Easter could have been bigger!

According to retail and FMCG market intelligence company IRI, the supermarkets missed out on Easter egg sales this year, to the benefit of smaller and convenience stores who held their nerve with stock right up until the day. So the message is that Easter confectionery sales, whilst good, could actually have been greater than they were.

Measuring sales across all of the major UK grocery multiples, IRI suggests that Easter confectionery was up 8.6% during the five week period before Easter Saturday; better than expected.

March saw plenty of heavy promotional activity in some supermarkets and this helped to drive sales upwards – volume rising by 15.1% on last year. 

Despite all of this growth, IRI has estimated that a whopping £5.2m of confectionery sales was missed out on during the final week before Easter Day.

“We’ve seen some reports suggesting that supermarkets were running out of eggs in the final week before Easter,” according to Martin Wood, Head of Strategic Insight – Retail for IRI. “So while sales did increase in that final week, they didn’t increase as much as they had in the earlier pre-Easter period starting in early March. I would estimate that the missed opportunity was £5.2m – this is the difference between the increase in sales that occurred in the final week and the increase that would have happened if the average sales growth over the 5-week Lent period had been maintained.”

What this suggests to us is that we’re seeing a resurgence of seasonal event management in retail this year, following strong Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day sales. But it’s also clear that the major supermarkets underestimated the demand for Easter and that other retailers, like convenience stores, benefitted from this. It’s reasonable to assume that they could have done a lot better this year if they hadn’t sold out of eggs!”

www.sweetretailing.co.uk

 

Easter looms

December; the month of busy trading in readiness for Christmas. We hope that it is going well for you and you are selling plenty of confectionery!

Meanwhile, the wholesalers are busy stacking their shelves with Easter goodies such as Crème Eggs and Mini Eggs. What a crazy world we live in. But yes, this is just a polite reminder that sales for egg shaped treats such as those aforementioned and many more besides, start to roll in from January onwards.

Easter has become a challenge for many retailers where confectionery is concerned. The supermarkets have well and truly taken over the standard branded egg market and discounted it to the limit. But in doing so, I think that a good proportion of consumers have started to tire of the “plentiful cheap eggs” theme at Easter. Children can now receive so many chocolate eggs simply because they are so cheap! But I’m not sure that is where everyone wishes to be. We want to buy chocolate gifts for our family and friends but we also want it to feel a little bit special and not just a grab-and-go at the local supermarket.

Clever retailers consider the Easter gifting market carefully and develop a range that is different and perhaps a little bit more special than the masses. That doesn’t mean to say it’s a more expensive range; just more carefully thought out, specifically with local shoppers in mind. Consider Easter confectionery gifts that are not simply eggs. You could also contemplate what bespoke packing you might wish to undertake, to create something really unique. Give some thought also to the speciality chocolate manufacturers that are often happy for you to buy from them direct.

You might want to take some time to consider (or re-consider) who your customers are and what they actually want to buy from you in the run up to Easter. Do you serve an older audience or parents with young children? Perhaps you are located in quite an affluent area where premium gifting would sell well? What is the value of your own brand? All of these such factors will clearly have an impact on the range that would perform best in your store.

There are so many more Easter gifting confectionery products to consider beyond the main brands and the core range that the supermarkets collectively attack. So why not make 2014 the year to consider this opportunity (yes, there is still an opportunity at Easter) early so that you can be ready to reap the rewards from a carefully chosen range of confectionery gifts.

www.sweetretailing.co.uk