Card Factory has announced significant online growth and actions to ensure it has sufficient liquidity.

Sofie Willmott, Lead Retail Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on this news;

 “Card Factory’s rocketing online growth will be nowhere near enough to counteract sales lost from the closure of its 972 stores, given its digital revenue is so low. Sales at Cardfactory.co.uk have risen 267.5% and by 57.5% at its lesser known fascia Gettingpersonal.co.uk in the past six weeks, but considering we estimate its online channel only accounted for 5% of sales in FY2019/20, the greetings card retailer cannot rely on its ecommerce sites to prop up performance.

 “As the card supplier to over half of Aldi’s stores since November 2019, Card Factory will also be generating decent revenue through this channel considering supermarkets are currently one of the only physical locations that shoppers can purchase greetings cards from. Given Aldi will perform well during and after the COVID-19 pandemic as its value proposition resonates with consumers who are feeling financially uncertain, Card Factory should roll out the agreement to more stores where possible. Supplying Aldi stores will also be a more cost effective way for Card Factory grow sales without investing in new stores following its announcement today that it will only open seven locations in FY2020/21, after opening 51 in its last financial year.”