NIGERIA: Nigerian company seeks to revive neglected tradition of sending greeting cards

Record ID: 236869

  • Title: NIGERIA: Nigerian company seeks to revive neglected tradition of sending greeting cards
  • Date: 12th September 2014
  • Summary: SCREEN SHOTS OF BIRTHDAY GREETINGS
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9QK9QEI4XMW0Z3PHY2T1IP1DA
  • Story Text: Welcome to Longisco Cards and Gift shop in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos. Started nearly two decades ago, Longisco used to sell just greeting cards but business in the small boutique store has slowed down since the emergence of social networking.
    To stay afloat, Longinus Omeaku, the store's owner decided to diversify and now also stocks crafts, souvenirs, toys and other gift items.
    He says unlike previous years, the card section now only occupies about 20 percent of the entire shop.
    "About 19 years ago hundred percent of what you see now, here now was greeting cards, greeting cards to the whole of these counters, all around this place, but now the fortune of greeting cards sales has dwindled then we had to divert to other business that is why you see greeting, I mean gift items are mostly here," said Longinus.
    But one innovative start up is hoping to change all this. Greetings World is a new company that is seeking more creative ways to re-introduce the love for paper greeting cards.
    Owned by Abodunrin Opanuga and his partner Oteju Wamide, Greetings World was launched in July 2014. The young couple invested about 5 million naira (about 6,100 U.S. dollars) into the business.
    To add more value to their product, Greetings World allows its clients to choose their own words to be printed on the greeting cards. They also deliver the cards to the recipients.
    The site has four categories: "Birthdays, Occasional, Thoughtful and Seasonal." Depending on the size of the card, customers can pay between 500 naira to 2500 naira (about 3 to 15 dollars).
    According to Abodunrin, greeting cards are more personal. He says he is optimistic about the potential growth of the business.
    "Greeting cards still have that wow effect whether you like it or not. You know these social media platforms have been overly used and some don't even convey that special experience that they should convey. For example, if I send you a text message, the chances that you will even read it immediately are very slim because you are busy through out the day, but if I send you a physical card, you are probably gonna want to take your time to open it, the experience of opening a card, you know from the envelop, turning page by page to see every detail and every careful thoughtful word out of the card you know can't be replaced by social media," said Abodunrin.
    Oteju and Abodunrin are involved in the whole process from the designing of the cards to the final printing. Customers who order cards before three p.m. will have them delivered the very next day.
    In the last two months, Oteju says they have had about forty orders, averaging about one a day which the entrepreneur believes is a good start.
    "Orders have been coming in in trickles, we've been ... at least we receive an order of about five orders a day and people are actually embracing it with the marketing strategies people are embracing the culture of online greeting cards. People make their orders, we get it delivered for them, to their recipient or to themselves, its been really going well," said Oteju.
    But for some Lagosians, greeting cards are a tradition that's long passed.
    Ehilegbu Lawrence is a travel consultant. He turned 40 on Wednesday, (September 3). He received over 600 birthday wishes on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
    Ehilegbu says he prefers to use social media as it allows him to see the number of people across the world who wished him well on his birthday.
    "I would prefer somebody going to the face book for instance just to create fun by saying ah, Law, congrats o, I almost forgot your day, God bless you, I hope that this happens, with lots of wishes. Who would have seen a beautiful thing said on a card that is kept in my bedroom or on the table in my office or my dinning room at home, nobody will go there to read them, so I think that its time that we move with the trend," said Ehilegbu.
    Converting social media enthusiasts like Ehilegbu will be a challenge but Greetings World believe with a savvy business strategy, they can redingote Nigerians' interest in paper cards.
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