American Greetings Corp. will spend part of 2007 giving a new look and feel to its core e-greetings card site and taking its mobile commerce business in a new direction.
Though American Greetings, No. 132 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, is offering only a few details, the company’s AG Interactive business unit will roll out a pilot for Valentine’s Day that enables subscribers to select and send a limited number of e-greeting cards.
The pilot, one of the first examples of an online retailer conducting mobile commerce, is a departure from AG Interactive’s previous mobile strategy, which focused on selling ring tones, wall paper and other content. “We are changing the mobile strategy,” says Sally Babcock, senior vice president at AG Interactive. “We are retreating from ring tones and wall paper.”
Along with the shift in mobile commerce, AG Interactive also is planning a major redesign of the AmericanGreetings.com web site by summer. When complete, the new site will feature an improved back end and faster ways for subscribers and others to find greetings cards.
The new design also will incorporate BloombyAG.com, a former stand-alone e-greetings card site American Greetings launched in August of 2005. BloombyAG.com is an e-greetings card site for women ages 25-40. The company has also closed down a similar online greetings card site, HatterChatter.com, which targeted women in their 50s and above. “With HatterChatter.com we didn’t find as big a market as we would have liked,” Babcock says. “We are incorporating BloombyAG.com into the redesign of AmericanGreetings.com because we find that younger women like to send a variety of cards.”
Going forward, American Greetings will concentrate on integrating AmericanGreetings.com with the company’s other retail channels, including its chain of 700 card and gift shops in the U.S. and Canada. “We are going to continue our brand differentiation, move more toward Web 2.0 and acquire customers,” says Babcock. “These are the top priorities for this year.”
American Greetings reported e-commerce revenue of $65.3 million in fiscal 2006, an increase of 14% from web revenue of $57.5 million in fiscal 2005. At the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2007, AG Interactive had approximately 3.4 million online paid subscribers versus 2.4 million at the prior year quarter’s end.
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