In October 2013, WHSmith announced that it had bought the ModelZone brand and would sell products under this brand through existing WHSmith shops. In October 2014, WHSmith announced as part of its preliminary statement that it was planning on extending its greetings card offering by launching the low-price brand "Cardmarket" on a trial basis. According to the statement, these trial shops would be in low rent areas and let to WHSmith under short-term leases. The company announced in late 2018 that the trial of Cardmarket would be wound up, with the closure of the Cardmarket stores. This was in addition to the announcement of the closure for at least six WHSmith stores which were deemed economically unviable following a strategic business review.