In today’s digital-centric world, it’s no surprise that more and more bakeries are embracing digital technology to help them become more efficient and more connected to their customers. Two areas in particular—delivery and automation—are seeing increased acceptance among bakeries.

In this article, we explore how leveraging digital technology—in both your delivery business and your daily operations—can equip your bakery for greater business success.

The good news is, incorporating digital technology into your bakery’s day-to-day operations can be surprisingly easy.

Expand Your Business With Digital Delivery Services

An option consumers came 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 have ordered groceries online, and with grocery delivery now on par with 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? For one, it’s a great way to draw more business from Gen Z and Millennials, who actively embrace digital technology.

What’s more, bakery goods like cookies and brownies travel very well through delivery channels. And a digital ordering platform highlighting an “add a cookie” or a “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 bakeries’ growing adoption of this technology, the in-store experience will always be important. Older consumers, including Gen X and Boomers, prefer the in-store experience,¹ presumably for the social interaction. Incorporating online ordering for your valued younger customers ensures your bakery has strong appeal with 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 bakery ingredient companies have digital tools in place to help their bakery partners achieve greater efficiencies. 

Dawn Foods offers their customers a customized online portal to make managing their bakeries easy—through an enhanced shopping 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 one button. 

By using Dawn Foods’ online bakery account, bakers don’t have to spend time researching what to order or recalling specific product quantities or intervals. The account portal gives bakers access to 13 months of order history, connecting users immediately to past orders. 

Source: Dawn Foods

They can quickly pivot where needed—adding new ingredients or increasing quantities of popular items. Dawn Foods provides system users with access to their full product catalog, so bakery staff can easily explore all the items available. 

Bakeries also have instant access to full product information, including descriptions, images, specifications and allergen and nutritional documentation—giving staff members everything they need to develop their next Limited Time Offer or seasonal treat. Bakers can add ingredients to their cart from Dawn’s full library of recipes or create custom shopping lists.

Source: Dawn Foods

Take Your Office with You

One benefit bakers who’ve made the move to an online business management system really appreciate is 24/7 access to their business. Bakers have the flexibility to log on anytime, anywhere to complete 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 in the bakery to be spent on what you do best—creating the desserts consumers want.

“We designed our online bakery portal with our customers in mind. The accounts help our bakers better manage the daily tasks needed to run their businesses and provide inspiration to take their bakery cases to the next level,” says Diana Semack, Sr. Manager of Digital Marketing at Dawn Foods.

If you’re a current Dawn Foods customer interested in taking advantage of an online account, you can start the registration process today. Sign up here or reach out to a Dawn sales representative to learn more.

1. IFMA CPP 2023