Postable brings greeting cards into the 21st century
How many people still mail physical cards anymore? With the postal service continuing to struggle after reporting a $1.9 billion loss in May for the last quarter, a new online card service might be a shot in the arm for first class mail, the USPS’ most profitable service.
New York based website, Postable.com, offers easy greeting card mailings with personalized messages regardless of the number of recipients. The online service, which went live in February 2012, offers a secure address book, easy and individualized customization options, a small array of designed cards, and an economical price point of $2.00 per card plus postage.
This includes printing, stuffing and mailing. Setting up an account with Postable, unlike the popular Send Out Cards, is free with no monthly fee and takes less than 30 seconds.
That’s less than the average greeting card sold in stores which the Greeting Card Association (GCA) reports is between $2 and $4. The GCA also reports Americans send out 6.5 billion greeting cards each year, which offers Postable a huge market to target.
Bonus: solving the address book problem
Postable’s goal is to solve the perplexing problem of maintaining addresses by providing each individual a customized link to send to friends and family where they can enter their own address information. Postable’s goal isn’t to “change the world” but instead to “make your life a little easier.”
The primary drawback for the site is in its evident lack of greeting cards. While there are numerous thank you cards, baby, wedding, and graduation cards, greeting cards for other occasions are much more limited. No card designs are available currently for most of the major U.S. holidays like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day or Christmas. There also is no option to create your own card design, however, for special occasions, Postable could be just the right combination to use for easy greeting card mailing for business or personal use.
