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Understanding how customers purchase business cards online is paramount to our business, but what about yours? Surely, you’d want to know how people are ordering business cards too to learn what people expect.
In this business card report, we’re giving you a glimpse into a snapshot of our business card sales between March and May of 2020 versus 2021. We’ve also surveyed our customers to better understand their approach when it comes to buying business cards with some interesting results.
This data isn’t just boring statistics though, it shows how our customers love the choices we provide for them. We believe that by giving you so much freedom to choose exactly what you want, other printers simply won’t offer you it because they deem it too “complicated” or “time-consuming”.
So, with our intro out of the way, let's get into the data!
Standard Business Cards Are Boring
Did you know that 88% of business cards get thrown away in the first week? We do, which is why we continue to add unique paper stocks to print on. We found that as we add more paper types, the uptake of customers opting to upgrade to something fancier grows too.
Looking at our sales data, we found that the number of customers printing on our hand-picked paper selection over standard stock (standard = 350/400gsm silk/uncoated) increased by 22% year over year.
In 2020 46% of our awesome customers upgraded to use our unique paper types. In 2021 56% of our customers did. We’re hoping to increase this number more by continuing to offer stand-out customisation features on our website.
What Does This Mean For You?
Well, we believe the data shows that customers are hungry to make their business cards stand out, we just need to supply them with the options to do so.
Our customer survey data shows that 92% of customers see the value and would upgrade to a luxury finish over a standard 350gsm business card if they had a larger budget.
It's just then a case of having data that can convince customers to upgrade, or perhaps order fewer cards of better quality.
FACT: 86% of customers agree that a thicker business card looks more professional when surveyed.
So, what would you rather do, hand out loads of standard cards where the chance of getting thrown away is high, or invest in more professional-looking cards that have a much better chance of being kept? Your budget could be doing more harm than good.
Is It Right To Have A Budget?
This is a much more personal view, but when we surveyed our customers, only 24% had a budget less than £49/$49. That means that over 75% of customers had a budget large enough to order 250 double-thick business cards with soft-touch laminate to both sides. This is probably one of the simplest ways to upgrade your business cards while still being on a budget, and as we’ve already touched upon, our survey shows a thicker card is more professional looking.
How Many Business Cards Should You Buy?
Speaking of 250 business cards, you may wonder if this is enough. Before looking at the sales data, I’d have thought that the average order may look something like 100 or 200 business cards. In reality, between 2020 to 2021 the average quantity of business cards per order rose by 13% from 500 to 565.
That’s not to say that 250 business cards aren’t enough, we have customers that order 10,000 business cards at a time for all of their staff, so these numbers are impacted by large orders like this.
To find out more about this data we surveyed our customers to learn what they are actually doing with their business cards.
Some notable facts are that 34% of customers have started to include business cards with their orders and 20% of customers are actively trying to hand out their business cards more as they think it helps their overall sales. Perhaps being selective of whom receives a business card is the best way to be budget orientated while minimising waste.
Interestingly, through covid, 8% of customers started a new business and needed to hand more business cards out for that initial boost of exposure so this will also be bumping up the average order quantity for business cards.
No matter if you're a printer like us, or resell our services to your own customers, it seems that customers love to take advantage of bulk ordering (12% mentioned this as an additional reason).
While we’re not trying to push you towards ordering more business cards, if you were to purchase 250 double-thick business cards at £51.95, you could actually double that order to 500 for an extra £31. Rather than having to pay more (£51.95) later on when you need more. It also saves on delivery charges too so budget-conscious people could genuinely have wiggle room to print fancier business cards if they order in bulk rather than smaller orders more often.
How Much Should Business Cards Cost?
Next, let's take a look at how much customers are spending on their order of business cards. While we have to keep the actual amounts a secret, what we can reveal is that from 2020 to 2021 the average amount spent on a business card order increased by 13%.
This is partly attributed to the number of business card orders using a luxury finish increasing from 62% of orders to 72%, which is a huge 16% increase. In our survey, this data is backed up with two stats:
58% of customers choose to spend more on luxury business cards so their customers will complement their card and notice the extra attention to detail.
24% of our customers think that making their business cards stand out will increase the chances of their card being kept and thus increase their ROI.
You may think that throughout Covid people have scrimped or ignored business cards as they worked from home. This data seems to indicate the opposite though. It also shows that our customers are receptive to the growing number of unique paper types we are offering them and see the true value in luxury business cards.
Foiled Business Cards Are Still Our Best Seller
One statistic that hasn’t changed is the number of business card orders that include a metallic foil finish. In both 2020 and 2021, while the total orders we took increased, the number of foiled business cards remained at a hearty 25% of the business cards we produced.
This is hardly surprising as our foil cards have been a massive hit since we’ve introduced them and customer reviews seem to tell us you can’t get enough!
When we surveyed our customers about metallic foil business cards, a whopping 58% of customers agree that adding metallic foil to a business card will make the card more likely to be kept. An additional 30% think that it probably will but they're yet to try it.
We might sound like we’re beating a drum here, but there is value in luxury business cards, especially if it means your business card stands out and is kept by your clients.
Stand Out From The Stack Of Cards
Speaking of standing out, the theme continues to be a key feature our customers love, especially our offering of painted edge business cards and color core cards.
From 2020 to 2021 customers upgrading to use painted edges or color core business cards grew a huge 84% and it now sits at around 11% of all orders. We think it's the best way to stand out, especially if your clients keep all their business cards in a pile. As the competition gets stiffer, we offer all that we can to get your business card noticed!
When asked about standing out, specifically in a stack of business cards, 82% of customers think that it's an important factor when it comes to ordering their cards.
Environmentally Friendly Business Cards
Eco-friendly print continues to be at the forefront of our customer's minds, especially with the spotlight evermore so being shone on climate change and deforestation.
We have seen that as the public opinion about our planet changes, the increase in customers using recycled stock on their business cards has grown 63% over the period between 2020 and 2021.
In our survey, we asked "Do you care about printing on a recycled paper stock?". 54% of customers said they care about printing on recycled paper stock if they can.
Around 13% of customers choose a recycled paper type for their print media and we see that trend continuing to grow in the coming years.
As printers, it is difficult to print on anything but paper, but we’re always looking to add more choices of recycled business cards for our customers to choose from. So far we print on recycled paper, brown kraft business card paper and cotton paper but we have a few others in the pipeline such as hemp paper.
Print Your Business Cards With Us
Well, there you have it, a sneak peek into how our customers are shopping when it comes to business cards. We hope you’ve managed to take something away from this article. Not just how customers shop with us, but habits in business card buying which will mean added competition in the space.
If you want to make sure your business card is kept, especially if you have clients to impress, then we can’t think of any better place to get your cards printed.
