Free website from Google

If anyone fancies a free website, you might want to take a look at http://www.gbbo.co.uk/

Google is running a competition which aims to encourage more businesses to set up websites – it says that 40% of small and medium sized companies do not have a website.

Google’s “Getting British Business Online” tool is entirely free to use for a year and they reckon it is really easy to use!

The free to enter competition is open to all retailers that operate in the UK with 50 full time staff or less. A panel of experts will judge all websites created using the free tool (closing date 26 June) declaring an e-champion who will receive promotion on the website and a selection of Google products.

Good luck - you heard it here on Sweet Retailing!

Easter sales down?

If your Easter chocolate sales have not been quite as you would like, be consoled by the fact that you are not alone.

The Grocer has reported that supermarket Easter egg sales were “hammered” by the hot weather as shoppers swapped chocolate for a cold beer over the Easter Bank Holiday.

The Grocer reported:

"Easter got hammered by the hot weather," said one senior confectionery source. "Everyone was very comfortable in the run-up to Easter, but two weeks prior to the weekend, we saw the first of the good weather and instantly saw a significant dip in like-for-likes." Some sales were down 20%, he added.

Data from Assosia revealed promotions were hastily switched as the hot weather began. The number of ambient confectionery promotions offered by the big four, Waitrose and The Co-op Group slumped 14.1% in the two weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, against the equivalent two weeks the year before.

The switch was most pronounced at Tesco, with confectionery promotions down 36.2% but beer deals up 262.5%. Morrisons was the only retailer to increase confectionery promotions during the period.

Retailers had cancelled their Easter egg orders, resulting in a "buoyant season" for branded eggs in the residual market, revealed another source.

"There has been a slush of job stocks available through wholesalers with brands such as Lindt, Cadbury and Milky Way," the source said. "The type of egg offered and the time they are being offered has been marginally earlier than usual due to the discounting by the multiples and cancellations by a wider base of retailers."

In addition to the supermarkets, The Telegraph has just reported that Thorntons has not had the best of times over the bank holidays where chocolate sales are concerned.

The company said sales at its 371 company-owned stores were down 13.9pc to £31.4m in the 16 weeks to April 30, a 12.6pc like-for-like decline.

But the company did see sales in its commercial channel - selling through supermarkets - increase 25.1pc in the face of strong competition.

Keep an eye on Sweet Retailing to be up to date on confectionery retailing activities!

We're tweeting!

Well it seemed to make sense. If Twitter is your thing, you can know the moment that we add something new and interesting to read on Sweet Retailing as we will tweet it.

So next time you head over to Twitter search for us by name and follow our tweets. We look forward to seeing you there!

Another retailer resource?

We were rather interested to hear of yet another big wholesaler chain to revamp their website (following Sugro), offering advice and help to retailers. Today's Group has launched Plan for Profit with a view to helping retailers with their ranging and marketing across all manner of grocery categories. Whilst it has some nice ideas, we feel that its assitance is a little limited at the moment, but hopefully this will change. 

our results from POS Printer!

Once you have logged into the website, you can view the core product ranges (as determined by Today's) for each category (you will  find confectionery under "impulse"). Of course Today's only focuses on the main brands here so only delve in if that is your thing.

Another interesting area is the POS Printer. With the potential to be really rather good, we think the results are a little limited at the moment, but for retailers who don't have access to any artworking software it does provide a uniform system for A4 posters, for Today's core range at least!

An interesting development that Sweet Retailing will keep an eye on and certainly a step in the right direction from Today's.

Sugro gives branded advice

If you focus on retailing the big confectionery brands, you might like to take a quick look at the new Sugro website. We registered and found that we could see the top 50 branded SKUs listed, as quoted by AC Neilson. There are also a number of planograms to consider, depending on the size of your allocated space.

Perhaps the most interesting facility is full details and images of display equipment offered by Cadbury, Mars and Nestle. From small counter top contraptions to much larger creations, you can make an enquiry about their availability direct from the website.

Another useful snippet of information from Sweet Retailing!

The price of eggs

The Guardian newspaper recently reported (22 March) that research from shopping website mySupermarket suggested a 21% increase in the price of Easter eggs this year compared to last, with certain popular branded favourites rising by as much as 140%!

For many years now, supermarkets have been selling core branded Easter eggs at extremely low prices, keeping the playing field a little out of reach for smaller confectionery retailers. So it is ironic perhaps that in such a tough economic climate, prices appear to have eventually moved upwards. Of course the main reasons for any price rises would be focused around many rising costs including cocoa and the higher VAT level.

With just a few weeks to go before Easter, I am sure that your confectionery range is well established and quite possibly extends well beyond branded shell Easter eggs. But I for one will be taking a peek in the local supermarkets to see what they are up to and whether this research stacks up substantially.

Don't forget to keep a regular eye on the Sweet Retailing website for thoughts and ideas to develop your confectionery range!

The best sweet shop name?

I was reading a very long list of sweet shop names recently - the diversity and creativity was inspiring! There seem to be some trusted old favourites in amongst some rather entertaining plays on confectionery words.

It made me ponder just what might be the most effective name for a sweet or chocolate shop. Is it something plain and simple so that it “does exactly what it says on the tin” or is something more unusual a way to stand out from the crowd? Many might say that it is the contents of the shop that matter the most and its particular location. They would not be far off the mark! Yet bearing in mind the hours of deliberation that many a retailer will have put into his shop name, it is clearly a key part to the jigsaw.

So, my ponderings are not going to give you any answers I’m afraid but I thought you might like to know some of the most common names in addition to some of the more creative names for sweet shops across the country. Of course, if your shop has an even more creative name than this, why not let us know and we could feature you on Sweet Retailing?

Ten of the most commonly used sweet and chocolate shop names:

The Chocolate Box

The Sweet Shop

The Chocolate Shop

The Candy Box

The Candy Shop

Sweet Memories

Sweets and Treats

The Toffee Shop

Humbugs

Bon Bon

Some more unusual names:

            B Chewsy

            Fudgetastic

            Toot Sweet

            Yum Yums

            Chocology

            Sugar Rush