Know-How Exchange : Other

Well , if you are online only- your focus should be on logistics- timely delivery, quality of despatch, correctness of labelling- take care of that first. Have few products but manage them well.
Also have packaging options for your 2 markets- gifts & personal consumption. If I'm ordering for myself - all i care is that my baked goods arrive unbroken, fresh and tamper free even if the arrive in brown paper packets. If I'm gifting it- i want to presented well. Have price differentials for the same too.
You need to advertise your URL and your offers. Tie up with online bakeware marketeers also for cobranded sales.

If you do decide to follow through with this online bakery then it would be very valuable to you to capture the e-mail addresses of your customers and maybe even visitor to your website.

If a person visits you website they are obviously curious about what you have so find a way to get their information too.

This will make for easy e-marketing to bring customers back more frequently by sending them special offers and updates. Build loyalty with them. By staying in front of them, they don't forget you.

I don't recommend sending them an e-mail every week, that could be over kill, but a monthly e-mail with any special offers you may have or new products would work great.

Check out this link to a 2 min clip:
[URL deleted AGAIN by staff]

Send me an e-mail if you need any more information on this type of marketing.

starting with a website is not a bad start. everyones in it anyway. the only thing you have to consider is how to really stand out. how will you make bakery goods catch the attention of your market?
with regard to the idea of coming up with new products, i dont think its necessary but it is adviced. once people know you already, new products always excite them. however, i suggest that you concentrate on a single product. own it first. at least when youre already known for that or is already profiting from that, it wont hurt your business if you launch new products that wont sell to your market.
:j

Hi,
Shghosh makes some excellent points with regards to presentation. Be aware of the fact that the experience of consumption and of purchasing is often very important in bakery good (i.e. smells, looks etc). Therefore, as you do not have any means of duplicating the purchasing experience, you have to make sure that this is communicated at the arrival of the product. Although shghosh had touched on the main points (i.e speed of delivery, as it is a convenience good; look of the product etc), I would just like to add that some sort of vacuum packaging (which gives the consumer that smell, look explosion on product receipt) would be very good.
Personally, I am of the opinion that bakery sales are ideally carried out through highstreet locations, and I know of very few success stories in my home market (Germany) who do not have a click and brick strategy. However, I admit that I have not operated in the U.S., and I am aware that the cultural and internet retail profiles are different to those in Germany.

A final idea, what about also selling a product where the final stept of the preparation is carried out in the home/by the consumer. I am predominantly thinking of bread, sold in Germany, which requires a 5 minute finish/warming up in the oven, and thus replicates the entire experience factor in the home. However, I do not know whether this would be possible for products such as brownies etc.

Regards,