assistance, our Virginia-based customer success team is standing by to answer questions or provide assistance by phone, chat, or email.

Getting started is simple!

Our goal is to make adding Card Isle a breeze. Our technical team will build a custom solution for both your e-commerce platform and fulfillment app. It’s as simple as adding two lines of code. We’ll also take care of the nitty-gritty, including testing, to ensure there are no hiccups in the consumer “add to cart” experience.

We work with you to bring greeting cards to every aspect of your e-commerce experience.

Interested in learning more about Card Isle’s Greeting Card solution?

Schedule a demo to learn how our custom card software can integrate with your e-commerce platform and start boosting your e-commerce profitability.