If you love making and designing greeting cards, then Greeting Card Universe might just be the online business you’re looking for. This is especially great if you love photography, illustration, or painting, and you’re keen to turn your artworks in to greeting cards.
The Basics:
Greeting Card Universe is pretty much a “free” service. At the moment, there’s no charge to sign up for an account and start an online greeting card store.
When you sign up, you’re able to customise your online shop (choose name, upload logo, create a personal profile, etc). You can then upload as many card designs as you like (provided they approve your designs) and sell them in your store.
Cards sell for US$1.99 each. Designers/sellers are given 50 cents for each sale. As a designer/store owner, you are able to purchase your own cards at a discount (US$1.49 each). So, you can easily buy these cards and sell them for a higher price elsewhere.
Payments are sent to designers/sellers once they reach the minimum payment threshold (US$25). You can increase your minimum, if you wish. They send cheques or Paypal payments.
They provide some basic statistics of visits and sales on your account dashboard. There are also some information showing how visitors/buyers find your cards.
Also, there’s an option to make your designs available as free ecards. When these ecards are sent, there’s an ad that will say something like “This free ecard is also available as a print greeting card.” - pointing to where they can buy it online.
General Review:
Although I’ve signed up for the service to get a feel for the process, I haven’t really tried selling any cards yet on the site. If I do give it a go, I’ll give you an update.
Basically, from what I’ve seen, it seems like a pretty straightforward service. It’s easy to sign up and create the online store. Although customisations are limited, I don’t see this as a barrier. Also, there are widgets available so that you can promote your online store in your own blog or website.
If selling greeting cards is an area that you’d like to explore, I think Greeting Card Universe is an option that’s worth looking in to.
If you’re using this, or you end up trying it out, I hope you’ll share with us some of your thoughts on it.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m interested in finding a similar greeting card site, but one that prints its cards on recycled or FSC-certified paper. Does anyone know of an online company like that?
Melissa
Melissa, you can try cafepress.com. As for Greeting Card Universe, The idea is a good one but there are a few problems in my opinion. First, they do not allow you to include any art work on the inside of the cards. Second, they print a very small sized card. Their standard size is pretty small compared to a card you buy out of the store. Last, they pretty much take the credit for the card. They put a huge watermark of their logo on the back of the card and put a little information about the artist in a tiny corner at the bottom of the card. To me, it’s not worth it! As an artist, you get very little credit and freedom. As a buyer, i’d much rather go to the store and buy a bigger and more artistic card!