How greeting cards can drive sales for Cheese, Chocolate and Coffee retailers

Picture a customer walking into your cheese shop, chocolatier or coffee roastery. They're there because they love your chocolate, they're restocking their favourite coffee beans, or they need a wedge of the cheese they always buy. It's a purchase for themselves. Nothing more was planned.

Then they spot a greeting card on the counter. A birthday card, or a humorous card with a pun and a positive message that gives them the warm fuzzies. Suddenly a thought lands that wasn't there when they walked in. "It's my sister's birthday next week." "I should get something for Mum." "I keep meaning to say thanks to a friend for helping us move."

That's the moment that matters. The card didn't just sell itself. It signaled to your customer that what you're offering would make the perfect gift, save them time not having to search for a gift elsewhere, and encourage them to return to your store the next time they're in need of a thoughtful and meaningful gift. That's extra sales of your core product, triggered by a greeting card they may not even buy. The card is not just an add on impulse sale, it’s a subliminal message at the perfect moment in time.

A gifted bag of coffee, box of chocolates or boxed cheese means your products reach a larger audience who may then become regular customers and gift to their friends too.  

The card is the prompt, your product is the sale

This is the part that's easy to miss. Retailers may think of greeting cards as a small add-on sale, worth a bit of margin on the card itself and not much else. In a specialty food store, the real value works differently.

Your customer has already chosen your chocolate, cheese or coffee for themselves. The card sitting on the counter does the job of jogging a memory or planting an idea, and because your product is right there in front of them, the easiest thing is to grab a second box, a second wedge, or a second bag to go with it. You've turned a single item sale into two, and the second one was for someone who wasn't on the customer's mind when they walked in the door.

Your customer already loves your products, why wouldn’t they want to share it with the people they love. It may seem obvious that your products make great gifts, but your customers may need prompting.

Wish & Tell has a range of cards designed to advertise your product as a feel good item, with messages written specifically to encourage gifting for occasioins such as birthdays, thank yous, congratulations, and "just because". They're Australian made and FSC certified, which sits comfortably next to the kind of provenance minded customers who already care where their coffee, cheese or chocolate comes from.

Cheese, chocolate and coffee retailers already have something special. A product people love that also make great gifts, and customers who trust it enough to buy it without hesitation. A greeting card on the counter doesn't compete with that, it multiplies it, by giving customers a reason to think of one more person while they're already standing there with their wallet out.

If you'd like to see the Wish & Tell range and talk through how stocking would work for your store, get in touch. We can send samples so you can see exactly how they'd sit alongside your cheese, chocolate or coffee range. You can view our full range here.