Hotel Chocolat’s boss on the value of customer insight in driving digital growth
Hotel Chocolat’s CEO Angus Thirlwell says further digitisation of the brand is planned but he believes physical stores still provide a good channel for brand building.
Hotel Chocolat’s mission to better understand consumer behaviour has helped the business grow throughout the pandemic, with customer insight at the heart of plans to get more customers online and strengthen the brand.
The company has been investing in building up its customer database over the past few years, which is now paying dividends, according to the brand’s cofounder and CEO Angus Thirlwell.
While he admits the company was slightly “lucky” as it began enhancing its digital strategy back in 2017, it meant Hotel Chocolat was in a good position to drive growth during the pandemic despite having to close its stores.
“We started as a digital brand before we had any physical locations; we were a digital-only business for 10 years. That’s always been at the heart of the business,” Thirlwell tells Marketing Week.
