American Greetings greets women with two new e-card sites
AG Interactive, the e-commerce and mobile commerce arm of American Greetings Corp., will launch a new pair of paid content web sites aimed at specific segments of female web shoppers and Internet users.
The new sites, which will go live later this month, will target two groups of female Internet users: women over 50 and women between the ages of 25 and 40. American Greetings, which ranks as No. 145 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, already operates several other greetings sites: BlueMountain.com, AmericanGreetings.com, and Egreetings.com.
But the company sees a business opportunity in providing more paid content services, primarily greetings-related content, to women Internet users. Women between the ages of 40 and 60 represent the majority of conventional greeting card customers. But there is a growing web audience in women with active lifestyles who like using the Internet to send greetings and special occasion messages to their friends, family and co-workers. A new web site, which American Greetings began working on almost a year ago, will target that demographic segment with a new paid content service that lets users send unlimited personalized content for an annual subscription fee of $6.99. The content will be built around 30 different e-greetings and special occasion cards, says Sally Babcock, senior vice president and general manager of AmericanGreetings.com.
Another site will offer an annual subscription fee of $9.99 for personalized content and feature about 400 different e-greetings and special occasion cards. While traditional card buyers tend to make separate purchases around special events such as weddings, birthdays and holidays, AG Interactive wants to build a paid content business model around certain groups of women who want to send content, primarily personalized messages and greetings, year-round.
“We are targeting segments that like to send stylish greetings,” Babcock says. “In the 25 to 40 age group, women are growing through different life stages such as finding the first job, getting married and raising a family.”
Each year Internet users and shoppers use AmericanGreetings.com and its affiliate sites to send more than 120 million e-cards. But the strongest segments for new business development opportunity are with women web users.
In the future AG Interactive may launch other niche content sites and add other forms of paid content such as individual ring tones and wall paper, Babcock says.
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