Photo credits: Chocolate Pizza Company, Sarris Candies, Marie's Candies

This week we’re highlighting our favorite Easter-themed blog posts featuring a treasure trove of ideas to help make this your best Easter season yet! Discover a simple solution for executing custom Easter baskets, inspiration for over-the-top Easter egg offerings, tips on hosting a hands-on Easter-themed event that will have everyone hopping with joy and more!

A Simple Solution for Offering Custom Easter Baskets

Shoppers love to create their own custom Easter baskets, but for the retailer it can be time-consuming and involve complex pricing strategies. Read here for a more simplified approach that makes it more efficient for your retail shop and your shoppers.

Creative Easter-Themed Product Names Generate Interest

Want to refresh your line of confections for Easter with little to no effort? You don't have to create entirely new recipes or invest in costly advertising campaigns to get customers excited about your products; all you really need is a bit of imagination. Renaming existing treats with Easter themes can boost interest and sales without altering the product itself. Read more to discover clever tips.

EGGS-tra Easter Egg Inspiration

No matter if you like your chocolate Easter eggs more traditional or if you prefer a more unconventional approach, here’s creative ideas to take your chocolate Easter eggs to the next level. Read more.

How to Create a Faux Chocolate Bunny for your Easter Display

Create impressive, moulded chocolate bunny displays, but without the chocolate! Check out this member tip for step-by-step directions to a chocolate look-alike Easter bunny (or turkey, life-size football, snowman, Santa, etc.) that can be reused year after year! Read more to learn how.

Increase Easter Sales: Host a Peeps Pop Event

Hosting an “Easter Bunny Peeps® Pop Event” is a great way to create buzz about your store while increasing sales and foot traffic leading up to Easter. Read more to learn how.

Add an extra sprinkle of excitement to this year’s Easter celebration with inspiration from our collection of blog posts, whether that’s in the form of a more efficient process, an unexpected twist on your classic offerings or a chocolate-covered Easter event. Tell us more about how you plan to boost sales and attract more customers during Easter on RCI’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/RetailConfectioners.

Crave more?Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Happy New Year! As we bid farewell to another year, we welcome you to join us in remembering the sweet moments of 2022. As an association, we are so grateful for the many opportunities we’ve had to gather together this year. Yes, we’re still celebrating the return of a full roster of events including education courses, regional conferences and the Annual Convention & Industry Expo! It was so nice to connect with old friends and welcome many new members! We’re already looking forward to another great year of events in 2023. Stay up-to-date on RCI’s event schedule by visiting retailconfectioners.org/events.

Here’s RCI’s most-read blog posts from 2022, in case you missed them the first time or could use a refresher.

2. Halloween Candy Shortage Could Mean Opportunity for Candy Makers
We highlighted three Halloween shoppers who may be left in the lurch with the impending candy shortage and how your business could capture sales by seizing the opportunity to meeting their unique needs.

3. EGGS-tra Easter Egg Inspiration
No matter if you like your chocolate Easter eggs more traditional or if you prefer a more unconventional approach, this post offered 5 sweet EGGS-tra themes to try for the holiday.

We look forward to bringing you more great tips to help you build your business in 2023!

Crave more?Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Collectively, I think we are all looking forward to putting the year 2020 behind us (far behind us). With that said, as challenging, and at times heart-wrenching, the past year has been we hope you can take a moment to focus on the good (however minuscule) that came out of year 2020.

There’s no doubt it is stretched, burdened and bewildered everyone one way or another, it has also challenged many people to learn new skills, think on their feet and be more imaginative and creative than they ever thought was possible. This year has literally and physically pulled people apart, but it has also brought together many families, friends, coworkers and neighbors (even if only virtually) who have bonded together and created shared memories that will last a lifetime.

In light of focusing on the positives that came from 2020, we’re bringing back RCI’s most-read blog posts from 2020, in case you missed them the first time or could use a refresher.

5.   How to Create a More Efficient Candy Kitchen

Looking to improve the efficiency of your candy kitchen? Rethinking the layout of your kitchen is a great place to start. Read on for impactful ways to improve efficiency in your candy kitchen.

4.   52+ Hilarious Quotes for Chocolate Shops to Use on Letter Boards

What was once a relic that could only be found in diners, church basements or outside school gymnasiums, letter boards can now be found all over social media. Snag 52 of our favorite chocolate-related quotes for your letter boards—enough to share one a week for the whole year, plus a few bonus quotes for the holidays.

The label typically reads “sponge candy,” but you may also know this candy as cinder block, sea foam, fairy food, angel food or a multitude of other names. Learn the basics, plus tips and tricks for making sponge candy (or whatever they call it where you’re from) that customers crave.

 

 

2.   40 Ways for Candy Makers to Navigate the COVID-19 Crisis

Originally published in March of 2020, this post was intended to offer guidance, support, inspiration and hope to retail confectioners in a quickly changing world. Though much has changed since March, we are confident you could still find some ideas and inspiration to better your business.

 

 

1.   Hot Chocolate Bombs

Hot chocolate bombs are easily one of the biggest breakout trends of 2020. Here we shared ideas and inspiration for creating your own hot chocolate bombs, plus how to set the tone with packaging.

Even though the challenges experienced in 2020 won’t disappear when the clock strikes midnight, we will celebrate a fresh start with a grateful heart, while leaning on new skills, stronger relationships and hope for a better tomorrow. Wishing you a safe and happy New Year!

Crave more? If you like what you read here, look for the "Subscribe now" box on the right to enter your email address and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's Tip of the Week blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.