As stats reveal that online retail has increased by up to 95% in some sectors since the pandemic hit, online greetings card marketplace thortful.com has provided a lifeline to numerous self-employed creatives, many of whom lost their main revenue streams when lockdown measures came in.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Andy Pearce, the marketplace provides a platform for independent creatives to sell their designs from all over the globe.  thortful pay their creators an industry-leading royalty rate each time one of their card designs are sold, as well as handling all production and customer queries, providing a quick and easy service for both customers and sellers.

The thortful app offers a wide selection of unique cards you won’t find on the high street, ready to go in your pocket, enabling users to schedule card deliveries, add their own handwritten messages and much more.

The company was started four years ago after Pearce, a tech entrepreneur spotted an opportunity in the card sector. He explains,

“I wanted to buy cards online and send them, but I didn’t want to have to upload photos, so started thinking about how to make the experience different. It would be something like Not on the High Street or Etsy providing a channel for creators to sell their designs with a better royalty than a conventional retailer. We could take all the print production, customer ownership and hassle from them.”

So how did Andy handle the pandemic within his own organisation?

“My planning for how we’d survive a global pandemic started early: I’d already had hand sanitiser in the office for weeks prior to all this, I later banned external people coming into the office but when Italy went into complete lockdown on Monday 9th March I knew the UK wouldn’t be far behind so I worked with the senior management team to make sure staff had the equipment they needed to set up the basics of a home office, this was the new normal the entire company was working from home.

“As well as managing our head office, it became increasingly clear that our creative community was going to be hard hit by the current crisis.  They were reporting that due to online shops closing down, and other revenue streams drying up due to weddings and events being cancelled they as small businesses themselves were going to struggle.”

thortful, has been described as a lifeline by the company’s independent team of creatives.  One creator said:

“My main business is graphic design and props for weddings. In light of corona it looks like many weddings will not go ahead and overnight my source of income has practically disappeared.
This has coincided with my most successful month ever on thortful. The platform you are all providing is so important and is no doubt going to be a saviour for many creators going forward during this uncertain time.

“Thank you so much for being my lifeline.”

Since lockdown began, more than three quarters (77%) of frequent Amazon shoppers, an estimated 15m people, used Amazon to buy a product they’d not purchased on the platform before. According to new research commissioned by Molzi, the top categories that Amazon shoppers ventured into for the first time were personal care (e.g. toothbrushes, make-up, hair-dye)(34%), hobbies (e.g. puzzles, painting) (30%), technology (e.g. keyboard, headphones) (25%), clothes (23%), and cooking/baking (22%) with the average value of purchases (spent on products which were not bought on Amazon before) totalling £117.60. But now, as lockdown ends, 97% of online shoppers will continue using Amazon for these new categories with 15% saying they will not return to physical stores and will use Amazon only.

Before lockdown, the most common barriers from buying from these products, included shoppers preferring to physically see or try products before buying them (37%), wanting to support local shops (25%) and not realising items were available on the site (24%).

Amazon has been so widely adopted by shoppers since March 23rd it ranked ahead of the following for the most valuable lockdown service: Amazon (60%), online food delivery (30%), streaming services like Netflix (25%), video conferencing services like Zoom (19%), and gas/electricity providers (14%).

In fact, the perception of Amazon has greatly benefited during the pandemic: 42% of respondents say their impression of Amazon has improved and only five in a hundred (5%) say its worsened. When asked, respondents have valued the most about buying on Amazon during lockdown, nearly two thirds (63%) say how quick and easy it is to make orders followed by the speed of delivery (62%), finding products that weren’t available in local shops (36%) and the greater number of choices than in a physical shop (32%).

Chris Mole, CEO of Molzi, said: “For many people, lockdown has turned Amazon into a necessity. Consumers stuck at home have relied on the platform to buy essential and non-essential products for the first time and hugely valued the service. This is no accident. Jeff Bezos has built the entire business on delivering an unrivalled customer experience and it’s paying off. Clearly Brits’ appetite for Amazon is here to stay.”

Mole, who manages more than £100m of annualised Amazon spend, works with some of the world’s biggest brands. He continues: “There could be a real opportunity for brand trying to tap into the grey pound. The data shows that, whilst young people spent more during lockdown on new products than any other age group, the older generations are more likely to continue the trend.

“As the Amazon Summer Sale starts, the implication for brands is clear. To capitalise on the surge in new Amazon shoppers, they must invest in ensuring pages are optimised and products are in stock. Whilst admittedly, Amazon can appear complex to navigate, the potential rewards are huge.”

Number of shoppers buying products from new categories during lockdown

The online survey, conducted by Censuswide, polled 1,007 respondents who shop on Amazon at least twice a month. This data was based on nationally representative data of 2,003 respondents, of which 763 shop on Amazon at least twice a month (38%). These 763 respondents were then boosted with 242 respondents who use shop on Amazon at least twice a month using natural fall out. All respondents were then weighted to the Nationally Representative demographic percentages of age, gender and region to confirm the data is representative.