I see Licorice.com is going to be launching Pretzels.com (1.Viewing)

I saw that Licorice.com (see image below) announced yesterday that they would be launching Pretzels.com in a few months (two great domains). It got my brain spinning. As many here know, for about 3 years we have operated an online gourmet candy store (candycrave.ca). A few months ago, we launched licorice.ca (branded as Licorice Crave) as we felt that it was a segment that wouldn’t compete with our main site. Coincidently we also own pretzels.ca, and the above has got us thinking (tick-tock Shaun, tick-tock

These Pretzels domains are making me thirsty

Be easy to ship, virtually no weight

I cut off my text above. The whole text should be;

I saw today that Licorice.com (great domain) announced yesterday that they would be launching Pretzels.com in a few months (two great domains). It got my brain spinning. As many here know, we operate an online gourmet candy store (candycrave.ca). A few months ago, we launched licorice.ca (branded as Licorice Crave) as we felt that it was a segment that wouldn’t affect our main site. Coincidently we also own pretzels.ca, and the above has got us thinking). We liked the licorice space because it would allow us to operate a unique niche but not be overly complicated, with maybe 50 – 65 items. I see the same possibilities with Pretzels. What do you think?

I’ve never bought pretzels online…but if there’s a demand for it why not?

MapleDots said:

Be easy to ship, virtually no weight

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Agree. There is an issue with shipping from suppliers, in that some pretzels tend to break during shipping. Not as pleasing when then shipping to customers.

theinvestor said:

I’ve never bought pretzels online…but if there’s a demand for it why not?

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I think these days, almost everything can be bought online and customers are much more receptive to it, over the past 18 months. Plus online can offer much more variety than most customers can access easily in person.

The pandemic probably spurred frivolous online spending, but back to reality and inflation, some people will be tightening their belts again. As much as I love pretzels, I'm too cheap to buy them at an ultra premium for what is just flour, water and salt. I think this will be especially true for the single item orders (with a drop in indulgent covid spending). But I'm guessing the .COM guys are seeing an opportunity - I don't have specific evidence but my guess is that Canadian shipping costs are much more expensive than U.S.

That being said, since you're making it work with candy I suppose it could work with pretzels. The one thing might be that pretzels are more delicate and shorter shelf life than a lot of candy. I grew up eating pretzel rods and they're difficult to find here. I buy stuff occasionally from the Bulk Barn locally, and their pretzel rods are always broken to bits and stale. Shipping them could result in breakage too, especially for the long rods.

However, I'm always shocked at how some people continually spend frivolously, so it will be interesting to see what trends you actually see happen as life gets back to normal.

Weddings, kids birthdays, and corporate gifts, etc... Those tend to have more indulgent buyers, both tend to come in bulk orders, can tolerate a higher customer acquisition cost, as well as reducing shipping cost/unit thus maintaining a decent profitability. My gut just says that would be your bread and butter. Not sure how many would order just pretzels. Having pretzels as part of the candycrave lineup might make more sense as an add-on than as a pretzels-only order. If you could have a universal shopping cart and let people bounce between your niche stores and ship all in one shipment, that would fix those narrow niche issues as well as encourage additional sales.

I'm sure you're getting really interesting data to see these real world sales first hand and can hopefully see some trends happening. Much to be learned from that data!

rlm said:

The pandemic probably spurred frivolous online spending, but back to reality and inflation, some people will be tightening their belts again.  As much as I love pretzels, I'm too cheap to buy them at an ultra premium for what is just flour, water and salt.  I think this will be especially true for the single item orders (with a drop in indulgent covid spending).

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Yup aactive is not talking about standard pretzels, there is a whole gourmet market and also german style soft pretzels, gift boxes etc.





Heck, he could even throw in a few licorice covered ones

RLM, I agree that there will be a reduction in discretionary spending if and when the Pandemic is over. That said, I believe that consumer behaviour has been changed forever in the past 18 months, with online being the primary benefactor.

In terms of places like Bulk Barn and the like, there are always going to be people that will shop for things that way, and that’s fine. At least once a month I get a FB post from someone that says they can get some of our candies at BB and for cheaper. We have never competed on price as that is the worst place to be in retail and are glad not to have too. We have many candies not available elsewhere and package our candy and chocolate like we care about the customer.

In terms of Pretzels adding it to Candy Crave, we won’t as it will crowd our site too much. We try and keep our candy and chocolate choices to under 300. We don’t overly faucet our site, as we want people to look through the pages. We are not trying to be everything to everybody… we leave that to sites like candyfunhouse.ca (out of Guelph).

We have looked into the universal cart concept, and it is available and something we will consider if we launch another site. I totally agree that gift boxes and the such would be huge for a pretzel-related site.

Yes, data is the driver of many decisions for online and of course brick and mortar. The challenge with online is there is sometimes almost too much info. That is one of the fastest-growing segments of the SAAS space…interpreting your customer, advertising, sales and product information.

MapleDots said:

Yup aactive is not talking about standard pretzels, there is a whole gourmet market and also german style soft pretzels, gift boxes etc.

Heck, he could even throw in a few licorice covered ones

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Before I got pretzels.ca in the drop, I looked around to see how the space looked. I saw that there certainly was a wide variety of upscale or gourmet type pretzels and plenty of brands not readily available in Canada. Looking beyond just twisted style pretzels there are lots of stick and ball styles to consider. I think pretzel, salt and chocolate are a match made in heaven.

Not to mention salted caramel, my kids love that, add it to pretzels and OMG you may have a hit.

aactive said:

I think pretzel, salt and chocolate are a match made in heaven.

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Yeah, in my mind, that is way more candy/chocolate than pretzel at that point. Then again, I've always been a guy who prefers savory over sweets. So I don't even think of that when I think of pretzels. I'm thinking pretzels that might have different shapes or seasonings. Like those mustard ones from Snyders.

The soft pretzels are freaking delicious too, but they're definitely a perishable item and not probably something you could sell/ship easily - and maintain some quality and consistency. I whip up a homemade batch a couple times a year.

I get what you're saying about not adding everything to candy crave. But I do really like the universal cart option, so rather than listing all the pretzel or licorice types, you can just link to those sites and explain that the sites automatically share a cart and checkout process. This way if they want to investigate those sites they can, without feeling like they're going to have to pay for shipping twice or have to hit a minimum order level. You can even hit them with an interstitial page during the checkout process to say: "While you're at it, consider adding an item to the same order from our sister sites Licorice.ca or Pretzels.ca!"

rlm said:

Yeah, in my mind, that is way more candy/chocolate than pretzel at that point. Then again, I've always been a guy who prefers savory over sweets. So I don't even think of that when I think of pretzels. I'm thinking pretzels that might have different shapes or seasonings. Like those mustard ones from Snyders.

The soft pretzels are freaking delicious too, but they're definitely a perishable item and not probably something you could sell/ship easily - and maintain some quality and consistency. I whip up a homemade batch a couple times a year.

I get what you're saying about not adding everything to candy crave. But I do really like the universal cart option, so rather than listing all the pretzel or licorice types, you can just link to those sites and explain that the sites automatically share a cart and checkout process. This way if they want to investigate those sites they can, without feeling like they're going to have to pay for shipping twice or have to hit a minimum order level. You can even hit them with an interstitial page during the checkout process to say: "While you're at it, consider adding an item to the same order from our sister sites Licorice.ca or Pretzels.ca!"

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You are right, there are certain kinds of pretzels we couldn't carry due to the freshness and perishable angle. The good news is there are plenty of other variations to stock! .

I really like the Univeral Cart Checkout concept as I think that consumers would love it. I like your "You can even hit them with an interstitial page during the checkout process to say: "While you're at it, consider adding an item to the same order from our sister sites Licorice.ca or Pretzels.ca!" Great way to upsell, especially if they looked at the few licorice or Pretzel products we carry on candy crave.

aactive said:

While you're at it, consider adding an item to the same order from our sister sites Licorice.ca or Pretzels.ca!"

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Given my years of online store experience I am Yes and No on this one.


Let me explain...

You have an order already, it's locked in and the client is checking out. It is not the same as trying to increase the quantity from one to two on an item. You are introducing a whole new store and you run the risk of the client putting the order on hold to check out the new store and then losing interest.

You need to get the order, lock it in, and get payment. Then hit them with the other store link and tell them if they like they can place another order in a certain time frame that we can combine so there is no shipping on the second order.

I used to fool around with pop ups and offers at actual check out and I lost more orders than I gained.

My number one rule now is to lock and load, when a client is in check out make the process go as smooth as possible with the minimal amount of clicks and never distract them from finishing the task at hand. What you do after that, as in a thank you page take 10% off from our other website or something is up to you, but please LOCK it in don't distract the client at that point.

I don't disagree Frank. Our first goal is always to close the sale. I can see how moving across 2 or 3 sites could get confusing and distracting. Great point.

aactive said:

I don't disagree Frank. Our first goal is always to close the sale. I can see how moving across 2 or 3 sites could get confusing and distracting. Great point.

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He makes a fantastic point. It just reminds me of how annoying godaddy is with their upselling. Sometimes I can’t even figure out how to even get to the check out.

theinvestor said:

He makes a fantastic point. It just reminds me of how annoying godaddy is with their upselling. Sometimes I can’t even figure out how to even get to the check out.

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LOL, so true!

Got the attention of Mike Mann

I think [notify]aactive[/notify] did well to buy the .ca

MapleDots said:

I think [notify]aactive[/notify] did well to buy the .ca

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I love it...a Licorice Vending Machine! Very savvy company this one. Part of me wants to beat them to the punch with their upcoming project, Pretzels.com (coming in a few months I understand), with our own pretzels.ca. It would spread us too thin though.