Retailers share how they cracked Easter success

When crates filled with Easter eggs arrive at your store, one can’t help but wonder “Have we got over egg-cited this year and ordered too much?” or “Where on earth will they all fit?”. But what can seem like a yearly uncertainty, always turns around on the last few days as last-minute shoppers dash to fill their baskets full of chocolate eggs and Easter treats. 

This is how Martin Lightfoot of Londis Solo Convenience felt as the Easter weekend approached and he became cautious that he had gone a tad overboard with his Easter egg order: “We get them in February and you’ve got a whole bay of Easter eggs taking up space, so I was wanting them gone so I could fill it with something else. You’ve had them literally sitting in the store for six weeks, but you haven’t sold any for the first month,”

He explains that this year, the store saw the most increase in seasonal sales when customers came through the doors two or three days before Easter Sunday. “People leave it so late to buy Easter eggs now. At the beginning of the week, we were like, ‘oh, we’ve got 100 eggs left’, but by Saturday afternoon, they were all gone,” he tells Convenience Store. 

Martin preorders Easter stock as late as he can and he expresses that for the last couple of years, this has worked “quite well”.

“We ordered a little bit more [this year]. I definitely went bigger on mini eggs and Creme Eggs and the little things that we’ve still got and we will still have over the next month or so and like the Creme Eggs. We’ve still got plenty of that left, but that’s fine because they’re just chocolate and they’ll sell anyway and they will disappear from other stores soon and then you will be left with them, which will be good,” he says.

Over the long weekend, Martin explains that a lot of regulars had gone away over the Easter break but the store’s sales balanced out by gaining different customers from people off work. 

Meanwhile, in West Yorkshire, Bobby Singh of BB Nevison Superstore & Post Office claims his approach to adapting his store’s Easter offerings was the key to his 15% sales increase compared to last year. 

This year, the store reduced its order of premium eggs and focused on smaller eggs more suited to his shoppers. “We tailored our order to cater for our community and with the cost of living we tried to give them the best value for money whilst retaining a healthy margin,” Bobby says. 

Despite Bobby’s order of more stock than last Easter and his hesitancy that he had “over-calculated a little bit”, last minute buyers cleared the shelves on Good Friday. 

“When we order, we always look at previous years and always try and be optimistic and increase our order. Last year we just had a few left but this year we sold out.”

He recognises the need to go the extra mile to cater for his customers, particularly considering the “rising cost of living”. Bobby made the bold decision to lower margins on selective Easter products, offering “more value for money”. 

“We went into our margins a little bit just to give customers the best deal,” says Bobby. “The margins could be better, but I think for all the brands, suppliers etc we should all be looking to support each other with the cost of living out there and try and keep a healthy margin for all of us.”

“Our thought process for five years cannot be the same kind of thing now. You’ve got to cater to your customers and your customers do appreciate that,” says Bobby.

Bobby emphasises that customers are becoming proactive and are searching for value for money. “Our basket spend has surprisingly increased, but it’s customers purchasing more multi-buy deals. The customer is looking more for value for money and making their pennies go further.

“It has been a positive (Easter), but we’ve made it a positive. We’ve adapted to the cost of living crisis and made sure that we’re doing our best to make it affordable for the customers walking through our door,” he says.

Good weather hatched success for Broadway Convenience Store in Edinburgh over the bank holiday weekend, with a boost in sales in alcohol and a huge uplift in soft drinks. Moreover, the store’s increase in Easter sales compared to 2023 was centred around the popularity of smaller eggs, says manager Colleen Blackhurst. ”The weekend was really good compared to last year, we only had four {easter eggs} left. We did sell quite a few premium eggs but the smaller eggs had pretty much old out by Thursday and Friday. It was more the premium eggs that we had leftover on the weekend that sold,” she reveals to Convenience Store.

“I was very shocked and that no one complained [over Easter egg prices], but I think it’s one of those things that people are willing to spend,” says Colleen.

She notes that “Next year we would maybe buy more smaller egg because we sold out of them quick and maybe we would have sold more. But maybe if we had more smaller eggs this year, we would have had premium eggs left over.”