We intend to leverage key market trends and opportunities in our target addressable markets.

Clear transition from offline to online

The cards market is increasingly moving away from traditional stores, with online penetration for card purchases showing strong growth in comparison with other product categories. This trend is underpinned by the strengths of the online proposition and experience when compared to offline, including broader choice, ability to personalise products, enhanced convenience, additional digitally-enabled features such as reminders, and a tailored customer experience.

There are estimated to be 53.8 million card purchasers1 in our core markets, representing a large, untapped pool of potential customers for us to win. OC&C estimates that for calendar year 2024, online penetration of the market will be approximately 16% in the UK and approximately 21% in the Netherlands2, further demonstrating the clear potential for significant further growth.

Growth in card-attached gifting

Approximately 72%1 of cards are currently given with a gift in the UK. As the clear leader in the online cards market, we’re well placed to take advantage as card-attached gifting grows online. This gifting spend is fragmented across a broad set of categories including flowers, food, drink and toys. In both the UK and the Netherlands, our strong offering in these key product ranges mean there is considerable scope for further online penetration of this market.

Shift towards experiential gifting

The overall total addressable gifting market within the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland is £58 billion2. For the UK, this included c.£6.5 billion relating to the gift experiences segment of the market2. The gift experiences segment is growing at a faster rate than total gifting as a result of the secular consumer trend towards experiential gifting such as days out, meals and activities. Within this segment, our specialist gift experiences platforms Red Letter Days and Buyagift provide superior choice, flexibility and assurance of quality to consumers across the UK. With well established platforms in a large and fragmented market, we are well positioned to grow our share of the growing gift experiences market.

1. Source: OC&C 2019 - download the December 2020 Market Report here.

2. Source: OC&C 2024 - download the June 2024 Market Update here.