“We hope that our calendar is something the consumer can look forward to every year.”

Time flies as we all know. It may be summer, but what that means is that, actually, we’re just a few months away from the holiday shopping season, and of course, retailers need to be prepared for that. EDC Wholesale has a heart for all the early birds in the trade, as they have just presented the latest edition of their Naughty & Nice Advent Cal-endar. Evertine Visser, who is in charge of Marketing and Communications at EDC Wholesale, tells us more about the calendar, for instance that we will be getting a limited Black & Gold edition this year.

EDC Wholesale presented the new Christmas calendar in the middle of summer. Isn’t that a bit early?
Evertine Visser: Yes, we are a bit early this year, but with a good reason. We introduced the calendar fairly late last year, so this year we felt like we should start the introduction a bit earlier. We want to give our customers the opportunity to plan their Christmas sales well in advance. The calendar will be available in September, but we already start promoting the calendar now, as retailers have a short period of time to sell this product. We want them to have plenty of time to prepare their sales and to start pre-ordering before we are complete-ly sold out again, like last year.

The Naughty & Nice Advent Calendar will be available in a special Black & Gold edition. What can you tell us about the design?
Well, first of all, the design is completely different from last year’s edition. We kept the concept of the outer box and inner gift boxes the same but really focussed on bring-ing something completely new for the 2019 edition. Our designer started working with a Black and Gold design but decided to add a vibrant colour to create a ‘wow-effect’ that will stand out in a Christmas-themed shop presentation. The design has a marble-look on the cover and the golden details are printed with a shiny gold foil. We have created a Christmas look and feel on the calendar design, but also managed to keep it refreshing and original.

Which products can be found inside the calendar?
That should be a surprise, don’t you think? Haha, just kidding, we are very open about the content of the calendar because we want customers to know that this calendar offers high-quality gifts. With 24 gift boxes inside the calendar, we chose a great variety of products to make the countdown till Christmas extra exciting. We came up with a certain order to make it an exciting experience throughout the entirety of the 24 days. The nicest gifts are spread throughout the calendar to keep the level of excitement and enthusiasm high.

But we also looked at the practical side; for instance, we put the lubricant in one of the first gift boxes so that it can be used with the toys. The mask, handcuffs, and tickler have also been put close to each other as they can be used together.

We want the calendar to be exciting from the first day until the very last day. And when everything comes together, we want everyone to find their favourite toys in the mix and also to experience sensual ele-ments such as games, massage candles or beautiful accessories. The calendar holds gifts for him, for her, and for the both of them, with products like a vibrating egg, stroker mas-turbator, blindfold, couple vibrator, butt plug, kegel balls, body jewel, playing cards, etc.

How did EDC Wholesale select the products for the calendar?
We have high standards when it comes to the products for the calendar. First of all, we wanted all of them to be black and gold, in accordance with the theme. But we also wanted high-quality products that can be used over and over again, without them losing their quality. The content of the gifts should last longer than just the 24 days of the count-down, so we selected a variety of products to make Christmas Eve and any other night extra special when all the 24 items come together. We also listened carefully to the feedback customers, consumers, and toy tester gave us on last year’s calendar and made the neces-sary changes to the products for this year’s calendar.

Why did EDC Wholesale choose to make the calendar a limited edition when it was such a success last year?
Because we believe that the calendar can only remain successful when it’s a unique product offering a new design and new gifts each year. I’m a big fan of the Rituals advent calendar and as long as they offer a new calendar with new gifts every year, I will buy a new edition each year. We want to offer our customers a new calendar each year, with a new design and new gifts inside to create an element of surprise for the users. We hope that our calendar is something the consumer can look forward to every year. ‘What will it look like and what will it bring us this time around?’ So to make the Advent Calendar extra exciting and unique, we created a limited edition that is only available this Christmas.

Why are advent calendars filled with erotic products so successful?
I think that advent calendars are generally very successful that time of year, no matter the product category. It’s great to see that the consumers also believe in the erotic version of the advent calendar, which is becoming more successful year after year. Specific advent calendars represent a growing trend among Christmas gifts and I’m excited to see what this trend has in store for us in the future. And while the success lasts, we will contin-ue to bring our special version of the advent calendar.

There are a lot of advent calendars on the erotic market due to the success of this product type in the past years. How does EDC Wholesale stand out from the crowd?
By putting great care into every little detail of the advent calendar. Our designer outdid themselves with the design for last year’s edition and managed to deliver yet another outstanding design for this year’s calendar. When you see the product, it is an absoulte eyecatcher. Our purchasing team selected the products with a certain standard that we want to maintain for the content of the calendar, which makes it exciting to open a gift box and see what’s inside. Our marketing team started working on the promotions of the calen-dar as soon as the design was finished so it can find its way to our customers and the end consumer. It’s a team effort and we can only hope that it’s enough to make our advent cal-endar stand out from the crowd.

How much will the new calendar cost in store?
The total value of the products inside the advent calendar is € 450, but the recom-mended retail price is 119 euro. So it’s a great deal for 24 high-quality products.

What tips and tricks can EDC Wholesale give retailers regarding the presentation of the calendar in the Christmas shopping season?
We advise our customers to create a nice spot in the shop to present the calendar and also to use the content info we supply to sell the calendar as it mainly bought as a gift for someone else. Therefore, I think customers can boost their sales by showing the content of the calendar. We also offer media packs for all our house brands, including all the mar-keting material we created. The brand videos, promotional banners, social media images, etc are all available for download. Our sales team can supply a special download link.