Just in time for Thinking of You Week, a campaign that encourages consumers to mail a greeting card each day from Sept. 23-29, the Greeting Card Association has released updated facts on the industry.
Here are some highlights:
• U.S. consumers purchase approximately 6.5 billion greeting cards each year, generating $7 billion-$8 billion in annual sales. Most cards cost $2-$4 each.
• Women purchase 80 percent of greeting cards and spend more time choosing a card than men. Women also are more likely to purchase several cards at once.
• The most popular type of card purchased? Birthday cards, followed by sympathy, thank you, wedding, thinking of you, get well, new baby and congratulatory cards.
• Christmas cards are the most popular type of seasonal card, with approximately 1.6 billion cards sold each year. Other popular seasonal cards: Valentine’s Day (145 million cards sold, not including classroom valentines), Mother’s Day (133 million), Father’s Day (90 million), graduation (67 million), Easter (57 million), Halloween (21 million), Thanksgiving (15 million) and St. Patrick’s Day (7 million).
• Increasing in popularity: Galentine’s Day cards, a Feb. 13 “holiday” that celebrates friendships between women.
Greeting cards also are popular among USPS employees, as well as customers.
According to the latest Household Diary Study, a national research effort sponsored by USPS, more than 2.3 billion greeting cards were mailed in the fiscal year that ended last September, reflecting a 3.4 percent increase during a three-year period.