Trends in consumer behavior: fewer shoppers send Christmas cards

Following the news that Card Factory, the UK’s leading specialist retailer of greeting cards, gifts and celebration essentials, issued a major profit warning that saw its shares drop 22% in early trading; Zoë Mills, Lead Retail Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

“Despite its value focus, Card Factory operates in a discretionary market, and UK consumers are deprioritising cards amid a challenging retail landscape. The greeting card & gifting specialist places significant importance on a buoyant festive period, but we are seeing a shift away from sending Christmas cards, particularly among younger generations.

According to GlobalData survey data*, in 2019, 46% of Christmas shoppers bought Christmas cards, yet by 2024 this figure had fallen to 34%. This is a trend that is here to stay, and Card Factory’s pivot to expand its gifting range is certainly its best strategy to react, given the higher margins, but falling demand for its core product is going to make its recovery difficult.

Card Factory’ official statement regarding, the update on trading:

„Over recent months, the pressures facing the UK consumer have been well publicised. It is an inescapable fact that these pressures have impacted consumer confidence and shopping behaviour, contributing to soft high street footfall. Those conditions have persisted as we moved into our most important trading period, leading to a UK store sales performance which is lower than our previous expectations.

On the assumption that current trading trends persist over the remaining seven weeks of our financial year, we now expect to deliver adjusted Profit Before Tax for the full financial year between £55m and £60m.„

Card Factory – key financials

_________

* Data is derived from GlobalData’s Christmas 2019 survey of 2,500 UK respondents and GlobalData’s Christmas 2024 survey of 2,500 UK respondents