Minted tastefully and artfully celebrates all of life's moments.

COURTESY OF MINTED

Minted, the premium omnichannel design brand known for its artist-created custom holiday cards, custom wedding stationary and greeting cards, said that it has doubled its profitability, achieved double-digit year-over-year growth, and is poised to reach $300 million in revenue in 2026. Leaning into the $65 billion celebrations industry, Minted has grown and scaled profitably despite the increasingly difficult climate for CPG companies and consumers.

The design-driven company, which sells greeting cards and more at Target, among other retailers, is moving in a luxury direction without abandoning its premium roots, expanding its omnichannel strategy and grabbing market share from legacy greeting card companies that are failing to connect with younger shoppers.

When Minted bowed 18 years ago, the company aimed to disrupt the greeting card space, which was dominated by a handful of key players. Minted, today, is the premium ecommerce leader in its categories, and is sold through a wide retail network and its own wholesale channels.

“You actually own the inventory on the shelves and you have to have someone go place it in the store,” said Melissa Kim, cofounder and CEO of Minted, referring to the brand’s presence – specifically greeting cards – in stores. “We spent a couple of years building that muscle. It had been considered a barrier to entry into the greeting card space. We had to prove to Target that we were a really reliable partner.

"Back to the profitability story, we were making sure we could do so at good levels of profitability. Once we got confident and Target started growing our shelf space, it was the switch for us in terms of going out and getting new retail partners because we were confident we could service the business properly.”

Minted is the fastest-growing greeting card and gift wrap brand at Target, increasing its shelf space from four feet to 12- to 16 feet and it’s the number one-selling greeting card resource at Whole Foods. Its wall art is sold at West Elm, Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen, and Williams-Sonoma.

Minted will be adding a handful of new retail partners every year, Kim said, however, she declined to name them. “It’s a huge market and there’s a long list of folks and a lot of receptivity to us in the world,” she said.

Minted has fueled strong repeat business with marketing prowess, combining paid social, organic and influencers with design-driven products and data-oriented brand partnerships that extend the life of consumers and bring virality to the collection.

“Retailers really want two things from us: higher sales productivity for cards and wrapping paper and they want us to attract younger generations of shoppers,” Kim said. “They want to make sure they stay relevant to what we talk about as the Millennial customer and Gen Z customer. We know our brand resonates with those consumers.”

“The younger customer is already shopping at Target and may or may not buy one of our cards. When she goes through a life moment – that’s when we acquire most of our customers, when they get engaged, married or have a baby – she’s primed because she’s aware of us."

Minted’s ecommerce growth and profitability is centered on an omni-channel strategy that reduces reliance on paid media channels. “We’ve always been very focused on customer economics,” Kim said. “It has always been part of the company’s DNA to have a healthy mix of owned channels that aren’t subject to cost pressure or intermediate disruption. The single source of new customers since the founding of the business has been the physical virality of the cards.”

"They offer premium products and can cover all the stages of life. I would say that they are in the premium segment," said Jeff Crowe, Norwest senior managing partner and an investor and observer of Minted. “They’re adding high end services like concierge service around weddings where there’s a consumer who’s willing to pay for that. They are not leaving the premium segment.”

The company is continuously expanding its product range. “We launched an online invitation product a year ago,” Kim said. “We really think that’s going to be important. We think of that as a marketing channel as opposed to something we need to monetize. It helps us with frequency for our existing customers but then importantly, it’s lower friction.”

Wholesale has become an increasingly important owned channel in the sense that “we’re driving meaningful brand awareness for Minted," Kim said. ”Rather than paying for that we’re actually building profitability for the business at the same time."

All of Minted’s products on the web site and wholesale accounts are sourced from a community of independent artists. About 21,000, to be exact. They participate in the company’s challenges themed around a particular category. Artists submit content into the platform, then there’s a collaboration and critiques period between artists.

“Despite the fact that ultimately these people are competing with each other, they cooperate with each other and give each other feedback,” said Kim. “We have a lot of data to back up the fact that when people engage in peer critique their products will be better and sell better.”

“We collect a lot of sophisticated data and algorithms that tell us what is likely to sell and what is design-leading and trend-leading,” Kim said. “Instead of a merchant making those calls, we actually have a more quantitative view. Artists get a cash prize when they transfer intellectual property rights. As products with their content sell, they can build a library of artwork and designs that provide ongoing income.”

“They’ve had a very compelling artist community for a long time,” said Crowe. “They’ve gotten the artist challenge down to a science. They’re really sophisticated at it and have long-standing artists who have been contributors to Minted for years. That’s one of the company’s core assets. It’s really a unique differentiator for them and they’ve nurtured it for many years.”