Whether you’re starting an online sweet shop or setting up a brick-and-mortar retail outlet, knowing what sweets to stock in a sweet shop is a good step along the way to a successful opening day.
First things first, know your audience. Are you planning to sell sweets on Facebook, via your own custom-built website, or from a physical sweet shop on the high street?
Make the most of the opportunities to carry out some research before you buy your stock. For example, tools like Facebook Ads let you reach out to specific audience segments – so buy the kind of stock they are likely to want to buy.
Social media can work for physical shops too. Engage with local residents, run surveys asking what their childhood favourite sweets were, and stock up on the products they’ve missed.
It’s a win-win – you get more sales, and your customers get to experience a much-loved childhood treat that they’ve been unable to find for years.
Basics of starting a sweet shop business
Some more basics to keep in mind when starting a sweet shop business:
Competition
Who else sells sweets in your area, both online and offline? What products do they sell and how are they priced?
Logistics
How will you sell your sweets? Do you need to offer online ordering, eCommerce checkout, contactless card payments and/or home delivery?
Seasons
Do you plan to operate all year round, or are you strictly seasonal? The end of the year is a great time to drum up business by selling sweets online for Halloween and in the run-up to Christmas.
Niches
Niche markets offer less volume but can yield highly engaged repeat customers. Sugar-free sweets are quite mainstream now, but you could consider selling sweets that cater for specific allergen-free diets.
Marketing
How will you reach a wider audience, especially when selling sweets online? Try to gain a basic understanding of social media marketing and SEO (search engine optimisation).
Even if you don’t have a website, you can drive traffic to your sweet shop. Google Business Profiles and Bing Places for Business pages are free to set up and ensure your contact details and physical address can be found via the main search engines.
Finding a sweet wholesaler
Choosing the right sweet wholesaler gives you a useful ally when starting a sweet shop for the first time.
At Kandy King we offer a huge variety of traditional jar sweets, pick and mix candy, sugar-free sweets, vegetarian and vegan products, and seasonal sweets for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter and other red-letter days on the candy calendar.
We offer click-and-collect from our confectionery cash-and-carry in Salford, with wholesale prices available when you order online.
Our minimum online order size is just £50 and whether you need stock for opening a sweet shop or you’re just buying treats for a wedding or birthday party, we’ll sell to you.
Delivery costs vary and we can usually offer free delivery on orders over £175. We welcome enquiries if you’d like to check on any delivery charges, or any other aspect of your order – we’re here to help get your pick and mix business off the ground!