In today’s digital-centric world, it’s no surprise that more and more bakeries are adopting digital technology to help them become more efficient and more connected to their customers. Two areas in particular – delivery and automation – are seeing increasing acceptance among bakeries.
In this article, we explore how leveraging digital technology – both in your delivery business and in your day-to-day operations – can equip your bakery for greater business success.
The good news is that incorporating digital technology into your bakery’s daily operations can be surprisingly easy.
Grow your business with digital delivery services
An option consumers have come to rely on during COVID, delivery continues to be a strong sales driver for restaurants and grocery stores. Now, it’s gaining traction with bakeries. Considering that more than half of consumers ordered grocery products online, and with product delivery alongside in-store pickup,1 It’s easy to see how tapping into this strong consumer preference by partnering with a third-party delivery company — like DoorDash, Uber Eats, or GrubHub — could be a welcome profit opportunity for your bakery.
Attract more customers, capture impulse purchases
Why should you consider expanding into online delivery? On one hand, it’s a great way to attract more Gen Z and Millennial businesses, who are actively adopting digital technology.
What’s more, baked goods like cookies and brownies travel very well through delivery channels. And a digital ordering platform highlighting the “add a cookie” or “add a brownie” option is an attractive way for your bakery to capture incremental sales.1
Once you’ve made the decision to “go digital,” you’ll want to make sure you effectively make your customers aware of this new option by advertising it in-store, on your website, and on your social media channels.
A valuable complement to in-store sales
Even with the increasing adoption of this technology by bakeries, the in-store experience will always be important. Older consumers, including Gen X and Boomers, prefer the in-store experience,1 presumably for social interaction. Incorporating online ordering for your valued younger customers ensures your bakery has strong appeal to all audiences, creating the best of both worlds.
Improve efficiency by automating business operations
Automating many of your business functions with digital technology can help your bakery become more profitable and efficient. Many baking ingredient companies have digital tools to help their baking partners achieve greater efficiency.
Dawn Foods offers its customers a personalized online portal to make managing their bakeries easier – through an enhanced purchasing and account management experience that connects bakery staff directly to products, recipes, insights, inspiration and more. Bakery staff can even reorder previous orders with the click of a button.
By using Dawn Foods’ online bakery account, bakers don’t have to spend time researching what to order or remembering specific product quantities or ranges. The account portal gives bakers access to 13 months of order history, immediately connecting users to past orders.
Source: Dawn FoodsThey can change quickly when needed – adding new ingredients or increasing the quantity of popular items. Dawn Foods provides system users with access to the full product catalog so bakery staff can easily explore all available items.
Bakeries also have instant access to complete product information, including descriptions, images, specifications, and nutritional and allergen documentation, giving employees everything they need to develop their next limited-time offer or seasonal treat. Bakers can add ingredients from Dawn’s complete recipe library to their cart or create personalized shopping lists.
Source: Dawn FoodsTake your office with you
One benefit that bakers who have moved to an online business management system really appreciate is the 24/7 access to their business. Bakers have the flexibility to log on anytime, anywhere to perform simple tasks like reordering products or adding items to their shopping lists.
Whether on the go or at home, you can turn any internet-connected device into an office, allowing time at the bakery to be spent doing what you do best: creating the desserts consumers want.
“We designed our online bakery portal with our customers in mind. Accounts help our bakers better manage the daily tasks needed to run their business and provide inspiration to take their bakery business to the next level,” says Diana Semack, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Dawn Foods.
If you are a current Dawn Foods customer and interested in taking advantage of an online account, you can begin the registration process today. Sign up here or contact a Dawn sales representative to learn more.
1. CPP IFMA 2023
