How to use data to drive decisions
Part Two of Merchandising lessons from a tin of Quality Street
This is the second in a series of three blog posts inspired by a merchandising talk given by Flourish founder Sarah Johnson at the Top Drawer retail trade show in London in January 2025.
Welcome back! In this series, we’re looking at how merchandising is the secret to profitability and retail success for all retail businesses – no matter their size of your business. And we’re exploring this through the medium of chocolate. Quality Street, to be precise.
We’re focusing in on three merchandising lessons across the series:
How to perfect your product mix
How to use data to drive decisions
How to adapt your retail business in changing times
Last time, we looked at how Quality Street decides the mix of sweets that goes into each of its off-the-shelf tins, balancing customer preferences with profitability to find the perfect combination.
Today, we’re focusing on using data to drive your decisions.
Data doesn’t have to be scary
It can be pretty simple, in fact. This handy poll was shared by John Lewis (you’ll understand why in a minute) and it’s a straightforward list of sweets in order of customer preference.
As you can see, in pole position you've got The Purple One, followed closely by the Strawberry Delight and Green Triangle. Devastatingly (for some), the Toffee Penny is right down in last place.
Surveys of our customer groups help us understand our customers – and the data they give us can be really valuable. Nestle, which makes Quality Street, would no doubt have used a similar kind of list to work out what to include in the off-the-shelf tin we discussed in our previous post.
Balancing your range (bestsellers vs slower movers)
Quality Street has done something quite clever. It’s created customisable tins, so customers can create their own perfect mix. You can buy them online as personalised versions, or instore at John Lewis' Pick and Mix stands (which explains why they shared that poll).
Speaking of that poll, do you remember that the Coffee Crème ranked highly? Despite this, they’re not included in a standard off-the-shelf tin AT ALL (scandalous). But – and this is really clever – they are available in a personalised tin. If you’re a big enough Coffee Crème addict, you can even go and fill an entire tub full (if you really want to).
So, if you were customising a tub for your family’s next gathering, you could use what you remember from the last time you shared a tin to customise a version that will keep everybody happy:
No Toffee Pennies, because nobody ate them last time.
Loads of The Purple Ones, because they were in high demand with the family and ran out super fast.
Some Green Triangles, but not too many, because you already have some from that favourites pouch you bought last week.
And a handful of Strawberry Delights, because Auntie Gladys is coming and you know they’re her favourites.
This is exactly how you should plan your stock. Use any data you have that shows past performance and combine it with customer insights and trends. This way, you can balance what you need with what you're going to sell, avoiding overbuying but making sure you’re well stocked with your bestsellers.
But how long will your tin last you? (AKA calculating cover)
Will one tin be enough? Do you just need to buy one, or would you be better with two?
This is where our free Cover Calculator helps. It divides your stock by the sales you’ve made expect to make (or the chocolates you’re eating expect to eat) and tells you how long your stock will last if you carry on selling at that same rate.
For example, if you have ten The Purple Ones in your tin and you’re eating them at a rate of two per day (very restrained, well done), your tin will last you five days.
Or if you have five Milk Choc Blocks in your tin and only eat one a week (as if), then your tin will keep you going for five weeks.
If we’d only looked at our stock numbers (aka chocolates), we could easily have decided we had too many of The Purple Ones and not enough Milk Choc Blocks. But by working out the cover, we’ve added some crucial wider context.
This way, you can manage your (choc!) stock, working out when you’re likely to run out and plan to replenish your stocks in plenty of time. And you can also work out what you're going to do with all that left over stock (those Milk Choc Blocks) if you know they're still going to be hanging around in five weeks’ time.
How this works in your business
Using your sales data can guide smart decisions for your business. The key is to use that information to balance your product range effectively, just like those favourites in the tin. And once you’ve opened your tin (or received your delivery of stock), managing it using your data can help you maximise your sales and profit, and minimise any risk.
Want to give this a go for your business? Our free guide to sales analysis is a great place to start if you want to understand how to use your data.
And if you aren’t collecting data yet, it’s time to get started. Our sales tracker is the tool for you!
Want to know what else we can learn from a box of Quality Street? You might like the other posts in this series:
· How to perfect your product mix
· How to adapt your retail business in changing times
