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The Joy of Novelty Sweets & Who Buys Them
Novelty sweets bring excitement and fun to the confectionery world, with each product offering something unique that keeps customers coming back for more. Whether it's their unusual shapes, playful elements, or bold flavours, these treats stand out on the shelves and create irresistible impulse buys.
What are Novelty Sweets?
There is definitely an argument to be made that novelty is the broadest category of sweets. Within it, you’ll find everything from age-old favourites to the latest and wackiest treats that make you ask ‘How did they think of that?’! However long they have been on the market, and whether they are novel because of their shape, packaging, or flavour, there is one thing that unites them – they all stand out. As well as newness, that’s literally what the word novelty means!
If you want to get a quick snapshot of what novelty sweets are, take a look at the Crazy Candy Factory range. Well-established novelty experts worth more than £11 million in retail sales value1, kids absolutely love their range, which includes everything from miniature gumball machines to edible money, winning toy-candy combos and so much more!
Casual pseudonyms for the category may include kids’ sweets, toy sweets, or even impulse lines in some cases. This just speaks to the flexibility of what we as wholesalers would call novelty sweets. Simply put, novelty sweets are any confectionery that has an added element of fun. Many of these include interactive elements where the experience goes beyond taste alone – think dip n lick sweets like Big Baby Pops and Dip Dabs, liquid candy treats such as Juicy Drop Pop, Gummy Noodles and the new Crazy Candy Factory Paint Dripz, or toy sweets like mini gumball machines! This play factor alongside great taste keeps customers engaged and whether they return for the same again or are tempted by something new, they will be back!
Shape-based sweets like gummy pizzas and spiders also hold appeal, whilst extreme flavour sensations like Warheads and Fireball Jawbreakers will always stand out. Sour flavours are an enduring trend, with Brain Licker and ZED Screamers ranges hitting the spot, giving shoppers nothing but sourness! There’s a reason that there are plenty of treats inspired by stars of the silver screen such as SpongeBob, Paw Patrol and Minions – shoppers love a familiar face. This goes for retro novelty lines like candy watches and flying saucers, too, which are as popular as ever.
Who Buys Novelty Sweets?
With this in mind, it is no surprise at all that novelty sweets appeal to a wide audience. Lines such as the aforementioned flying saucers and candy necklaces will appeal to shoppers of many generations, given both their novel characteristics and their nostalgic aura. Meanwhile, trending and popular crazes like Brain Licker rollers are pioneering the super sour, liquid candy trend that has younger shoppers eager to spend their pocket money. In short, there are novelty sweets that appeal to everybody one way or another. So let’s break them down and highlight what sweets appeal to them:
Children & young shoppers – pocket-money purchases, school kids looking for a quick treat, and sweets that provide fun as well as flavour. Affordable and exciting, pocket-money lines are effective in convenience stores, particularly near schools, as well as high street stores and specialist sweet shops.
Nostalgia buyers – adults revisiting childhood favourites such as Sherbet Fountains, candy watches, Double Dips and the like. It is worth noting that these lines still hold the same appeal they did back in the day, so will be bought by all generations. These can make wonderful impulse lines for stores with a varied customer base, as well as leisure outlets serving families.
Collectors & gifting – some novelty sweets, like themed PEZ dispensers and those in unique packaging, are often bought to save or for celebrating and gifting rather than for immediate consumption. These are fitting stock for retail stores of many kinds, as well as anywhere with an extensive range of confectionery.
Event & seasonal shoppers – some novelty sweets, such as Easter- and Christmas-themed lines like bunny-shaped treats and chocolate coins, perform very strongly at specific times of the year and are suitable for retailers of all kinds.
Should You Stock Novelty Sweets?
Such a breadth of potential customers means that novelty sweets are not only suitable but also ideal for various businesses. With their bright packaging, playful shapes and stand-out designs, novelty sweets grab attention instantly – making them perfect for impulse sales. Whether out shopping with their parents or passing through with friends outside of school, your odds on impulse sales are high! That's the thing with novelty sweets – every time a customer looks at the shelf, it feels as though they’ve spotted something new.
Beyond impulse purchases, novelty sweets make business sense because they often carry a high perceived value, making them excellent sales drivers. Many lines are small in size but offer a great financial return, such as our selection of £1 RRP sweets. These offer shoppers affordable fun for shoppers and pocket-money spenders whilst giving retailers a healthy margin, too.
Novelty sweets also present an opportunity for cross-selling and bundling, as they can boost basket spend when placed in notable spaces or combined with other treats. Additionally, novelty sweets are particularly effective for seasonal displays, such as spooktacular Halloween sections or magical Christmas stocking filler ranges, drawing customers in with their themes and visual appeal. With such variety in our wholesale novelty sweets range here at Hancocks, you will never be short of exciting options. The key is finding the right balance between stocking the latest trending lines and continuing to offer proven bestsellers.
H2 – Bulk Buy Wholesale Novelty Sweets at Hancocks Novelty sweets are full of business opportunities, bringing excitement and delicious sales potential to businesses of all kinds. Whether your road will benefit from popping candy and sherbet, super sour sweets or exciting gumball machines, you will find the latest and very best wholesale novelty sweets right here at Hancocks.
Sources
1 Hancocks Internal PowerBi Data (Latest 52 weeks) 7.02.25
Written by George Dove
Copywriter & Confectionery Connoisseur
An avid lover of sweets for three decades, working with confectionery is a dream come true! With a background in journalism and copywriting, I'm a storyteller and love sinking my teeth into the details and making information not only digestible but enjoyable, too. In summary (and for a little fun) here’s a haiku:
For Hancocks I write,
Helping businesses to tread
Roads to sweet success.
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