Chocolat Box

No, that’s not a typo in this post’s title. I refer to high-end retailer Hotel Chocolat. I caught their co-founder on rolling news talking up trading conditions. No bumping along the bottom for him, he excitedly pitched his new stores, diversification and that graveyard for English shops, America.

At first I was reminded of my blog a few years back on the Lipstick Theory of Estee Lauder. In straitened times people seek comfort in splashing out on little luxuries. And the chocolate in this case certainly smelt similar.

Then my thinking was re-calibrated slightly. He mentioned that his best seller this Christmas was his Signature Cabinet. At £160 it really does smack of a luxury item. And not so little either. For that you get 138 chocolates. £1.16 per mouthful.

I wondered what was going on here. The chocolatier himself said he was trying to provide an equivalent of a hamper, only with all the rubbish like tinned ham left out, leaving just the goodies like chocs to stand out alone.

He offers several such ‘hampers’, and this particular one is the second-priciest.

So, for the solution seller does that mean we should have confidence in putting together seemingly outrageous premium packages? Perhaps we should. Provided we make sure there’s more than one (so that people can see the most expensive and rather plump for the next in line) and we do enough to stack the value up of the combined worth.

I checked out their webstore on 15 December. If you wanted the Cabinet for Christmas, tough luck. It was then only shipping on the 28th. A sign of its success?