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Get Ready For The Festive Season With Stocking Filler Inspiration!
Six Great Ways To Trailblaze With Stocking Fillers This Festive Season
by Joe Baker
15 September 2023
Stocking fillers. The gentle pursuit of carefully chosen, meaningful trinkets, or a last-minute panic shop at your nearest retail park in the vain hope that your significant other really likes socks and Top Trumps.
Either way, we’re here to help stock your shelves with wonderful chocolate ideas that anyone would be delighted to wake up to on Christmas morning!
Understanding what POS and stocking fillers work for your business
While hot chocolate bombs and Brussels sprout truffles come and go, your business is for life and it’s important to remember each business has its own unique customer base (yours included!) and it works in your favour to cater to your wonderful customers.
To pull an example out of the chocolate hat, a traditional Belgian chocolatier might opt for gold, red ribboned packaging with a variety of truffles inside. Or, a contemporary chocolate shop may opt for coloured bonbons with surprising flavour twists such as mojito or passionfruit. While both shops have their own merits, they undoubtedly have wildly different target markets. Your personality and preferences will influence these decisions and keep your chocolate-craving customers happy!
How to prevail with your point of sale
Christmas oozes innovation when it comes to professionals creating new and exciting chocolate ideas. Not only will this help you stand out from the crowd, but it also gives you the opportunity to upsell your brand.
And while we can’t innovate for you, we can get the ball rolling with some key ideas.
- Chocolate novelties
The ol’ reliable. The go to. The card in your back pocket. You get the idea. Chocolate novelties are found in almost any chocolatier’s shop but with a Christmas twist (festive wrapping and ribbons) these can be a staple throughout the festive period. We recommend some Swiss Chocolate Hearts!
- Dipped fruit and biscuits
Candied orange slices dipped in milk chocolate (don’t whack these ones), or shortbread dipped in milk chocolate and decorated with Crispearls!
- Chocolate bark
While this one is a year-round staple, it’s extremely easy to add a Christmas spin on chocolate bark through a variety of colouring methods. You can read about this in our Christmas colours blogs here.
- Hot chocolate
Stuffing a hot chocolate into a stocking might sounds like a bit of an arduous task, so give your customers the means to make their own instead! The Van Houten chocolate powder range is the perfect place to start. Ready to go out of the box, you can re-pack your chosen chocolate powder with your preferred packaging for an indulgent Christmas gift. It really doesn’t get easier and more tasty than this.
- Chocolate Lollies
Is there anything more satisfying than the resounding ‘SNAP’ of a chocolate lolly as you take the first bite? From small to large, chocolate lollies can be coloured with cocoa butter, finished with a plaque or just kept as good ol’ plain milk chocolate. Whatever your choice, they’re an absolute delight to make and eat!
- Pate de fruits
Bursting with flavour, pate de fruit not only adds a splash of colour to your display, but it’s also an easy to make point of sale item, and when boxed or bagged, a great stocking filler! As we all know, it’s not Christmas if you don’t get a tangerine in your stocking! Plus, those colourful items are what make Christmas so memorable.
Predicting trends and confectionery popularity each year is near impossible (though do tell us if you’ve figured out how…), but the above should spark some inspiration! Of course, if you have any queries or questions, we’re always on hand to help. Don’t forget to show us your wonderful creations too, we love all Christmas ideas, big and small.
Joe is a marketing executive, maker of baked goods and a Teesside accent so thick you could cut through it.
His favourite chocolate is Luker Nevado.
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