There’s a corner of North Devon that’s pure sweet shop heaven. It’s where you can find SoSweet’s headquarters, “the UK’s Favourite Sweet Shop.”
SoSweet operates a chain of shops across the South West and a phenomenally successful TikTok Shop with over a million followers.
But how did they build such a strong brand presence on the high street? And how did they extend that business success beyond bricks and mortar? We caught up with SoSweet’s Managing Director George Robinson to find out.
SoSweet's Managing Director George Robinson
High street traffic vs online traffic: Finding the sweet spot
SoSweet is a family-run business founded by George’s parents in 2014 and they began with a couple of sweet shops that served the South West. The company’s success grew and by 2020, they had expanded to six stores.
“We learnt as we went - my parents started the business, and I’d always worked in the business, whether as a Saturday kid or after school. I’d always been surrounded by the business and understood how it worked.”
SoSweet's Yeovil branch
In 2020 George decided to join full-time. He saw gaps in the market and was looking forward to bringing some new ideas in, including taking SoSweet online. The website launched just as Covid hit.
“I was very aware that we had no pre-Covid online experience so I was really conscious that not only did we need to drive as much traffic to our website as possible to create a customer base - we also needed to then retain that customer base.”
Building an online presence amid a pandemic wasn’t easy, and getting it right was vital for the long-term viability of the online arm of the business.
“We did a lot of work really focusing on the brand and building a really great customer experience so that when things were back to normal, people still had a reason to come back to us.”
Offering something different, such as new sweets and alternative flavours became a So Sweet unique selling point (USP).
“Part of that (USP) was bringing some unique products through, that you can’t buy in supermarkets or other stores. It gave us something with a point of difference really.”
Being different and putting the customer first was also central to So Sweet’s high street success.
“It comes down to offering a real experience. We’re not just about selling as much product as we can, it’s about giving them that fantastic experience in store.”
The SoSweet TikTok Shop - a viral success story
As well as their high street shops SoSweet has one very important storefront that can’t be found on Google Maps. The SoSweet TikTok Shop.
“We launched on the platform early in 2022 but it wasn't until around October 2022 that we started really investing our time into it. In the space of 2 weeks, we grew TikTok Shop sales from £ 4/5k a month to £300k per month, we had created so much sales momentum in such a short space of time. We gave it the attention it required and as a result have been able to really grab business from the level of exposure it's given us."
SoSweet are expert at connecting with their TikTok audience through their viral videos, and they built on their early success by listening to their customers and developing a product range to match demand.
Young and Fun SoSweet's TikTok shop
TikTok videos are a great way to showcase their fun and unique products, and they have built-up a cult following for their sweet buckets, by always mixing things up and bringing fun and original ideas to market.
“The Halloween buckets are a great example, they’re great for trick-or-treaters and as gifts as well. They’re a treat for children and a bucket to go trick or treating with, so they have a few different use cases. The buckets have done well year-on-year, especially on the TikTok shop.”
How do you know what will be in demand?
TikTok offers SoSweet a live view of customer opinion,
“We’re listening to our customers - listening to what they want and that’s one of the benefits of a platform like TikTok. We’re hosting live streams pretty much every weekday for 2 or 3 hours a day - selling our products and you get that instant feedback from the audience.”
Having a strong presence on social media means SoSweet can be ahead of the game when it comes to spotting market trends,
“If they’re asking do you do a pink mix or a red mix? And if it’s something that we don’t do, we can look at doing that straight away. And test it. We can ask our customers - if this is something we introduce would you like it? TikTok gives us instant feedback”
SoSweet has built a loyal customer base on TikTok thanks to their expertise in bringing new flavours and products to market, and novelty is a key part of SoSweet’s appeal,
Buckets of success - “They’re products that we took viral and that then means that year on year we know we’re going to sell more and more.”
“Our inventory is also led by our suppliers and manufacturers. We work directly with leading factories globally. They’ve got new products for different channels and we’re able to get first access and bring it to market.”
SoSweet and Invopak - success by the bucket load!
So Sweet has been an Invopak customer for 3 years, and they’ve stayed with us as the business has grown. We asked George why ordering from Invopak has made sense for them.
The Benefits of Online Ordering
SoSweet found Invopak online and initially chose us because it was convenient.
“You had exactly the products we wanted, and they were in stock and ready to ship straight away.”
Being able to order in pallet quantities meant that as SoSweet’s success grew they could order in bulk and benefit from price breaks too.
“The pricing made sense, and further in our business development we could buy pallets and multiple pallets off of you.”
A Flexible Service
SoSweet also appreciated the customer experience as their business grew.
“Progressing into those bigger quantities, the service and the fact that Stuart is on hand to help - makes life easier. It’s a very, very easy service.”
“For example, we had a couple of different delivery dates for the black and clear buckets and Stuart accommodated those without an issue (and I’m not just saying that!)”
Invopak's award-winning Head of Customer Experience Stuart Rolfe
George’s Top Business Tips:
We’d like to thank George for sharing SoSweet’s story with us (and for choosing Invopak!). We’ll leave you with George’s Top Business Tips:
Over the last ten years, SoSweet has grown from a couple of shops into a thriving retail store network, a dominant force online and a TikTok sensation. So what are the best business lessons George has learnt along the way?
Get the basics right
“A lot comes down to the basics - a great product at a great price and offering a great service.”
KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid)
“Sometimes we’ve tried to overcomplicate things and then we’d lose our way a little bit. Keep it simple because that wins.”
The customer always comes first
“Always having the customer in mind is incredibly important.”
Move with the times
“I think moving with the times in terms of adopting new technologies or new routes to market or new sales channels. A great example is our TikTok shop - something that wasn’t even a thing 3 years ago!”
And If you’d like to see what’s tasty this Season why not give SoSweet’s TikTok a follow, and get ahead of Father Christmas this year?