Easter is one of the defining moments of the year for chocolate brands in supermarkets. Drawing on field observations from the Roamler community, here is what the point of sale actually looked like during the season.
How we collected the data: our community visited around one hundred stores over the two weeks preceding Easter 2025, across the main French retail banners including Leclerc, Intermarché and Super U.
The Centre Aisle Takes Over
More than half of the Easter offer was positioned in the central aisle, right at the store entrance. Brands are betting heavily on immediate visibility the moment a shopper walks in, on top of their usual presence in the confectionery section — which makes the centre aisle the single most strategic zone of the season.
Ferrero and Lindt Dominate the Displays
Among the most active brands of the season, Ferrero and Lindt stood out for the sheer weight of their in-store presence:
- Floor-standing units
- Decorative arches and bespoke furniture
- Floor stickers routing shoppers towards the products
- Easter-themed visuals
Both are clearly investing in visual impact to maximise appeal. Across our community's observations, roughly one display in two was backed by accompanying POS material.
How Brands Responded to Rising Prices
Easter chocolate prices rose by an average of 14% this year, driven largely by raw material costs. (Source: UFC-Que Choisir) Our field observations show a consistent manufacturer response to that pressure: smaller formats, deployed to hold an accessible entry price point.
The Lindt bunny illustrates it well. Several formats sit side by side, from the smallest on the left through to the largest on the right. The logic is to let shoppers keep buying despite higher prices by adjusting product size rather than cutting the number of items in the range.
A Wider Range Means Harder Field Execution
Multiplying formats has a direct consequence: more references on shelf. For brands, that translates into three practical problems.
- More references to track across more stores
- Higher risk of stock-outs, shopper confusion, and mis-shelving
- More complex execution data to collect and interpret
The seasonal window is short, so an execution problem spotted late is an execution problem that cost the season.
Already Planning Your End-of-Year Displays?
Our community covers the whole of France and can track your point-of-sale KPIs — availability, display, compliance — in the centre aisle or on shelf, with data back fast enough to act on.
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