How hampers can boost your speciality retail offering

If there’s one thing speciality food retailers are good at, it’s adapting. They were familiar with the word ‘pivot’ long before it became a pandemic ‘thing’, and like so many small businesses, the key to their survival is in being able to identify new revenue streams, tap into changing consumer trends, or amend their offering to maximise profits. 

From adapting to online shoppers to embracing technology, artisan retailers are some of the most creative when it comes to ensuring their survival. One of those areas is the idea of curation, from hampers to meat boxes or wine clubs to cheese selections. While not for everyone, with some food lovers preferring to choose every single element themselves, for some time-poor consumers, these add an element of convenience that means they can get quality products with minimum time and effort.

For Mark Kacary, managing director of Norfolk Deli, a curated hamper idea made sense after he launched his website. “I had a background of 30 years in IT sales and marketing and had built my first website in 2001 so it was unthinkable that we wouldn’t have a website,” he says. “But there are two types of websites - there are what I would describe as brochureware websites which reflect the imagery and information you’d find in a brochure. Who we are, where we are, what we do and how to contact us. However, I always felt that if time, money and effort was needed to deliver a website, then the website had to pay for its upkeep. One of the easiest ideas that translated into something sellable on a website therefore is a curated hamper.” The deli now offers a range of hampers, from curated collections to themed versions and ones aimed at special occasions, all showcasing Norfolk products and all available to order online. 

Emma Niven, founder of Loch Leven’s Larder - a destination offering two restaurants, a food hall, delicatessen, tasting room, bakery, gift shop, takeaway offer and events programme - says the addition of a curation element, namely food and gift boxes, had acted as a marketing tool to allow them to compete with bigger players. “Customised food and gift boxes have always been a marketing tool for us to allow bespoke retailing in a way that provides a USP against the ‘multiples’,” she says. “The onset of the Covid pandemic allowed us to focus on this area through necessity. It has allowed us to market seasonal produce through the population of the products in the food hampers, but also offer convenience to the customers.” Loch Leven’s Larder also offers soup bags - which use the farm’s own seasonal vegetables, as well as acting as a statement of their values of traceability, sustainability and integrity. 

An area of growth driven by demand

For Niven, growth in the area of what she calls “tailored purchasing” is being driven by a demand from customers seeking trust and authenticity of produce. As a result of this potential growth, they have built a new retail store called ‘1848’ which has an enhanced stock room facility, providing the right resource to deliver artisan food and gift hampers on a larger scale. The facility includes a dedicated photo room so they can create content for their online platform, as well as a ‘picking area’ for hamper creation, while part of the Loch Leven’s Larder team will also be dedicated to using their own knowledge to create the right food and gift combinations. “This is not necessarily direct on-line delivery sales,” added Niven, “but more about providing quality, individual and trusted service to a more sophisticated customer. Most of these customers will still enjoy the destination, but have hampers tailored to their specification.”

The benefits seem clear. A new option for customers, and a chance to showcase local products, plus the ability of online sales to reach a far wider audience. “The benefit of selling anything on the internet is that your shop window goes beyond the pane of glass at the front of your shop,” says Mark. “You open up a window to the world which also means that anybody with access to the internet can find you and (at least in theory) shop with you. We have customers who buy online and send hampers to family members in this country from as far afield as New Zealand, the USA and throughout Europe. The clear benefits are that we have a customer base way beyond the immediate geographical area we do business in. It is an additional revenue stream too. When it’s cold and raining our customers can and do still shop with us, virtually rather than in person.”

The challenges of hampers and delivery boxes

The pros may seem to suggest that the addition of curation for a small artisan food retailer is a no brainer. But it’s not without its challenges, adds Mark, whose list is long, and includes cost, marketing, and fulfilment. “There are myriad additional costs involved including the cost of the website,” he says. “Do you ask somebody to do it or do you do it yourself? There’s the cost of updates, the cost of packing materials, finding the space to do it.” 

On top of that are the costs of photographing everything, building relations with couriers, and dealing with any lost parcels, plus marketing the option so you actually attract customers to your curated collections. “Opening a website and sticking a handful of hampers on it doesn’t work like ‘a field of dreams’,” he says. “Just because you’ve built it doesn’t mean anybody will come.” That means marketing, even if only via social media, he says. And then there are the customers, and their reaction to delivery charges, any issues, and overall pricing. 

“A curated selection of hampers alone probably won’t generate as much revenue as you would hope,” Kacary admits. “Because, as with so many things in life, one product doesn’t fit everyone, and people would like to have the flexibility to have something a little more bespoke. We always thought this would be the case, which is why our customers can create their own hampers choosing from approximately 2,000 products. In many ways we view our curated hampers as a way of giving our customers ideas or a template to go and create something special for that special somebody in their lives.”

His advice? To be as involved as possible and to learn as much as possible so you can get hands on, reducing delays and reliance on third parties. “Probably start off smallish, don’t expect too much to start with, and realise that if done properly what you get out of it is likely to be proportional to what you put into it.” 

The benefits of hampers

Despite the challenges, Niven thinks that the element of curation is not just key to competing with multiples, but is clear evidence of the ability of small artisan retailers to think outside the box and sell their products beyond just stacking them up on shelves in delis and farm shops or on counters. “Small rural food retailers will always find it challenging to compete with multiples on price,” she says. “But we will endeavour to find ways to maximise quality customer service and use marketing concepts that cannot be replicated.”

While hampers may be nothing new, the vast array on offer - and from retailers far smaller than the big names we might once have flocked to - is. And among those lie a whole new world of products that hail from far from our own doorsteps, with the freedom to combine them however we want. If that’s not a new temping way to shop with speciality food retailers, then what is?