I recently got a phone call from a long-standing customer, who always orders Crane, wanting to know if it was faster to order personalized stationery than holiday cards, because she thought those took an awful long time. I said it’s about the same amount of time 1-1/2 to 2 weeks (not all that long in my book for a quality product). She then asked what the difference was between her ordering online from Crane than from us. I said the time was about the same, but they would have more options if they came to the store (Crane has only a limited offering online). She then proceeded to let me know that the would receive their order in a week if they ordered online. And I tried to help her understand that was the printing time, but they would still have shipping time. Also, if you read Crane’s information about timing on their website, personalized orders take 7-10 days before they ship. In the end, she isn’t going to be satisfied if she orders online from them either because she isn’t under the correct assumption about how long it takes for a personalized order.

The 2 are competitors of each other and I think William Arthur has finally hit their stride. They’ve got better personalized wedding and holiday products on the market at this moment in time (at least in my market) and it will be interesting to see what happens now that the VP and GM of the Stationery Division at Crane has been replaced. Will Crane make a comeback?

I like William Arthur — they’ve got a good quality product, reasonable prices, great designs and can move the orders along in a pretty reasonable amount of time (certainly faster than Crane). They’ve also got a great team to work with! I consider them a wonderful alternative to Crane, but Crane needs to step it up in their personalized section. Though they’ve got William Arthur beat in the amount of boxed product offerings, I find even there Crane is lacking sometimes.

There is plenty of room for both companies and I understand Crane’s need to sell everything under the sun online, but I think they’ve lost their focus and I’m glad William Arthur has picked up the slack!