This review of popular birthday ecard websites is based on online traffic reports from Alexa, a respected website ranking service.
Many of the birthday ecard portals in this study are subsections of much bigger websites that offer electronic greetings for a wide range of special occasions.
This analysis focuses on the number of visitors to birthday-specific sections of these sites. Also presented are statistics for online traffic to the home pages of specialty birthday greeting websites.
Most Visited eCard Websites Offering Birthday Wishes
The following websites make available a separate web page to showcase birthday ecards. Visitor statistics represent the number of global Internet users who visited each site for 3-month period ending March 19, 2009.
- 123Greetings … 19 million online visitors for past 3 months (up 39.4%)
- American Greetings …. 6.3 million (up 34.6%)
- Hallmark Cards … 5.5 million (up 27.7%)
- Blue Mountain … 3.6 million (up 39%).
123Greetings
The most heavily visited and fastest-growing site, 123Greetings, offers some 30 categories of birthday ecards. These range from milestones, belated wishes, just for him to cakes and balloons. Category headings show that category’s rating score, number of views and how many ecards have been sent. Under each category heading, the 8 most popular cards are listed.
American Greetings
The American Greetings site requires users to register for a free birthday ecards trial. At the top of the birthday web page is a click-controlled slideshow where visitors can preview the site’s top birthday ecards. Besides top picks, the main page presents the following categories:
- Funny birthday ecards
- Ecards organized by the recipient type (e.g. mother, brother or co-worker)
- Other birthday specialties (e.g. birthday themes and customizable ecards for adding photos and personalized songs or text)
- New birthday ecards like the “You’ve still got it” ecard set to the dynamic song Brick House.
Hallmark Cards
Because Hallmark lists its ecard offerings as the last of 5 categories in a shared “Browse Paper Cards & E-Cards” directory, finding the birthday ecards page from the Hallmark Cards home page takes some time and effort. Once found, the birthday ecards page shows thumbnails for 16 cards with prices underneath; about half are free.
Blue Mountain
Blue Mountain’s website strongly resembles the American Greetings site. This shouldn’t be a surprise, given that both are subsidiaries of AGINTERACTIVE. Each site features the same offer for a free birthday ecards trial banner ad, with the same categories of birthday ecards. The Blue Mountain site uses different fonts, colors and navigation pane styles. While each site displays different ecards under each category, these variations are cosmetic.
Popular Birthday eCard Specialty Sites
Other heavily visited sites specialize in online birthday best wishes.
- Birthday Alarm … 3.9 million online visitors for past 3 months (up 178%)
- Birthday Cards … 383,206 (down 7%)
- Happy Birthday to You … 337,405 (up 9%)
- The Birthday … 99,237 (down 15%)
Birthday Alarm
Requiring registration and membership, Birthday Alarm lists 1,038 card thumbnails organized into 30 categories. Example categories address niche audiences with such titles as African-American, Canadian birthday, Chinese astrology and jazz.
Birthday Cards
Birthday Cards’ site has 15 categories, listing those in the upper left navigation pane. Category examples are new video cards plus ecards specific to the recipient’s year of birth. Prominently featured on the main page are 12 thumbnails of site favorites.
Happy Birthday to You
This modern-day version of a singing telegram site enables clients to order customized versions of the happy birthday song featuring the actual name of the birthday boy or girl. Personalized singing has to be scheduled several days in advance of the birthday, and can be set to 12 different music styles such as country, rap or rock and roll. Even more creative singing styles are drunk, funny and stupid.
The Birthday
All online cards at The Birthday are free. The site offers 27 categories, but only one representative thumbnail shows for each category. Users have to scroll down and explore available ecards under a category before deciding which ecard to send.
Niche Birthday Greeting Websites
Still other birthday websites focus on niche audiences.
- Up to Ten Cards (for kids) … 1.3 million online visitors for past 3 months (up 4%)
- Sloppy Kiss Cards … 53,435 (up 60%)
- Cartoon Soup … 24,427 (down 20%)
- Screen 4 Colon Cancer … 2,901 (up 60%).
Up to Ten Cards
This site lets young children choose from over 15 animated activity cards with sound, and then email their birthday wishes for free.
Sloppy Kiss Cards
For a US$9.95 annual fee, Sloppy Kiss Cards enable dog and cat lovers to send an unlimited number of animated birthday ecards with video storylines that feature uploaded photos of their pets.
Cartoon Soup
For a US$20 annual fee, subscribers can send funny birthday ecards that feature original cartoon artwork.
Screen 4 Colon Cancer
Another niche website is Screen 4 Colon Cancer, with customizable free ecards that carry important health messages specific to male or female recipients. Users send free animated birthday ecards with cartoon videos. These include a birthday reminder to start colon cancer checkups at age 50, bolstered by an upbeat message that colon cancer can be defeated with a 90% success rate if caught early.
Big eCards Websites Grow Fastest
The statistics in this study show that large ecard sites like123 Greetings, American Greetings and Hallmark Cards generally receive the most monthly web visitors when compared with birthday ecard specialty sites. One exception is specialist Birthday Alarm, which is also the overall fastest-growing competitor.
The success of multi-genre ecard sites is partly because established Internet card vendors can cross-sell their line of birthday ecards to subcribers who already visit their sites to send other greetings like Valentine's Day or Christmas wishes.
Daniel Workman - A senior business and finance writer who also does French translations, notably international trade and insurance materials.
Comments