![]() The elderly Eid-shopper said he once received a lot more greeting cards from his friends and cousins. But an SMS will not give the same feeling as a card.” "The young generation has not grown up with this habit, and so they are more interested in the internet and mobile," he told The Daily Star yesterday. People who used to buy gift cards in the past have not given up the habit, he said. He says he always buys and gifts cards ahead of Eid. NM Elias, 60, an engineer, bought 10 cards for his friends and grandchildren. However, he still believes in paper: "The MMS, SMS or e-card doesn't have the same appeal." But as the schools, colleges and universities are closed now, we only see a few of them."Ĭhowdhury said Eid card sales fell in previous years because of the invasion of SMS and e-cards. In the past, they used to come in droves. ![]() "Students are one of our main target groups. "To counter the decline in the personal card business, card manufactures are selling other gift items," he said, adding that mobile and internet-based services have won over the paper-based cards.Įhteshamul Huque Chowdhury, manager of Ideal Products, a card maker with 24 showrooms across the country, had another complaint: "The government's decision to close educational institutions in the capital to ease the traffic congestion much earlier than usual has affected our Eid sales a lot. He said each year 300,000 personal greeting cards are sold across the country on occasions such as Eid and Friendship Day, while about 30 lakh corporate greeting and wedding cards are sold. She also questions whether the messages sent through mobiles or emails properly convey what people really want to say - and there lies the magic of paper cards. ![]() ![]() She said sending greetings through the mobile phone seems technical, which lacks an emotional touch. Islam said she even bought an Eid card to send to Tamim Iqbal, a popular national cricketer. "I always like to send fancy and colourful cards to wish my friends," she said. Many suggested that the use of paper cards to greet or wish someone during Eid would keep declining, yet many who still prefer it, even among the young.įor Soma Islam, a student of Eden Girl's College, the appeal for paper cards cannot be matched by emails or SMS. Short mobile messages are simply unworkable here."Īzad Products sells Eid cards ranging between Tk 2 and Tk 200, and handles around 70 percent of the corporate card printing business in Bangladesh. Yet the sale of corporate greeting cards has moved in the opposite direction, Azad said: “To greet clients or associates, banks, insurance companies, telecom operators or any other multinational company cannot think of anything else but paper cards. Azad Products is the largest greeting card producer and retailer in Bangladesh, with nearly 200 staffs and 17 stores. People can now greet hundreds of friends within a few minutes, which would not be possible through paper cards in a cost- and time-efficient way.Īlthough many people continue to be loyal to paper cards, local manufacturers admit a sales slide.Ībul Kalam Azad, chairman and managing director of Azad Products, a leading card maker, blamed technology for a drop in personal Eid cards sale of 70 percent in the last few years. As a result, the MMS, SMS, e-card and email changed the way we greet each other each day, making the paper card seem a thing of the past to some. He hopes sales grow more after the 25th of Ramadan: "Sales usually grow fourfold in the last week of the holy month, when Eid-shoppers make last-minute preparations."Īrchies Gallery is a franchise of India's market leader in the greeting card industry.Ĭonveying a message just by dialling a number or sending a text message takes very little effort and time. Mahmud said he has already run through his personal Eid card stock for the first half of Ramadan, and that sales are on track to be higher this year than last year, when he sold Tk 40,000 worth. “A card does not only carry a message, but also the sender's thinking, philosophy, emotion and personality." "Sending a card is an emotional issue, which MMS and SMS may not be able to serve,” said Shahin Mahmud, sales manager of Archies Gallery at Bashundhara City Shopping Mall. But people who used to buy and send cards still do so, say card sellers and businesses are doing it more than ever. The younger generation's love of new technologies caused sales of cards to drop in past years. Personal card retailers said sales gained momentum as the month of Ramadan entered its third week, because exchanging traditional paper greeting cards adds to the festive spirit better than a few bits of data. Shoppers and businesses are sending out paper Eid cards for near and dear ones - or just clients - this month, bucking competition from multimedia messaging services (MMS), emails, e-cards and short message services (SMS). For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
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