I love your idea for colored envelopes.  I think it would add a touch of class to our cards and to GCU  You think up good ideas!

Quote from Cara_131386 on Oct 25^th, 2007, 8:18am:

 
Hi,
You were probably asking GCU what they think rather than what I think, but I can see some pros and cons with this idea.
 
I have found sometimes that if you give the customer too many options, it can be intimidating for them. Not to mention, it opens the door for more errors.  (I had already seen a complaint that the font was different than what was chosen, but I never saw if that err came from the artist, customer or GCU side)  I was just thinking there may be complaints coming in that the card was not printed with the color they wanted or they didn't get the envelope they ordered, blah, blah, blah.  
 
My question to GCU would be...Have many or any customers voiced  their objection to the white envelope or the font colors?  If not, it may not be time to stir the pot just yet, so to speak.  
 
But guess what...I don't work in the complaints department, so if it is something GCU wants to or can take on, I am all for it!  I like choices, but remember we have creative minds.  Some people would have a hard time making that choice and others could care less what the colors are. For that same reason,  there are people that prefer to buy the cards with the inside verse because they wouldn't know what to write on a blank card.  After all, if they were creative they wouldn't have to buy our cards they could make their own. I very rarely buy cards anymore.
 
I surely don't mean to burst any bubbles, it sounds great to me, I guess we will have to see what GCU says.
 
Christie
 
 
 

Hi all....interesting idea  
 
To my knowledge we have not had shoppers request colored envelopes nor complain about the standard white ones.  Also it is not an option that our printing partner offers.
 
Just think of the complexities this would introduce at the point of printing and mailing which is fairly automated.  They'd have to either hand pick the right envelope per order or add an automated process to pick the right envelope and join it with the right card.  Yikes!  With thousands of cards a day I don't even want to think about the extra time, cost and potential errors that would introduce.  
 
Also, as Christie touches on, the main concern is offering too many options to shoppers.  Certainly the number of decisions and tangents you ask a shopper to make the slower their path to their ultimate destination (and ours), checkout.
 
Online businesses are so sensitive to the straying of shoppers' attention.  If things aren't clear, quick and easy we're always one click away from losing them.  The more we ask them to do before checkout, the more we risk that they'll abandon their cart.  
 
How many times have you put something in your cart online and clicked away deciding not to purchase it?  I've done it many times.
 
Now how many times have you filled you shopping cart at the store and simply left?  Not too many times.  
 
Certainly there's a "mother knows" best approach where you give shoppers options but default these options to the choice that you think most will choose and be happy with.  We've recently done that with our Card Finish option.  Artists' can set the finish for their cards and that sets the default on a card by card basis.  But during checkout the shopper can change that if they like.
 
Re: font colors.  No notable shopper complaints on that front either.
 
So a lovely idea, but unfortunately not feasible.  Sorry  
 

Yeah, thanks for getting back to us Mindy.
 
Thanks Cara. As long as we are still thinking up ideas but there is someone to steer us in the right direction, we can't go wrong!

Quote from Kerra_131306 on Oct 26^th, 2007, 8:04am:

 
Thread in support of giving shoppers the option to change card finish:  
 
http://forum.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1190819026/5#5
 
I suspect most shoppers don't even see this option unless they're looking for it.  It's on the page where they can add text to personalize their card.  Probably a quicker decision to choose glossy or matte vs choose an envelope color (hmm, sky blue, navy blue, cyan, rose, etc.).