Greeting card habits that started during the COVID-19 pandemic are still in the market in 2026. They show up in three places: the "thinking of you" category, cards with a digital layer such as a QR code, and designs that mark distance instead of a holiday. The 2020 jump in paper card sales has flattened. The categories it created did not disappear. No trade body has published 2026 unit figures at the time of writing.
What happened in 2020 and 2021
WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Card shops closed. Visits stopped. Two changes hit the card aisle at once.
- Paper cards sold at higher rates. The Greeting Card Association, a US trade body, reports about 6.5 billion cards sold in the US each year, or about 20 per person. Buyers shifted to "thinking of you," "miss you," and "congratulations" designs.
- Digital messages grew. Zoom reported 10 million daily meeting participants in December 2019 and 300 million in April 2020.
Online sellers took over for closed stores. US Census Bureau data put e-commerce at 11.8% of retail sales in the first quarter of 2020 and 16.4% in the second quarter.
Trends that held through 2026
- Hybrid cards: a paper card plus a QR code that opens a video or voice message.
- "Thinking of you" as a year-round category, not a get-well subcategory.
- Blank-inside cards with text-heavy covers.
- Photo cards made at home or through print-on-demand services.
- Cards for milestones delayed in 2020 and 2021: weddings, graduations, funerals.
Design changes that stuck
Masks, elbow bumps, and toilet paper jokes peaked in 2020 and 2021. Few remain. Layout is what lasted: larger type, more white space, shorter inside verses. Some publishers kept "stay safe" wording. Most dropped it by 2023.
What buyers ask for in 2026
Three requests show up at retail: a card that arrives on time, a card that can be sent from a phone, and a card that pairs with a gift. Bundles of card plus a small item, such as a candle or a seed packet, grew after 2020 and still sell. Gift card pockets inside cards are common.
What is not known
Unit sales for 2026 will not be reported until later. The Greeting Card Association and major publishers release totals with a lag. Any 2026 card sales figure published now is an estimate.