An Irish website specialising in personalised Thank You cards for baby gifts has revamped its website with an online proofreading and editing tool.
The site www.babycards.ie allows parents to create customised Thank You cards for gifts received after birth. The site was set up in 2004, with a sister site www.babycards.co.uk opening for the UK market in 2005.
The sites have recently added a simple online design facility, which enables parents to select a design from the templates, upload their baby photos and crop and proofread the baby card within seconds.
Once satisfied with their design, parents can order the cards and Babycards.ie will arrange to have them delivered.
The site was recently relaunched with Birth Announcement and Thank You card designs. New designs for christening cards and birthday invitations will be uploaded in the coming weeks, according to site founder, Jane O’Neill.
“We were at the forefront of a new market in 2004 when www.babycards.ie was initially launched and we are very proud to take the lead again by being the only dedicated baby card site offering customers this new unique online proofing facility. We look forward to employing this interactive technology in other ways to further expand our business,” commented O’Neill.
The baby card service costs €99 for the printing and delivery of 50 cards.
Babycards.ie and Babycards.co.uk are owned by Dublin-based printing firm The Print Partners.
“There are approximately 60,000 babies born per year and we thought if we could capture 3pc of the market, it would become a viable independent business. We also thought if it worked in Ireland, it could work elsewhere,” said O’Neill.
“We therefore decided to clone the site and www.babycards.co.uk was launched in 2005. In the UK, there are approximately 610,000 registered births per year and therefore our aim was to capture between 0.5pc and 1pc of the market.
“In February 2008, the websites have just entered the next phase of their development by implementing a new unique online proofing facility using the latest interactive web technology. Babycards.ie is the only dedicated baby card website in Ireland to offer customers this interactive service and one of only a couple in the UK.”
The Print Partners intends to launch more niche print product websites for memorial cards, invitations, menus and banners.
By Niall Byrne
