Blog: Thorntons gears up for online Easter egg rush

I read an interesting article in the Huffington Post earlier this week that explained chocolate may be better for our health than exercise. Well, our brain health at least. The publication reported that a recent study has linked chocolate to “improved memory and increased blood flow in an area of the brain”.

With Easter on the horizon, I thought that particular news story was rather topical, and would perhaps stop parents grimacing as their children gorge themselves on a wide range of chocolatey treats over the next few days.

To celebrate the Easter break, Hermes conducted a survey of 1,935 online shoppers to gain an insight into their love of chocolate – revealing us Brits really do have a sweet tooth, with seven in 10 people planning on buying an Easter Egg this year. The nation’s favourite chocolate was ‘milk’, which topped the poll with 57%. Meanwhile, ‘dark’ came in second (popular with us oldies), recording just over 26% of the vote. More than 12% of us chocoholics opted for the ‘white’ variety, whilst only 3% of those polled claimed they don’t eat chocolate at all.

We also asked which online retailer would people be buying their Easter eggs from. As a longstanding partner of Hermes, we are pleased to say that Thorntons was the most popular website, with four in 10 online shoppers preferring their brand of chocolate to any other.

For Thorntons, Easter is obviously one of its busiest times of year. The retailer expects to sell more than a quarter of a million eggs online. Hermes has been working with Thorntons since July 2009 and as we understand that delivery is an extension of the overall brand experience, we continue to work hard to ensure that all orders reach their destination on time. This will only help to ensure that Thorntons’ online offering continues to flourish.

Upon sharing our results, Matt King, head of online at Thorntons, explained that he was “really pleased to see that Thorntons.co.uk has come top in the poll for Easter gifts this year”. He added: “We’ve been working hard to provide the best possible digital experience for our customers and we are excited about our eggs and gifts offering, including our Harry Hopalot character.”

For the supply chain industry, the peak season is the busiest time of year; of course the clue is in the name. But it is important for delivery companies to forecast efficiently for other seasonal events too, be it Easter, Mother’s Day or the summer holiday season. Hermes continues to work closely with its retail partners to plan effectively across the whole year – and with all that number crunching to do, we best reach for the chocolate!

• Mark Pettit is sales and marketing director at Hermes