Holiday Cards Unlimited’s Online Model for Printed Cards

Holiday Cards Unlimited is a Chicago-based web business selling customized greeting cards.  With all the cries of Internet-created pain from the publishing industry in recent years, it’s interesting to find an online business dedicated to selling a printed product.  Founded in 2005, it breaks from the “typical” Chicago post-dotBomb start-up, in that it’s based on licensed technologies, rather than open source development.  Holiday Cards Unlimited starts with a base card design and allow the customer to add customized text and logos to the card.  Typically, this lends itself to institutional bulk purposes, though “holiday” isn’t the only type of card sold.

Tim Christopoulos, Holiday Card Unlimited’s President, recently took time to answer a few questions about his company.

Chicago Tech News: What’s your background prior to founding Holiday Cards Unlimited?

Tim Christopoulos: To paraphrase the Beatles, I’ve taken a somewhat long and winding road to founding Holiday Cards Unlimited, but the journey has been scenic and interesting and I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak.  Starting when I was 18, I co-owned and operated two successful contracting businesses for almost 10 years.  Then I set off on an academic journey at the University of Chicago, where I earned an MBA in Marketing and a Master’s in Social Work, along with a graduate certificate in Health Care Administration.  I used those skills as a management consultant for large hospital systems and as an organization development consultant for an academic medical center.  I sold a new-to-the-market product with a technology company that went public, later got into selling IT contract staffing, advanced to selling IT solutions and projects, and then the entrepreneurial bug bit again.  Along the way, I kept my passion for music, and am a part-time professional classical singer.

CTN: What platform is your site built on and with what software?

TC: Our site is built on the Miva Merchant shopping cart software.  However we’ve integrated Kayako Support Suite, Adobe Scene7 dynamic imaging, and a handful of custom applications to enhance the user experience and our customer support.

CTN: Who did your site implementation?

TC: We used a blend of in-house and contracted resources.  Some core Miva components were customized by NetBlazon, LLC, who are Miva experts.  Our site is continually being enhanced.

CTN: Where is your card customization done?

TC: Our customers preview their customized cards on our site using Adobe Scene7 dynamic imaging software.  This enables them to see their personalization choices including the greeting they’ve selected and any custom messages or closings they’ve added, all displayed for preview in their selected font and color.  Once they’ve submitted their orders, we typeset their cards based on their customized selections and print their cards.  We ship most orders from the Midwest and East Coast.

CTN: Where do you get your card designs?

TC: We work through a variety of sources ranging from card manufacturers to individual artists.  We’re always looking for unique, exclusive cards and are expanding to include designs from artists I’ve met at local art shows.  When considering new card designs for our business customers, any holiday card and greeting card must pass the test of adding credibility and reflecting a positive light on the business sending them.

CTN: Do you find you have more consumer or B2B clients?

TC: Most of the cards on our site are suitable for both B2B and consumer use, but about 70 percent of our sales are B2B.  A lot of that is driven by our emphasis on a variety of cards that are appropriate for business use as well as the opportunity to add logos and other custom touches that appeal to businesses that send out a large number of cards.

CTN: Obviously, your business is focused on the major holidays.  How do you market the site in the off-season?

TC: We use a variety of online marketing including PPC and CSE advertising as well as natural search to stay in front of customers year round.  In the off-season, we emphasize the advantages of using greeting cards for birthdays, congratulations, anniversaries and so on, as a way for companies to build and maintain relationships with customers and employees.  This is a good source of business for us throughout the year, especially with financial planners, real estate agents and other professional services firms.  We’ve also had congressmen order cards to keep in touch with key supporters.

CTN: What’s the biggest fulfillment issue with your model?

TC: The biggest issue for us is correcting customer mistakes and ensuring we have all the information needed for custom requests, especially as time frames become critical during the peak of the season.  We go to great lengths to verify the info sent to us, even something as simple as the odd use of a capital or lower case letter.  It could be a simple typo, but it could also be a particular usage that’s part of the customer’s style.  That’s why we encourage customers to order early so that we have time to do any necessary troubleshooting and confirm their requests.