This story is part of Retail TouchPoints’ ongoing “Small Business, Big Ideas” series, focusing on smaller retail brands that have found big success and have even bigger ambitions.
The advent calendar has long been a holiday staple, but in the last few years a new variation has soared in popularity — luxury advent calendars, ranging in price from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
The trend is being fueled in part by the popularity of social media “unboxing” and “haul” trends, but also by an increased desire from consumers for experiences following the forced isolation of the COVID years. In fact, marketing agency Empower said it’s seen a 90% increase in consumer interest in the advent calendar category since 2020.
“I think people are a little tired of your standard gift basket or gift pack, especially since the pandemic,” said Eric Ludy, Owner of the DTC brand Cheese Brothers, whose own high-end 12 Days of Cheesemas advent calendar has been a runaway hit. “People are looking for experiences more so than just a product.”
Advertisement
And the advent calendar delivers. Featuring not only desirable products from pretty much any theme under the sun — beauty, artisanal sauces, whiskey, jewelry, healing crystals, to name just a few — but also a pre-packaged, drawn-out element of surprise.
Cheese Brothers’ calendar, which retails for $120, “is a perfect gift,” explained Ludy in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “It’s very substantial, so it’s a generous gift. And then every day there’s a new surprise. People are looking for that right now.” In fact, the Cheese Bros. calendar is selling 10X better than any other product on the brand’s site at the moment.
The Rise of the Advent Calendar
And Cheese Brothers isn’t the only brand to capitalize on this trend. Wholesale marketplace Faire, which can act as a barometer of where the retail winds are blowing, saw a 500% increase in searches for advent calendars in August 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, and the number of advent calendars available for sale on the platform has increased 4X this year. In fact, U.S. independent retailers already have purchased close to a quarter-million advent calendars on Faire this year.
Among the top-selling calendars so far this year on Faire include Spunky Pup’s 25 Days of Dog Treats, FreshCut Paper’s Woodland Wonderland calendar, Pinch Provisions’ self-care calendar and ESW Beauty’s Good Skin Vibes 12-day calendar. While many of these versions fall within the more typical price range of $15 to $50, there are enough variations on the trend for just about any kind of shopper, at any price point.
Dior’s $160 Le Mini Montaigne calendar (which actually only includes four days of surprises) has become a TikTok favorite; Swarovski offers a 25-day holiday-themed advent calendar for $1,200; and CaskCartel has released a 24-day rare whiskey advent calendar for $2,500, to mention just a few. (Reader beware, googling this topic will take you down a very expensive rabbit hole, so hold onto your wallet.)
“Brands are really getting creative with these calendars, turning them into a new way to create brand awareness and interest during the most important time of year for retail,” said Lauren Cooks Levitan, President of Faire, in comments shared with Retail TouchPoints. “These calendars have become a way for brands to share their story and build a stronger connection with their customers.”
Of course, there’s always the chance that things can go wrong, especially when a high-priced product doesn’t end up meeting customer expectations, as with the now infamous $825 Chanel calendar from 2021.
Just this year, Sephora caused an unintended furor with its advent calendar, which was available only to members of its Beauty Insiders loyalty program in exchange for 2,500 loyalty points. The calendar was subsequently lambasted by influencers online for the quality of the included products: Given that rewards points are typically doled out at the rate of one point per dollar spent, the calendar’s rough value of $2,500 was deemed “offensive” for products such as scrunchies and hair clips.
The Challenges of Shipping Cheese
But when done well, an advent calendar can be a boon for business, as it has been for Cheese Brothers.
The Wisconsin-based company was started over a decade ago by Ludy and Co-founder Gene Graf (who are not actually brothers). Initially, the business was operated solely in person, primarily at farmer’s markets and cheese fairs, until the pandemic forced the brand to build out what was, at the time, a relatively low-profile ecommerce business. Now the company operates fully online, selling on its website and Amazon as well as wholesaling through Faire.
Ludy’s family has worked in the cheese business for over 100 years, but ecommerce is still less common in this industry given the products’ sensitivity to temperature. But Ludy and his team have figured it out, giving them a real competitive advantage: “Cheese is one of the hardest things to ship; even ice cream is easier because you can use dry ice and just keep it frozen,” said Ludy. “But for cheese the ideal temperature is refrigerated, so around 40 degrees. So, yeah, it’s hard to ship, but honestly that keeps the competition at bay, because nobody wants to deal with it.
“Actually, at first I was afraid to offer shipping because I didn’t think people would be willing to pay for it,” Ludy added. “But what I found is, if you offer a quality product with quality presentation and people trust you, they’ll pay what it costs.”
Advent Calendars: A ‘Unique Product that Resonates’
2020 turned out to be a good time to take a cheese business online, with charcuterie boards going viral, and Cheese Brothers has proven equally lucky in the timing of its advent calendar, arriving as it has in the midst of this latest social media craze.
The company has always launched new products for Christmas, and for several years Ludy’s Operations Manager Jolene Nitchey-Keppen “kept bothering me about this advent calendar idea that she had.” Nitchey-Keppen’s persistence paid off, and after several years of pestering, Cheese Brothers tested out the idea in 2023.
“When we launched it, I thought we’d probably sell a few of them,” said Ludy. “We launched it late; it wasn’t ready until late November last year because I procrastinated, but it just flew. We sold out really quickly.”
This year, the company was prepared. They’ve been selling the advent calendar in earnest since late October and expect to sell as many as 10,000 by season’s end. Not only is the advent calendar the top-selling item on the Cheese Bros. site right now, but it also is currently driving about one-third of total sales, said Ludy.
As one would expect, the 12 Days of Cheesemas calendar isn’t your typical advent offering. It features 12 full-size products, runs $120 and must be kept refrigerated, or at least in a cold garage. “It’s big; it holds full-size blocks, but that doesn’t seem to discourage people,” said Ludy.
Beyond learning an important lesson (listen to Jolene), Ludy said the success of the calendar has been a source of inspiration: “You can get a little, I don’t want to say cynical, but in the cheese business you start to think, people buy a certain amount of smoked gouda every year, and a certain amount of this and a certain amount of that. You can forget about the centrality of product and how important product is. Marketing is one thing, but if you have a unique product that resonates with people, that can propel you to wherever you want to go. It’s inspired me to do more in the future, find other fun ways to delight and surprise people.”
Certainly, cheese isn’t necessarily known for driving brand recognition or loyalty. But the success of the advent calendar has solidified one of Ludy’s key tenets, which is that a distinct brand can make a name for itself in the cheese business. “That’s been one of our ideas from the start — how can we resonate with story, presentation and experience,” said Ludy. “The advent calendar is a showcase for all those things.”
Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to enjoy Day 9.
