Everyone's buying greeting cards again!

Indians are back to their old love - sending paper greeting cards.

Two years ago, e-cards and SMS had spelt doom for the Indian greeting card sector.

The industry, however, is hoping to witness a marginal growth this festive season and those in the business say consumers are getting back to paper cards once again.

"While we cannot exactly say that India had a 'card culture' as in many countries of the west, but people used to send cards regularly on various festivals and the New Year.

However, with the advent of SMS and e-mail and e-cards, the sales of paper cards went down by more than 25 per cent," says Pramod Arora, executive director, Archies.

"The market here anyway is seasonal. The new technologies put our card manufacturers, most of whom are in unorganised sector totally out of business," says Arora, adding "India is very price sensitive market and cards are priced as low as one rupee."

"The downward trend seems to have stabilised in the first half of this year and we hope that by next year, it will be back on the revival path," says Arora.

"This also means that SMS and e-mail are not going to take any further toll on the paper card industry. E-cards and SMS are popular but just with the tech-savvy population," says Pramod Kumar, a retailer.

Industry estimates put the retail sector at Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) but Arora says it is difficult to have an exact turnover as it is by and large in unorganised segment.

There are only around 8-10 players in the organised sector - who produce all through the year.

"Quality remains the main issue in the industry, where the consumer wants low pricing and good quality. That is the reason most of the big players too have priced their cards from Rs 4-5," says Arora.

This is also reviving interest among the youngsters - the school and college goers, who can buy cards from their pocket money itself, says Kumar, adding "the paper cards have more personal touch and express the sentiments of the sender better."

Industry experts say a lot more can be done to generate "greeting card culture" in India - they can be woven around a large number of festivals we have here, and not just Diwali.

"There is also scope for vernacular cards, because greeting cards are still limited to English speaking population," says Kumar.

He, however, says the revival of the industry is not going to be an easy task considering the fact that the new generation is growing up in the world of instant communication.