Hallmark eases customer customization

Hallmark Cards Inc. is ensuring it can effectively offer consumers the chance to create their own personalized products.



The Kansas City-based specialty gift retailer, which operates more than 30,000 U.S. stores as well as digitally, provides a custom gift option which allows shoppers to order items made to their tastes and specifications. This places strain on the company’s research and development (R&D) department.



“One day we’ll be asked to create a greeting card with a very irregular shape that requires a custom cut,” says Steve Eikos, senior R&D engineer for Hallmark. “The next we’ll be asked to create a doll or stuffed animal with voice recognition. We get such a wide variety of requirements that, despite the fact that we are a small team, we have to stay agile and coordinated to remain competitive.”



Hallmark’s R&D team relies on custom apps created using the FileMaker Platform to accomplish these goals. By creating apps that help the small staff at Hallmark create new products, the company saves money and shaves months off of development time compared to customizing software for the company’s existing mainframe system.



In addition, FileMaker lets Hallmark eliminate its previous reliance on paper, physical photos and spreadsheets to create custom products. The custom app the R&D team created allows them to add new fields or tables for each new product using graphical programming tools. The app contains information such as SKUs, deadlines, and photo schematics. When the team makes changes, those alterations automatically update on all instances of the app, regardless of the platform.



Beyond centralizing all new product information, the FileMaker app helps the R&D team collaborate with overseas manufacturers who make the final products. Hallmark shares bids, photos, product specifications, and more with factories producing Hallmark products — without SQL coding or other programming.



In the 30 retail stores that participate in Hallmark’s custom gift program, sales associates use iPads to take orders. Examples of customization include a personalized storybook featuring a customer’s child as the lead character, or customized holiday ornaments. The orders flow from a custom app designed for retail and powered by FileMaker Go for iPad into the Hallmark R&D custom app, and then the design and manufacturing process begins.