By Elaine X. Grant E-Commerce Times
02/14/02 10:33 AM PT
Free sites Hallmark.com and Yahoo! Greetings saw a significant increase in the number of
minutes visitors spent at their sites after American Greetings instituted a fee.
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Greeting card sites that do not charge a fee to send a
heartfelt message will fare better than pay sites this
Valentine's Day, according to a new report.
Charles Buchwalter, vice president of media research
at Jupiter Media Metrix
(Nasdaq: JMXI), said that like many Internet
companies, some greeting card sites have turned to
user fees in order to decrease their reliance on
online ads.
In this case, however, the move might not be
such a great idea, according to Buchwalter.
"Timing is everything, and embarking on this strategy
during the holiday season and in a depressed economy
could backfire, allowing free, ad-supported services
to gain share," he said.
Traffic Down
According to the report, traffic to sites run by
American Greetings, including Americangreetings.com,
Blue Mountain
and Egreetings.com,
dropped from 25.5 million visitors in November to 22.9
million in December, after the company began charging
customers a US$11.95 annual fee to send most cards.
Blue Mountain, the largest of the three sites, suffered the
most defections, with visits down 22 percent. The
other two sites saw traffic increase from November to
December, the report said.
All three sites inform Valentine shoppers in a
pop-up "special announcement" that they still can
browse all cards and can send a small selection of
"everyday" cards, although they must pay to send holiday and
birthday greetings or to create custom cards.
Visitors spent less time on American Greetings sites
after the company began charging, from an average of 13.1 minutes in
November to 10 minutes in December -- a 24 percent decline.
Some card-seekers kept site-hopping once they found out
about the fee. In November, just 16 percent of visitors
went to more than one site, but 27 percent did so in December.
Yahoo! Greetings traffic rose 70 percent, from 5.4
million visitors in November to 9.1 million in
December. Hallmark.com saw visitor numbers increase from 4.7
million to 8.2 million in the period, a 74 percent boost.
The two free sites also saw a significant increase in
the number of minutes visitors lingered
after American Greetings instituted its fee, the
report said. Visit time on Yahoo! Greetings was up 24
percent, from 8.5 minutes in November to 10.5 minutes in
December. Time spent at Hallmark.com jumped 34 percent, from
8.1 minutes to 10.8 minutes.
Flowers, Too
Greeting card sites will not be the only ones seeing a
lot of traffic on Valentine's Day. W.R. Hambrecht analyst Kristine
Koerber said she expects 1-800-Flowers.com
(Nasdaq: FLWS) to have a banner day, topping
last year's sales of $2.5 million.
In the wake of September 11th, Koerber said, "it
appears that consumers are feeling more sentimental
and are taking advantage of opportunities to express
their feelings of affection through gift giving."
1-800-Flowers will benefit from a strong brand
reputation and expanded merchandise offerings, she noted.
to gain share," he said.
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