Running a bakery business might have been a dream at one point, but you have made this reality. With customers visiting in-store whenever they are able to, you might be wondering how you can expand upon this success. There are numerous routes you could go down when you want to grow your business, although one of the most cost-effective options is to provide deliveries.
Delivering your baked goods to your customers in their own homes can help you achieve increased business, especially if many of your customers travel to the area just to visit your bakery. Imagine the orders you would receive if you were to offer these customers the opportunity to order online and receive cakes and pastries at their front doors. This might come with some additional costs, but it will be much cheaper than opening another bakery in a new location.
If you would like to grow your bakery business online, this post has outlined four of the key factors to consider before you finalize your decision.
Creating a User-Friendly Website
When it comes to building a website, you could outsource to a professional web designer, or you could take the task on yourself. If you decide to create a website in-house, then you must know that one of the biggest factors is how user-friendly it is. This means that the customer can find exactly what they need in a few simple steps. You can provide this through a clear layout, easy navigation, high-quality images and product descriptions, and efficient checkout options.
The design of the website will be the first impression customers receive of your business, so you should think about how users will perceive your brand. Your site’s homepage should stand out from your competitors and offer an insight into your baker business through colors, fonts, and your logo. You should know that many users will form their first impression of your business site within 50 milliseconds, so forming a good first impression is essential to see their users convert to customers.
Branding Consistently Across All Platforms
As previously mentioned, your brand should be promoted on your website to ensure customers receive an insight into the business, but this branding should be consistent across all platforms. Many businesses will use social media platforms at one time or another to market their bakeries and attract new customers, but this will only happen if your brand is the same there as it is on the website and in store. This will help to build more trust with customers as the business will appear more professional.
Creating a brand guide is a good step towards achieving consistent branding across all platforms. This will clearly outline your business’ design, message, and values, including information from color palette and image guidelines to grammar and style conventions. By being consistent across the website and social media accounts, your customers will be able to recognize the brand easily.
Choosing Effective Shipping Methods
When offering home deliveries from your bakery, the most important aspect to look into is the delivery time. As baked goodies will be perishable, they must be delivered to the customer in a timely manner to ensure they are still great quality, so you might prefer to select a courier that offers same-day deliveries. For example, Florida Couriers offers same-day and rush deliveries in the state of Florida as well as the rest of the United States, and they already have experience delivering perishable goods, such as groceries and restaurant orders.
Additionally, when it comes to selecting a shipping provider, you might want to select a courier that offers real-time tracking. This can be beneficial for both the business and the customer; the former will know that the order has been delivered, while the latter can plan their day around their delivery instead of waiting at the front door for hours. In fact, it was recently discovered that roughly 80% of consumers prefer businesses that offer real-time tracking for online orders. This feature can boost customer satisfaction and trust, both of which are essential for repeat business.
Providing Prompt Customer Care
While providing real-time tracking will boost customer satisfaction, you must also consider how you will maintain prompt customer care online. When working in the bakery, you can easily help customers who visit in person, but this might be tougher when issues arise online. You should attempt to avoid certain problems by optimizing your website and triple-checking your online processes, but there will be a few that slip through the cracks.
An effective way to ensure good customer care is through accessible communication channels, whether that is through live chat or email. Automated responses are excellent for providing order confirmations and updates, but you will need to answer customer queries through these channels, too. Some questions will be repetitive and automated responses can be generated, but some might require a person to respond or even artificial intelligence and machine learning software to craft an answer.
But you should ensure responses are offered promptly, especially within opening hours of the bakery. This might become easier as you get used to offering an online option and customers adapt to the services you are providing; however, there will be an adjustment period to work through.
With a better understanding of scaling your bakery business to include online services, you will have an improved chance of achieving success with this new venture.
