The power of the crafters stash - Prospects for the year ahead
1 Aug 2008

Each time we turn on the news we are bombarded with doom and gloom about the credit crunch and the cost of living increases.

In a bid to understand the impact of our troubled economy and how it is affecting the paper craft sector in the UK we have been surveying both retailers and crafters to get some answers.

Here is what our consumers had to say... *

These is a slowdown in the number of new crafters entering the market, and crafters are on average spending less (down 13% year on year).

When looking in detail at crafters spending less, we find that the key reason for declining spend is "the Stash". 41% of the reasons given for spending less on paper crafts related to their Stash ("I don't need any more!" or "I already have all the key tools"), whereas 34% related to economic factors.

49% of crafters spend more than 5 hours per week crafting, which is the same as a year ago. Crafters claim that they are visiting craft retail stores more often, and are visiting more outlets to find the materials they want. The internet is certainly steadily increasing as a source for craft materials, with 62% now buying on-line and 22% claiming that the internet is their main source.

Retailers' say... **

The paper craft sector was up around 5% during 2007, and is up around 3.8% in 2008. There is a belief that the numbers of crafters visiting the stores is flat year on year but that there is a marginal decline in the frequency of visits as well as spend.

The most significant threats to business were highlighted as being the economic slowdown and the internet. Despite these factors retailers are optimistic about the outlook for 2009 and forecast circa 3% growth.

Our view is that this retail optimism is realistic. Crafters are still crafting, and even if there has been a slowdown in their spend, their stashes will not last forever! We also know that as well as their love of crafts many crafters admit to an addiction to buying craft materials, so as long as we can maintain retail footfall we have every chance of driving retail sales. Many also believe that the continued ‘bad news' reported drives a certain amount of cocooning, and that crafters use paper crafts as a sort of therapy or escape. Exciting new product along with strong inspiration will inevitably be the key, but we must all remain focussed on ensuring that visits to craft retail environments results in sales.

* Source: Online survey of 4194 crafters - July 2008
** Source : Survey of 73 Design Objectives Retail Customers - July 2008

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