How Bakeries Can Drive Growth Through Online Sales

Pizza delivery perfected the art of dispatching bespoke baked goods to customers within insanely time-constricted parameters. So it stands to reason that by adopting this model, bakeries drive online sales while reaching new markets.

In 2023, the grocery industry finally started to gain ground where it had previously been lagging behind in terms of its eCommerce presence. Bakery owners should be looking to grocery stores in the year to come and think seriously about ways they can get their products online for local delivery or buy online, pick-up in-store (BOPIS). 

Bakeries can drive growth through online sales by making product customizations simple, offering a wide variety of products, and building an online storefront that speaks to their regulars. Here are a few things to consider when building your online store. 

Add Variation To Your Signature Items

Customers love customization options when it comes to ordering online. Think about it – no pizza parlor offers a “set” list of pizzas with no option to customize. Customers want to order what they want, just the way they want it, and they want it fresh. 

Whether it’s cookies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins, or bagels – each bakery puts its own twist on how these staples are made. Allowing further options to customize these items is a surefire way to drive sales and retain customers. Rather than call into your bakery with a long, confusing order, customers should have the option to order online and use an ordering template to customize each item as needed. 

A dozen assorted pastries, one gluten-free upside-down cake with banana creme frosting, and two dozen chocolate cookies: six with coconut, six gluten-free, six vegans, six with crushed walnuts? Let your customers fill out a simple form so you can focus on fulfilling the order. 

The Local Express platform is purpose-built to make customization a breeze even if it’s only for that one customer who comes in on Tuesday and orders a blueberry bagel with smoked salmon.

Own the Feel of Your Online Bakery

If your bakery is called “The Green Bakery” because of the green walls, green floors, green oven, and pictures of trees hanging all over the walls, then why would you use an online delivery app that makes you use the same boring white background as every other business they host?

Your customers love the feeling they get when they walk into your bakery almost as much as they love the delicious items you make fresh for them every day. By owning the full customization of your online store, they get the same great experience whether shopping online or in-store. And if you’re better at cake decorating than website design, Local Express will provide continued support to ensure your site hits the mark with your customers. 

Because why wouldn’t we? We know the value of flexibility and how that relates to the business you’ve poured everything into. 

DISCLAIMER: The Local Express platform can’t currently make your website smell like freshly baked bread (but we’re working on it).

Wow Them With Novel Delivery Options

During the pandemic, people started baking. A lot. So much so that it led to regional flour shortages in some states. Thankfully, that part of the pandemic is over – but people still love fresh bread. For your customers who are now too busy working from home to spend all day baking, a fast delivery option for fresh loaves is a must.

If you like to showcase your baked goods alongside wine, fruit, or cheese pairings, Local Express offers options to sell package deals that will allow you to do just that. Snack baskets, granola bars, and healthy treats are another great way to sell bulk orders of the kinds of products the work-from-home workforce can’t get enough of.

And although baking sourdough might have been a fleeting trend for office workers, home baking still holds plenty of ways to woo new customers. Look to amateur bakers or busy parents. For instance: some people like to bake from home, but they don’t want to do all the work involved with measuring everything out and making the dough they’re going to bake. Selling fresh bread or cookie dough (or muffin/cake mix) is a great way to engage with these customers. Another way to woo new customers is to lean into the home baking trend by looking to amateur bakers or busy parents needing something to do between Zoom meetings. 

Summing Up

Local Express has a number of options designed specifically for bakeries and is ready to help. From setup and customization to product listings and visuals, we’re primed to get bakeries online fast, so those freshly baked rolls don’t go stale. 

You could start the process of getting your bakery online sales in less time than it takes for your next batch of dough to rise.