Now is the perfect time to learn how to start an online bakery. With the convenience of doorstep delivery and the allure of high-quality baked goods, consumer demand is soaring.
Industry insights from Yahoo! project that the global bakery products market will reach a staggering $734.5 billion by 2030. This represents a golden opportunity for the enterprising spirit, especially when you consider the impressive average annual revenue of retail bakeries, which stands at $400,000.
Imagine the possibilities: your online bakery could be as delightful and sought-after as a freshly baked croissant. A seamless, user-friendly, and professional online presence is vital to tap into this lucrative market. It’s the gateway to connecting with customers of this burgeoning industry. Our guide lays out 8 quick steps on how to start an online bakery, setting you on a path to sweet success.
Let’s scroll down! Omnithemes‘s experts are ready to show how it’s done.
How to start an online bakery: 7 proven-effective steps
Step #1: Research food regulations and obtain the necessary legal licenses
First and foremost on how to start a bakery online, every baker must ensure their store is legal. Just think about how frustrating it will be to invest a lot of time, effort, and money to get shut down or heavily fined.
Therefore, to ensure this doesn’t happen, you should visit your state Department of Health website and look up “cottage food laws.” From here, you can find out if you can prepare food for sale within your home or whether you’ll need official external premises.
How to start online bakery with cottage food laws
After you glean that it’s possible to run an online bakery from your home, then you have to identify the particular licenses you need. Other popular fields where obtaining a permit or certificate is in order are:
- Food hygiene standards
- Health and Safety
- Food Handling
- Sales privilege
- Fire Safety
- Catering
- etc.
Understanding these requirements will assist you in setting up your online bakery to meet all essential criteria and operate smoothly and legally.
Step #2: Decide on the unique products you’ll offer
What would you be selling? The second thing on how to start an online bakery is to find a niche to win. What makes you an exception among hundreds of other bakeshops online?
How to start online bakery business with USP
Think about what would make you different from any other potential customer offerings. Your business should have a USP with a unique value proposition and a striking brand with which people want to be associated. Don’t just give in to the urge to bake and sell everything. Instead, you should build your offer around your strengths.
Here are some examples of bakery niches and USPs:
- Celebration cakes
- Gluten-free cakes
- Pastries
- Cheesecakes
- Vegan products
- Regionally inspired pastries (such as a French patisserie)
- Decorated cupcakes
- etc.
Just be sure your niche aligns with your skill and interest. In case you are better at decorating celebration cakes but truly hate making cupcakes, then specialize in what you both love doing and are best at doing. This way, it will keep your love for baking alive, and you won’t end up making your business feel like a chore to you.
Other than that, it is worth considering the intensive market research that may enable you to discover the market dynamics you seek to venture into. Highlight the two successful online bakeries and define successful features and trends that you can emulate.
Step #3: Create a brand
As you may know, branding helps create a positive business image for potential customers. They learn who you are and what to expect from you and your baked goods.
Strong branding builds an emotional connection with customers and sets you apart from competitors. You’re not just another local bakery — Your vision, values, and goals define your business. When people connect with you, they understand what your company stands for.
Besides, your bakery brand is a blueprint for your business, telling the story that links you to your customers. Here are 5 ways on how to start an online bakery brand:
How to start an online bakery business brand
Another thing to note in Step #3 of how to start an online bakery guide is that your branding should align with all your marketing elements, such as your logo, website, posters, takeout boxes, and signage.
A positive brand image encourages customers to return, building brand loyalty. This loyalty can lead to word-of-mouth promotion, where customers spread the word about your business.
Step #4: Set up your online presence
An online bakery store where you can sell your cookies to a broad audience, all without needing a traditional brick-and-mortar shop for people to visit. So, the essential thing after establishing your brand is to set up your online presence. But have you registered your brand yet?
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Register your business
To ensure your business operates legally one more time, bakers need to secure the necessary permits and licenses and register your business with the Secretary of State’s Office. The most crucial process is first creating your business organization, as it will influence your general operations and tax liabilities to a great extent.
Besides, if you want to aid in selecting the most appropriate business structure, navigate to the SBA website and select the “Choose a business structure” link. When you find that a sole proprietorship is the best structure for your business, then the next thing that you need to do is call your county clerk’s office in your local area to register your company.
Taxes are one of the most essential aspects you should note in every guide on how to start an online bakery.
In addition to this, you will also need to have an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service for your business. It should be uncomplicated since you can obtain it online at irs.gov.
Your EIN will probably be the most publicized business identifier key required for banking, tax returns, and any other related paperwork in the legion of documents you may generate for business purposes.
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Choose the best Shopify Theme for online bakery
Shopify hosts over 4.8 million businesses worldwide, with a very user-friendly interface, security that feels impenetrable, and great scope for customization — making it the best platform to launch an online bakery store.
Their data shows that strategically, merchants have grown immensely with Shopify alone: their total sales amount to more than $444 billion. These are just some reasons why Shopify is preferred by most looking to build an online business.
And one of the most critical factors for success is selecting the perfect Shopify theme for your online bakery. People form first impressions in under 1/10th of a second, which goes the same for your Shopify ecommerce theme.
Indeed, a good theme will invite the customers to linger awhile, while a not-so-good one will not only make them distrust their hosts but also driveway away. That is why Omni Themes strongly recommends you leverage the Eurus theme, which has a 98% positive rating on Shopify.
With the Eurus Shopify theme, you will have to spend very little time and investment. There is nothing to worry about. A quick and fabulous fix to get your bakery delivered online is done in minutes, stylishly, and:
👉 1-time payment for lifetime use
👉 Free lifetime theme updates
👉 Free Store Design Consultation
👉 Free support
👉 Unlimited free trial till your online bakery store goes live!
📌 More reasons why you should choose Eurus:
- Speed and conversion-optimized: Designed with Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS for lightweight and fast performance, with over 99-speed score on desktop and 90 on mobile.
- Highly customizable: More than 40 drag-and-drop sections and 80+ templates to reflect your brand.
- App-free design: It helps to save extra cash burden as 20+ among the built-in features perform as the replacement of external apps.
Below is a well-filtered overview of 8 simple steps to customize your online bakery with the Eurus theme.
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8 easy steps to customize and launch your online bakery with Eurus
In eight quick steps, you go from zero to a stunning online bakery website with Eurus:
- 1. Pick your look – Begin by selecting from preset designs like Puff, Breeze, Breath, Swirl, or Whiff, each crafted to showcase your products in the best light.
- 2. Drag and drop – Utilize the no-code, intuitive interface to quickly arrange your store’s layout and incorporate essential features.
- 3. Product Showcase – Next, you can entice customers by adding delicious baked goods with high-resolution images and compelling descriptions.
- 4. Brand Alignment – Customize the theme to mirror your brand’s style, ensuring Eurus perfectly complements your store or bakery chain.
- 5. Go Live – Publish your store with just a click, opening your doors to customers globally.
- 6. Local delivery and store pickup support – Now, outside of normal delivery, bakers can choose from 2 options: local delivery and store pickup to promote better customer service for your bakery store. This is very friendly to customers who need the convenience of picking up fresh bakes or getting them right at their doorsteps.
- 7. Order Management – Keep a pulse on your business with Eurus’s smart and efficient order management tools.
- 8. Continuous Support – Benefit from ongoing support and updates to keep your online bakery running smoothly.
Moreover, you can understand our Eurus Shopify theme better with our free shopify theme set up and design consultation right here. You’ll gain insights into creating a successful online bakery store besides learning more about the unique selling features of the theme itself.
Step #5: Plan how you will make and deliver your products (Logistics and operations)
We all know most baked products are perishable goods. For this reason, Omni Themes experts would like you to consider the most essential thing in your analysis as you think of ways to start an e-bakery.
Here are some of the aspects to consider in how to start online bakery in Step #5 :
- How will you store your ingredients and ready-to-sell products?
- How long does it take for your products to bake?
- What are your working hours?
- Which days are you shopping for ingredients on?
- How will products be delivered to the customers?
That means beginning your work on an online bakery starts with making plans for your logistics. Also, it is essential to be prepared to stock the raw materials and the baked products should a situation arise that influences demand to increase or decrease.
Step #6: Price your baked goods to promote profitability
One of the most essential things about pricing a baked good is more than just matching the competition. You want to cover your costs-ingredients, labor, and other overhead like business fees and farmers market charges-but also yield a margin for profit. But how do you arrive at those numbers with some degree of accuracy?
First, could you create a detailed spreadsheet of every ingredient you use with the costs in standard quantities?
☑️Use this information to determine how much each recipe’s ingredients will cost.
Imagine that your company sells cupcakes. You can use your spreadsheet to determine the cost of a batch’s ingredients like flour, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, and eggs. You would then be okay with determining $0.66 for a dozen eggs costing $4.00 in your recipe with two eggs. The final step is to calculate your batch cost of cupcakes.
- In this example, assume it costs you $10.00 to make a batch. Quite simply, divide the price by the number of cupcakes you get in a batch.
- Again, using the above example, your $10.00 batch yielded 30 cupcakes, so $0.33 is your cost per cupcake. As stated, this is only the ingredient cost per cupcake. (Example: $10.00/30 cupcakes = $0.33/cupcake).
Besides, it’s good to go back and re-evaluate your prices now and again. Cost prices vary — your bakery will change, and what works today may need some tweaking tomorrow. Keeping your pricing right is about keeping your finger on the pulse of your business and your customer’s needs.
Step #7: Promote your bakery and start selling
Congratulations! You have identified and specified a target market and niche, and you’re just about ready to get started with an online presence. Now, it’s time to dive into marketing!
Do you have a favorite inspirational Instagram account? Well, that’s where your online bakery begins. Your website, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and other socials should be filled with fresh images of your mouth-watering goodies, happy customers, and seasonal greetings.
How to start an online bakery with social media
Social media will work wonders for selling cakes and cookies, but it is also a lot of work. Furthermore, if you have a marketing budget, bakers should look at building a rich website with a blog and spending money on SEO marketing, social ads, and other paid adverts.
So, you have your business and marketing plans and a schedule, and the orders and rave reviews start rolling in. And now, maybe you dream of your star turn-on shows like Best Baker in America.
Conclusion – Are you ready to start a bakery online?
Starting an online bakery in 2024 is even more promising than ever because, with very few steps, you can cash in on this booming business of convenient, quality baked goods. Once again, proper planning and applying specific tools like the Eurus Shopify theme makes the going much smoother and more accessible than it seems, and your bakery is distinctly different from all others.
Most importantly, we’re always here to support your vision if you want to know more about Eurus theme. Our experts eagerly await to show you how the Eurus theme can transform your online bakery presence in minutes. Take advantage of our free trial and start this journey together. Thank you for reading our guide on how to start an online bakery!
