Godivan Chocolate products which good chocolate giant Godivan will close North American brick-and-mortar stores

When Belgian premium chocolate maker Godiva opened its first concept cafe in New York in April 2019 and plans to open a total of 2000 cafes around the world, it seems that Godivan's plan is falling through.

According to media reports, Godivan announced that it would close or sell its 128 brick-and-mortar stores in North America by the end of March this year, after which business in North America will switch to online sales, as well as Godivan's coffee shop business.

Godivan, which originated in Brussels, Belgium, is a chocolate brand used by the Belgian royal family with a history of more than 90 years.

The legend of Godivan begins with the chocolate master Pierre Draps. Founded by Pierre Draps in 1926 and named after the legendary most expensive lady Godiva, the legendary name Godiva has become synonymous with chocolate around the world. Now Godivan has become a leader in the world of premium desserts, from New York to Paris and from Paris to Tokyo, bringing Belgium's most outstanding chocolates to the world.

Since entering the coffee business, Godivan has opened 40 coffee shops around the world, including one in Shanghai. Unlike ordinary coffee shops, the presence of coffee in Godivan's shop is not obvious, but more chocolate color.

The difference between Godivan Cafe and other coffee chains is that it has more chocolate sweets and can add Gotti Van Gogh quality chocolate to its coffee, which can attract ordinary coffee lovers.

In addition, Godivan's cafes have one thing in common, that is, their business model can be copied and promoted at any time. And Godivan also wants to use unique flavoring technology to bake different flavors of coffee beans, and wants to compete with Starbucks in the high-end coffee field.

At that time, Godivan vowed to set up a coffee shop plan, and now it seems that Godivan's cafe has not only failed, but also suffered serious losses in its chocolate business.

What on earth caused chocolate giant Godivan to close its 128 brick-and-mortar stores in North America and stop the coffee shop business?

The reason is not difficult to guess, due to the impact of the epidemic, so that many brands have to face transformation, similarly, Godivan is also faced with this dilemma.

The epidemic has changed the global chocolate business, with more and more consumers shopping through online platforms, and the demand for physical stores is getting lower and lower. In order to cater to the domestic market and maintain competitiveness, many chocolate brands are laying out e-commerce channels and establishing cooperation with JD.com, Tmall and other international giants, such as Nestl é, Mars, Mondelez and other international giants. Among them, Mondelez has a leading market share, ranking higher than high-end brands such as Godivan.

Although online stores are another channel for brand development, offline development can not be ignored. Online and offline integrated development is the best choice for Godivan brands.

Although consumers can buy through online stores, they can't get in touch with real things, can't smell the aroma of chocolate, and lack real shopping experience, and offline retail can solve this problem very well. so online and offline sales channels for a brand, is a very important link.

In addition to the fact that sales channels are a factor affecting Godivan's chocolate business, there is also growing health awareness among consumers. Consumers are no longer keen on high-sugar, high-calorie, high-fat chocolate taste, more advocate low-sugar, healthy, low-fat chocolate snack foods, such as dark chocolate snack foods.

Because the fat content of dark chocolate is not very high, most of it is unsaturated fat and will not be converted into fat that can easily cause obesity, so dark chocolate is becoming more and more popular, and more and more brands launch a series of dark chocolate products.

Godivan said that while it was withdrawing from brick-and-mortar stores in North America, it was also committed to doing business in North America and tried to shift its focus to areas such as food, medicine and online shopping.

In addition, Godivan withdrew from physical stores in North America, but physical stores in Europe, the Middle East and Greater China are unaffected and will continue to operate.

* Image source: Internet