Wednesday 14 August 2013

Christmas Confectionery

It's almost that time again, can you believe it? Christmas will soon be upon us and with it, all manner of Christmas sweets and chocolates in all shapes, sizes and flavours. Well, we will try to help your planning by creating a list of the brand new Christmas confectionery products that we are aware of from a variety of confectionery manufacturers and suppliers.

So if you are a confectionery supplier, please tell us what you are launching! We need product details, rrp and a photo emailing to us at mail@sweetretailing.co.uk as soon as you can.

If you are a confectionery retailer we'd advise you to start thinking about Christmas very soon and consider the type of categories that you need to offer your customers. The more in tune you are with their requirements, the more profitable for you! Consider the following questions:

Do you know what your core customer profile is?
When do your customers start to think about buying confectionery for Christmas?
How much of their Christmas confectionery might they buy from you?
Which of these opportunities can you take advantage of:
  • early festive opportunities such as self-eat/treat purchases and chocolate advent calendars
  • small items for stocking fillers (often purchased over a long period)
  • small confectionery gifts purchased for friends, colleagues, neighbours and teachers
  • larger items that may form part or all of a main gift
Consider whether you should stock premium items, value confectionery, main branded items or fun and novel ideas.
If you have a child audience, what will they spend their pocket money on closer to Christmas?
How much space do you have to allocate to a Christmas confectionery display or will it form part of another display?
Where do you prefer to buy your stock from and what advice can you glean from your suppliers?
What did your competition do last year?
How will you communicate your Christmas range to your customers?

We'll be back soon and will start to build up a list for you as we enter the early stages of the festive season. In the meantime, let's enjoy the last few weeks of the summer and put thoughts of Christmas confectionery to one side for just a little longer...if we can!

www.sweetretailing.co.uk