The retail giant is offering customers the opportunity to buy digitally printed cards from its web portal that offers 1,200 designs on a next-day delivery basis.

Cards are printed on FSC-stock by Tigerprint, a division of Hallmark, and start from £1.99, which is £1 less than the lowest-priced standard card from rival Moonpig.

According to Dave Hughes, director of M&S Direct, customers still enjoy receiving greetings cards, despite living in a "computer age".

He added: "The digital revolution hasn’t diminished that and has instead made it easier to reach out to the people you care about and add a personal touch."

Marks & Spencer's new service is also expected to expand in to offering products such as wedding stationery, calendars, diaries and photobooks next year.

The launch of the new service comes as online retailer Moonpig more than doubled its turnover to £20.9m for the year ending 30 April 2009. Pre-tax profits for the latest period also more than doubled from £2.5m to £6.7m.

Nick Jenkins, Moonpig founder and chairman, said the personalised greetings cards market was a growing one and therefore "not surprised" that another competitor had entered the fray.

Read associate editor Jo Francis' views on the move here.