My name is Christian, I run 
Notice: This blog post originally appeared on the EasyWeddingSearch PRO blog – content may be out of date – the post has been archived here at weddingmarketing.co.uk for historical purposes.
Some big news this weekend, Confetti has gone into administration after being sold last week to The Hut Group, who provide digital solutions for companies such as PC World, WH Smith and Lovefilm amongst others.
Its many shops and the hugely popular website, used by thousands of UK brides, are now under threat of closing down.
Confetti’s previous owner Findel, sold the company as part of a strategy to reduce its debts, which stood at £309.6m in April 2010.
A forum post on the Confetti website announced the news to its community:
Lovely B2B. I am really sorry to tell you that Confetti was sold last week to The Hut Group.
It has since gone in to administration.
I will update the forums with any news.
This will affect all our users, I’m afraid because the online shop has already been closed while the administrators assess the situation. This is obviously out of our control.Will you miss Confetti if it goes? I will. It’s a fantastic brand, with loyal, informed users who rely on the content, shop and forums to help them plan what will be the best day of their lives.
Immediately, concerned brides began posting questions regarding orders they have placed with the hugely popular site. Many users were also deeply saddened by the news. One user, Gemzie, replied:
OMG gutting!
This is a really good place for all us B2B’s and some H2B’s
What am i going to do? Love this place and the fetti ladies!
So what will this mean for wedding businesses?
If you are a paid advertiser on the site then this may obviously affect you. Once the situation has developed further, get in touch with the Confetti team and see what your options are.
For everyone else this could be a wonderful opportunity! If you sell wedding gifts, favours and other similar items that Confetti used to sell, you could benefit from its previous customer base. This could be an opportune time to do an intense burst of advertising perhaps using Google Adwords. Another perhaps cheeky way of benefiting from the situation is to do some subtle marketing on Confetti’s forums. Offer Confetti’s unhappy customers with an alternative.
Confetti.co.uk has a huge user base and is a very strong brand. I imagine the big online industry guns such as the bridal magazines will be battling it out for a slice of Confetti’s bridal user pie.
What do you think of this news? Will you be actively seeking to benefit from the closing of Confetti? Have you been affected positively or negatively from this? I’d love to know….
It is always terrible when any company experiences serious financial difficulties and has to go into Administration. In this case, there are probably many stressed brides wondering if their wedding orders are going to be fulfilled – I hope they are but obviously only Confetti and their new owners can comment on this.
As for the Confetti forums themselves, I don’t see why they should need to close. Relatively speaking, it doesn’t cost a large sum of money to keep a wedding discussion forum running and the potential advertising revenue from keeping the forums alive could well be what ends up saving Confetti.
Hi Keith,
Thanks for your comment.
It would make sense to scale down or stop the Shop section of the site if it was indeed losing money.
I don’t see any reason why, as you say, they couldn’t continue with the other features of the website using advertising revenue to keep the business alive, albeit on a smaller scale.
They have a huge online community and the brand is strong. I think it would be a missed opportunity if they were to close the whole site down.
Christian
I can’t say I will miss the store. Working within the industry, as a small business I am always a little depressed when a bride arrives with armfuls of confetti bags with nasty, unnecessary paraphernalia which would have cost a small fortune out of the supposed tight budget.
I hope this paves the way for the smaller, more lovely brands to push their way into the brides eye, and realise life beyond the confetti store is far better value and far more stylish.
Hi Alison.
Thanks for the comment. An interesting side to the argument and one that has been echoed from other suppliers who I have been talking to on Twitter.
Whilst the effect of Confetti’s closure will impact on those that lose their jobs, I too hope that from this comes something positive in the way of exposure to all those amazing smaller brands out there.
Christian