Illustration on Greeting Cards

Marlin

Hi, my name is Marlin and i want to share and ask opinions about my business problem hypotesis.

I am an illustrator and i want to make some greeting cards and gifts with my illustration that could help fullfill the lifestyle needs of millenial womens who are busy and needs something new to celebrate important days.

I assume that with offering exclusive and cute greeting cards via online will be a great solution for them. Because the offline stores only offer limited kinds of greeting cards.

I also assume that womens has big social circle that make them want to connect with sending greeting cards... and gifts to important people around them.

I also has plan to open opportunity to the wholesellers... so i could market my products ( greeting cards, gifts ) to another cities and countries...because book stores need new product feature that keep costumers happy and come.

What do you think about my assumption ?
Please give me som feedbacks and references.

thank you

Ryan O'Bleness

Hi, @Marlin. I think my biggest question is what sets your online greeting cards apart from physical cards or even the E-Cards that already exist on the internet? What makes them stand out and would make consumers buy them? 

Your assumption about women having large social circles seems like a generalization. I am sure that is true for plenty of women, but everybody is different and some may choose to keep to themselves or have less connections. I would recommend doing thorough market research and not launching the business based on assumptions. 

So, send out surveys to mailing lists, bring in focus groups, research scholarly articles on the topic, etc. 

But I like the idea and good luck! Just make sure you know your target market and have a proper business plan or at least a well-thought out structure for the idea. 

RJWilde

I'd have to back up what Ryan is saying here--it sounds like you're making a lot of assumptions... a little research could go a long way! Even just browsing around on Etsy for a little might give you a better idea as to what you're in for with the target market!

Erik G.

I don't want to poo poo your idea, however I've had some experience with this. When we first started out, we worked with a graphic designer that had a similar idea. She had fantastic artwork and wanted to create a line of holiday greeting cards. Her business idea also included gift wrapping, gift tags and stationary.

A couple of things we learned from the experience which you should consider up front:

1) Competition is very stiff, especially online. There were 100's of specialty card makers when we did our due diligence and that was 10 years ago. I imagine many more players have entered the market over the years.

2) It's VERY difficult to get organic SEO traction because there are so many players in the market. Additionally, the major greeting card companies have pushed the cost of paid search terms through the roof on relevant keywords. If your business plan assumes that most of you're sales will come from online sales when you start out, you're heading done the wrong path.

3) Unless you're printing cards in mass quantities, you're profit margins will be very low in retail. Even specialty retailers don't pay much for the cards they sel (and most buy through national distributors.

4) Penetrating popular specialty retailers in a large metropolitan market is the key to hooking up with national distributors. Very few of the national distributors can be contacted directly and it takes a concerted networking campaign just to arrange a meeting with their buyers.

I wish you all the best with your idea! Just plan carefully before you sink money into your business.

Ryan O'Bleness

That is great insight from @Erik G. Always take advice from somebody who has experience in the field and who has gone through the same struggles. Listen to what he is saying and prepare yourself for those challenges.