Back in the 1800s, visiting cards were considered essential personal accessories for anyone with a social life. Today, visiting cards are an increasing rarity outside the business world and are considered antiquitated by the youngest generations which are more likely to exchange an SMS with buddies. Still, I find visiting cards incredibly convenient, especially for quickly exchanging addresses with new acquaintances who either lack the inclination or knowledge to use the messaging feature of their mobile phones (i.e pretty much anyone over 40).

In a recent search for a decent visiting card for the family, I came across Moo, a London-based online print service. Moo’s MiniCards, with their irregular format and individualized designs, are ill-suited around stodgy business circles, but perfect for sparking conversations at social events. I opened a Flickr account and spent a couple of hours uploading dozens of photos just to order a Moo card set. And that is what makes Moo so interesting from a business perspective: Moo sits squarely at the crossroads between the booming market in photosharing services and the growing consumer penchant for personalized merchandise (the “I made/designed/pimped/customized that” factor).

There’s no doubt that Moo offers a creative playground to its customers. I’ll leave it to others to expound on the design virtues and interesting applications of Moo cards. (I haven’t even received my cards yet, so I’ve got nothing to bring to the show-and-tell.) Instead, as an internet marketer, I find myself entranced by their fulfillment model. Moo offers worldwide shipping at a flat rate of just $4.99, regardless of whether you are in Cambridge, Calgary, or Kuala Lumpur. How incredibly customer-friendly and cosmopolitan. I’m surprised that more web2.0 businesses have not latched on to this simple, but brilliant tactic. From the get-go, Moo clearly intends to conquer the globe with their out-of-the-ordinary cards and certainly aren’t going to let the complexities of international postal rates get in the way of this mission. I suppose shipping is a loss-leader for them, but this probably is a calculated sacrifice in order to gain a global slice of the pie.