The course of true love never did run smooth, and for many chocolate makers this year, the same can be said for Valentine’s Day prep. Amid a slew of packaging and ingredient shortages and shipping constraints, navigating the February sugar rush has looked a bit different for some chocolatiers than in the past.

Take TCHO: The chocolate company typically sells limited-edition gift boxes for Valentine’s Day, featuring two or three different themed patterns. But it’s been a “crazy year” for the supply chain, said Josh Mohr, its SVP of marketing, and getting those materials has been trickier, particularly due to the ongoing paper shortage. So, the company decided to skip it altogether.

“The Valentine’s piece is kind of hitting us a little hard this year,” he told Retail Brew.

TCHO usually sees a 20% rise in demand around the holiday, but without its special packaging, the company is tweaking its marketing strategy to focus on its baking-ingredients business, he noted.

Crunched: It doesn’t help that TCHO debuted a dairy-free rebrand in December, and that the company had to move up production runs and reorder materials 60 days earlier after its revamped chocolate sold faster than anticipated.

• “Myself and our whole team just became numb to the letters we would get from vendors on price increases and delays,” Mohr said. “You just have to expect things are going to take, not just a week or two longer; it’s more like two or three months longer, if you’re lucky.”

The major takeaway? Prep earlier. “We’re looking at Q4, we’re looking at Valentine’s Day 2023. We’re getting a year ahead of things [that] we used to be like six months ahead of.”

Take your sweet time

But even early prep can’t sugarcoat an exceptionally bitter supply chain. Michael Antonorsi, president and co-founder (or, his preferred title: chief joy activator) of Chuao Chocolatier, said the company started readying for its two big chocolate holidays, Christmas and Valentine’s Day, in July. That’s around when it ordered the hard red boxes it typically packages Valentine’s products, like bonbons and truffles, in.

They were supposed to arrive in November, but still haven’t come, so the company has had to scramble to get a locally sourced (and pricier) foldable box. It suffices, but “is definitely not the same experience,” he told us.

Click here to read more on how chocolate brands tackled Valentine’s Day this year—and how one company is managing supply-chain stress with local sourcing.—EC

Add another private label to JCPenney’s lineup: The department store yesterday welcomed Mutual Weave, a casual (and denim-focused) clothing brand for men.

• It’s available on the retailer’s website and in 600 of its stores, with plans to hit all 650+ locations this year.

Gaining traction: It’s blue jeans…but the move isn’t out of the blue. Since 2020, JCPenney has introduced private labels spanning womenswear, activewear, home, and more.

Plenty of other retailers are also doubling down on the same strategy, as private-label sales have been rising. Better margins and audience fits are as well.

• Bed Bath & Beyond, for instance, released eight owned brands in 2021 as part of its turnaround efforts. The goal: to triple its sales from owned brands to 30% of its total revenue in three years.

Watch and learn: The master of this, of course, is Target, which introduced its first-ever food brand in 1995. It now boasts nearly 50 private labels, 10 of which have topped $1 billion in sales. That remains the mark to hit for other retailers.—JS

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After running her own Shopify store for seven years, former beverage entrepreneur Tatiana Birgisson is now helping other small brands thrive as head of marketing and operations at OpenStore, a company that buys Shopify businesses. (It’s snapped up a few dozen so far, Birgisson says, since debuting last year.) She walks us through her day-to-day below.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? Once we’ve acquired a small business, I have the privilege to continue operating it alongside my team and bringing the extraordinary products the founders created to more and more customers.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile: Every day I get to use my past experience from building my own CPG brand, MATI Energy, which was sold in Whole Foods and Kroger, then later acquired [by another bev company]. I’m infinitely better at my job because I’ve been in the shoes of our merchants.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? I loved working on our acquisition of FarmFoods. The woman-led business sells responsibly raised meat online and grew 5x in 2020.

Name your must-follow social media accounts: @Native and @Olipop both have creative Instagram pages that spark inspiration for me as a DTC marketer.

Hands down, the best fast food restaurant chain is…Doggi’s in South Florida, which serves fast-casual Venezuelan food. One bite into a tequeño and childhood memories with my family growing up in Venezuela come flooding back.

Today’s top retail reads.

Uphill battle: A former Glossier employee founded a clean-makeup brand for Black women, but had a hard time finding investors despite her experience. “I was raising money at the same time as some of my founder friends, and that wasn’t the scenario for them,” Diarrha N’Diaye said. (Insider)

Suit up: An attorney outlines four of the most common reasons why grocers are sued, from misleading labels to lacking digital accessibility. (Grocery Dive)

Burn book: One of the main appeals of NFTs is their scarcity, which is why luxury brands are turning to “burning” them—or, removing them from circulation. (Vogue Business)

Keep your customers hooked: In The State of CRM 2022 report from Tinyclues, you’ll get the scoop on top challenges and opportunities for CRM marketers this year, plus key strategies to attract and deliver big for customers. Get it here.*

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