Inkjet & Digital Printing

Say it Your Way with New Same-Day Greeting Card Offering from Kodak and Greeting Card Universe

Wednesday 18. July 2012 - It's that age-old problem. You spend hours perusing the card aisle, searching for that perfect "Thank You Soccer Coach," "You Are The Best Teacher," or "I Hope You Recover Real Soon From Your Appendectomy," and you simply can't find it. Until now.

Thanks to a new partnership with Kodak, the worldwide leader in retail print solutions with a global footprint of 105,000 KODAK Picture Kiosks, and California-based Greeting Card Universe, the world’s largest paper greeting card store, consumers can create that high quality card with the perfect message and the perfect image. Even better, they can create the card online and pick it up on the same day in most Target stores nationwide.
To create the cards, customers simply visit www.greetingcarduniverse.com, search for the occasion, choose from more than 500,000 card designs, customize with their personal message and/or photo, place their order, and pick it up at their local Target store in as little as an hour. There are card options in a variety of categories such as birthday, wedding, anniversary, holiday, thank you, and adoption, and include messages not found anywhere else, like “Congratulations on Your New Eyeglasses.” These options let people know you care about them, during both moments of excitement and joy, as well as moments of sadness and loss and do so in the most personal way. Further enhancing the personalized experience, consumers can also submit an online request for a new card design created by Greeting Card Universes’ community of over 4,000 artists.
“Partnering with Kodak provides Greeting Card Universe the ability to offer consumers instant gratification through Kodak’s in-store printing solutions rather than just the mail-to-home or mail direct to recipient options,” said Mindy Rosso, Vice President of Marketing & Community Manager of GreetingCardUniverse.com. “As a leader in the online paper greeting card category, we understand the need for customized content as well as quick, automated fulfillment processes on orders when convenient same day pickup is required.”
“Consumers want to create personalized greeting cards, and they want it to be meaningful, simple, fast, and convenient,” said Larry Trevarthen, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Retail Systems Solutions, Kodak. “This partnership between our companies, both market leaders in our respective categories, provides consumers an unparalleled variety of greeting card options with convenient retail pick-up. Whether someone is a last minute shopper or looking for a unique card not found in any store, they can now create a custom card anywhere with ease, and pick it up in-store the same day, usually within an hour.”
The net-to-retail order fulfillment path for photo merchandise is growing steadily in the U.S. According to InfoTrends*, more than 21% of printed photo merchandise products (photo books, greeting cards, calendars, and specialty prints) ordered online in 2011 were fulfilled in a retail store. That percentage is expected to approach 28% by 2015. The service offered by Kodak and Greeting Card Universe allows retailers to capture this growth opportunity and serve the ever-growing online shopping community.
“Our partnership with Greeting Card Universe allows retailers to add value to their existing fleet of KODAK Picture Kiosks and KODAK Adaptive Picture Exchange (APEX) systems, and enhance their offerings to consumers,” concluded Trevarthen.
*InfoTrends 2011 U.S. Forecast Data