Bakery is no longer just a personal experience. More bakeries are running their businesses online. Primarily due to the pandemic, which has made us turn our eyes to e-commerce.
Basically, it's a great time to start an online bakery, but figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. In this article, we'll walk you through each step of setting up a store.
5 Steps to Start an Online Bakery Business
Here are the five steps you must take to set up your online bakery shop and be successful.
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Identify Your Niche: As with any business, you need to find your niche. How is it different from hundreds of other online bakeries that already exist? Think about what you can offer to potential customers that others can't.
Don't be tempted to just bake and sell everything. Instead, focus on your strengths.
Keep in mind that the niche you choose must be personally available. If your specialty is decorating festive cakes, but you don't like making cupcakes, stick with what you know and have fun. You don't want to get stuck in running a business that ruins your love for baking.
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Create A Brand: One of the most essential steps in building your own online bakery is to develop your brand. Think about your favorite bakery. They all have custom colors, brands, and logos that stand out from the crowd and are easily identifiable. Do some audience surveys to see how they react.
Make sure your brand identity is consistent. Make sure your customers can identify your brand at any touchpoint, whether it's your website, social media, packaging, or product. All brands should be the same color, font, and voice tone.
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Set-up E-commerce Store: An e-commerce store is an online store that allows you to sell your products to a broad audience without traditional physical stores.
There are various e-commerce platforms that you can use to set up your online bakery. They are easy to use, customizable, and available on a fixed-price plan to fit your budget. It also often provides extensive help and support. In short, you don't have to be a technical expert to run your business smoothly.
The most popular e-commerce platforms include:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Wix
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Invest In The Market: When setting up an online store, it's not wholly unlike a physical store; a down investment must be made, like getting your product in front of your targeted audience/customers through social media ads, search engine optimization, influencer programs, etc.
You must commit the effort to get your business, especially for new store owners, to customers. And always remember, offer only what you can provide. There's nothing people hate more than being disappointed.
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Packaging and Delivery: Now that you've set up your online bakery shop, you must consider how to package your goods and deliver them. The first impression is everything in online businesses. If your baked products are not packaged properly, customers might search elsewhere to buy. So, invest in packaging your goods.
Timely delivery is necessary for every online business. It creates an even better first impression beyond packaging. Customers can trust your brand to ensure their cakes and other baked goods arrive just in time for their event.
But sometimes it's easy to forget a few orders. They just slip past your memories. Luckily, Export Orderpro - order reports helps keep you on track with daily email reports and easily customizable report designs.
Starting an online bakery business in 2022 is not entirely impossible. With the proper steps, you will get your business set up, become visible in the broad online market and get your dream bakery online and successful.
Ensure you get the right tools to help your business so you don't disappoint your customers with late delivery or poor packaging.