I’ve wondered about this especially when it comes to wedding thank you cards and holiday greetings. On paper, flat cards should appeal to people who like a postcard style message, while folded cards feel more formal and display worthy. But in my own store, the only flat card that consistently sells is the postcard. My regular flat cards don’t sell at all.
I’m curious how it looks for you. Are flat cards popular for wedding or birthday thank yous in your store? Do flat holiday cards sell well? Or do customers still lean toward folded cards for anything sentimental or seasonal?
Search results say folded cards win hands down… but we all know search isn’t always the most reliable indicator of actual sales. Wonder? what your customers are choosing and whether flat cards perform differently in your shop.
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I have sold many thousands of flat cards, both holiday and thank you. Some have been editor’s picks which I’m sure helped their performance. My folded cards sell also, but not with as high volume as my most popular flat cards. I suppose it may have something to do with customer preference and price point. If a customer is sending a large number of cards, the total cost is a significant difference between flat and folded cards. Oddly, though, some of my square flat holiday cards have been good sellers and they require extra postage.
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Thanks for sharing and your flat card sales are really interesting. In my store I’ve done both thank‑you and holiday flat cards, and the only ones that moved were the postcard format or the notecard/8‑card bundles. I also used to sell kids’ Valentine flat cards back when I kept my royalty at 10%. Since increasing my royalty to offset the fees, sales have been less.
That makes me wonder if it’s partly a price‑point issue, or maybe visibility factors like getting an Editor’s Pick. Your experience with high‑volume flat cards gives me helpful insight.
What do you think is the best royalty for flat cards? I’m trying to find that sweet spot where the price doesn’t scare off bulk buyers but still covers the marketing and royalty fees.
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My royalty runs from 10-18%. I should probably raise it.
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I have products in my store ranging from 10% up to 20% royalty. I don’t think one store wide royalty works for every product, because some product like curtains and area rugs are on the high end, even on sale they are still higher than other online stores. So to stay competitive I have them at 10%. Stationery is higher, because the quality of cardstock and work that goes into creating make them more valuable, 20% seems to be right for my stationery in my store. Using a mix helps me stay competitive. Maybe I will reduce my flat cards to 18 to see if there is movement.
I use a mix of royalties too and keep the high priced products like corn-hole sets at a lower royalty. Some of my top sellers are at 10% royalty and I wonder if I increased that royalty if they would maintain their top ranking. Will try some experiments and assess how that goes.
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I sold flat, folded cards and postcards. The most at one time I sold flat cards for holidays.
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experiment now before the royalty is locked in for the holidays. Keep me posted as to what royalty is that sweet spot. And I will do the same for you.
Will do! I am thinking I should leave my best sellers at their current royalty rate, but I will sleep on it. Will definitely make changes on some of my royalties.
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? what happens when your flat cards are 10% royalty and there are deep discounted sales like during the holidays. I know you still have to pay the marketing fee and its steep like half… do you end up earning pennies or “in the red” and owning Zazzle? I always wondered about that.
I had a few gift stores buying my tissue paper when it was 10% I increased to 18 to cover the fees and lost my gift shops. So my thinking was to decrease the tissue paper that the gift shops bought to 10 to try to get back that customer.
You earn less when invitations are deeply discounted during the holidays and your royalty is 10%….or whatever your royalty is! I have never been in the red on a sale.
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I sell folded thank you cards. I just recently started listing more flat ones, though, so I’m not sure yet, but the folded ones sold well in the past.
The only thing is that they’re so big. I wish they would offer a smaller size. Like 3.5x5 after folding. I think those would be nicer for things like showers etc.
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I just raised mine to 15% in July (from 10%). So far, so good. I haven’t double checked which products sold more or not as well. As long as everything clears, it looks like just royalties are up 14.2% August over July. But they changed July 20th. They’re up about 50% over June. I’m sure new products and seasonality go into that number.
I have yet to make a single cornhole sale, though : ( I’ve thought about lowering those. That is smart of you to do.
I was worried that sales would plummet from the raise. Now I’m wondering if I should have done 20% - definitely afraid of that. I see that a lot of top selling stores do 15%, though. (Which is actually only 7.5% royalty).
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