Online sales picked up more steam during the pandemic, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. More than 40% of retail bakers expect retail, wholesale and catering sales to be up by end of 2022, with over half expecting increased online sales, according to Cypress Research in an industry study with Sosland Publishing.

Mitchie Curran of Mitchies Munchies, a cake and sugar arts specialist in Las Vegas, emphasizes that consumers shopping online have a short attention span. “We have 3-7 seconds to capture a user’s attention online,” she points out.

Butterbottoms is an online platform that offers bakeries a chance to sell products throughout the country, and Jenna Ptacek, who launched the company, has set a goal to continually bring fresh baked goods to customers’ homes, which leads to an overall healthy and happy experience.

There’s a growing movement to buy local and support independent establishments, and butterbottoms helps introduce local bakers to a wider audience. Bakeries are encouraged to Include quality photos of your products, have a clean website design, have a user-friendly interface, and incorporate a simple checkout and shipping process, Ptacek recommends.

LBX Food Robotics, a leader in hot food vending, and cake artist Buddy Valastro have partnered to customize Bake Xpress hot food kiosks to serve foods from The Boss Cafe by Buddy Valastro restaurant. The first two machines are co-located at the LINQ Hotel + Experience with The Boss Cafe, which serves fresh baked breads, Italian sandwiches, bakery-style pizza, a hand-crafted on-site fresh mozzarella bar and pastries.

Reward customers who use your online store by setting up a separate online order pickup queue in your bakery, suggests Mike Clements, owner at BakeSmart. Since those orders are already paid for, it doesn’t make sense to force them through your cash register queue.

Special events and holidays prove to be particularly beneficial opportunities to reach out to customers online. During a recent holiday, the iconic dessert brand Milk Bar promoted DoorDash Nationwide Shipping to ship their rule-breaking desserts on DoorDash. Consumers navigate to DoorDash on their mobile device or desktop and search for “Milk Bar” Then they choose cookies from the store page and proceed with checkout.