How a Bakery Went From Creating Bespoke Cakes to Shipping DIY Kits During COVID-19
How a Bakery Went From Creating Bespoke Cakes to Shipping DIY Kits During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Facebook BusinessWhen the coronavirus outbreak caused the cancellation of social gatherings and events, order cancellations at Hoboken, NJ’s Sugarsuckle cake shop went with it. “We had to come up with a new product — fast,” co-founder Jen Choi says, aware that the market for beautiful bespoke cakes had just about dried up.
Jen also knew that sheltering in place meant families would spend more time together at home and could benefit from fun, kid-friendly activities to do around the house. Anticipating the changing needs of her customers, Jen seized the opportunity to create new DIY baking kits with pre-measured ingredients, essential supplies, instructions and pro tips from her team.
Kits featuring new recipes would be available for pickup and delivery every week, giving customers a new routine to look forward to.
Jen spread the word about the kits on social media, but she used the bakery’s digital presence to do more than promote new products. She expressed gratitude to her loyal customers, highlighted her hardworking staff, communicated openly about when the bakery needed to take breaks and motivated Sugarsuckle’s community to share photos of their finished DIY projects.
Inspired by Jen’s story, we caught up with her to hear about launching a new product during the COVID-19 outbreak, staying in touch with customers and more.
How did you come up with the idea for at-home kits?
In the past, we had successfully hosted summer and winter break baking camps, and from those camps, we had a compilation of tried-and-true recipes that were kid-friendly and easy to follow. The idea was to take these recipes and create DIY baking kits.
How did you get customers excited about the new product?
Our Facebook and Instagram followers are very engaged and happen to be somewhat local, so we use the platforms to make big announcements and share behind-the-scenes activity. With each kit, we provide our social media handles and ask our customers to tag us, saying “Share favorite details of your baking project by tagging us @sugarsuckle or #sugarsuckle on Instagram or Facebook.” When they tag us, we share their photos with our followers so they can see real people using the kits and having fun. It’s a great marketing tool for us.
What kind of feedback did you get once the kits launched?
The response from our community was amazing. At first, it wasn't easy pivoting from creating beautiful bespoke cakes to fulfilling DIY baking kits, but all of the shared feedback and photos made us so happy. It gave us all the encouragement to keep going for eight straight weeks, including two big holidays.
Why do you think the kits were such a success?
The kits were a huge convenience in many ways, because they eliminated having to make dreaded trips to the supermarket to buy ingredients, which were subject to availability anyway. The kits also made baking less stressful with pre-measured ingredients. Many families look forward to our weekly kits as a special family activity to do on weekends.
How have you approached messaging your community during such a sensitive time?
We try to keep our messaging consistent across our newsletters, social media and the introduction section in our . We also try our best to release the weekly menu consistently on Sunday mornings. If we need to call a break, we announce exactly which date we’ll be back, and we try to keep our social media content relevant by steering clear of anything related to big events and parties. We’re extremely thankful to our community and our long-time customers, so we also use our platforms to make sure they know that.
What are some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome in order to keep this effort going?
Availability of ingredients and shipping delays have been huge pain points. We have to carefully plan our baking kit offerings around what ingredients and supplies are available in the bakery in the coming week. For small issues, we’ve had to table new kit ideas for later and for larger issues, like delayed shopping bags and packaging materials, we’ve had to announce a break until the shipment arrives.
What are other things Sugarsuckle has done differently?
We know other smaller and newer businesses are hurting too, so we’ve approached them about contributing products to our online shop. We’ve even helped the Hoboken Girl Scouts sell off their cookies as their booth sales have been canceled. When Sugarsuckle was just getting off the ground, there were more experienced businesses that helped us, and helping other businesses get extra exposure is just a small way for us to give back.
Do you have any advice for other small business owners who are up against similar challenges right now?
It’s OK to completely change your business model during this pandemic. Try your best to stay on brand, whether this is including your branding on new products or selling items that you and your brand will truly stand behind.
We’re continuing to explore how we can help support businesses through this challenging time, and have created resources for how restaurants and cafés can adapt and respond. You can also visit our Business Resource Hub to see additional opportunities and resources.
Has your business adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic? We’d like to hear from you.
Get Facebook Business news in your inbox.
Sign up for our monthly newsletter for the latest updates, insights, marketing trends and articles from Facebook.
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Interviews
May 29, 2020
How a Bakery Went From Creating Bespoke Cakes to Shipping DIY Kits During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Jen also knew that sheltering in place meant families would spend more time together at home and could benefit from fun, kid-friendly activities to do around the house. Anticipating the changing needs of her customers, Jen seized the opportunity to create new DIY baking kits with pre-measured ingredients, essential supplies, instructions and pro tips from her team.
Kits featuring new recipes would be available for pickup and delivery every week, giving customers a new routine to look forward to.
Jen spread the word about the kits on social media, but she used the bakery’s digital presence to do more than promote new products. She expressed gratitude to her loyal customers, highlighted her hardworking staff, communicated openly about when the bakery needed to take breaks and motivated Sugarsuckle’s community to share photos of their finished DIY projects.
Inspired by Jen’s story, we caught up with her to hear about launching a new product during the COVID-19 outbreak, staying in touch with customers and more.
How did you come up with the idea for at-home kits?
In the past, we had successfully hosted summer and winter break baking camps, and from those camps, we had a compilation of tried-and-true recipes that were kid-friendly and easy to follow. The idea was to take these recipes and create DIY baking kits.
How did you get customers excited about the new product?
Our Facebook and Instagram followers are very engaged and happen to be somewhat local, so we use the platforms to make big announcements and share behind-the-scenes activity. With each kit, we provide our social media handles and ask our customers to tag us, saying “Share favorite details of your baking project by tagging us @sugarsuckle or #sugarsuckle on Instagram or Facebook.” When they tag us, we share their photos with our followers so they can see real people using the kits and having fun. It’s a great marketing tool for us.
What kind of feedback did you get once the kits launched?
The response from our community was amazing. At first, it wasn't easy pivoting from creating beautiful bespoke cakes to fulfilling DIY baking kits, but all of the shared feedback and photos made us so happy. It gave us all the encouragement to keep going for eight straight weeks, including two big holidays.
Why do you think the kits were such a success?
The kits were a huge convenience in many ways, because they eliminated having to make dreaded trips to the supermarket to buy ingredients, which were subject to availability anyway. The kits also made baking less stressful with pre-measured ingredients. Many families look forward to our weekly kits as a special family activity to do on weekends.
How have you approached messaging your community during such a sensitive time?
We try to keep our messaging consistent across our newsletters, social media and the introduction section in our online shop. We also try our best to release the weekly menu consistently on Sunday mornings. If we need to call a break, we announce exactly which date we’ll be back, and we try to keep our social media content relevant by steering clear of anything related to big events and parties. We’re extremely thankful to our community and our long-time customers, so we also use our platforms to make sure they know that.
What are some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome in order to keep this effort going?
Availability of ingredients and shipping delays have been huge pain points. We have to carefully plan our baking kit offerings around what ingredients and supplies are available in the bakery in the coming week. For small issues, we’ve had to table new kit ideas for later and for larger issues, like delayed shopping bags and packaging materials, we’ve had to announce a break until the shipment arrives.
What are other things Sugarsuckle has done differently?
We know other smaller and newer businesses are hurting too, so we’ve approached them about contributing products to our online shop. We’ve even helped the Hoboken Girl Scouts sell off their cookies as their booth sales have been canceled. When Sugarsuckle was just getting off the ground, there were more experienced businesses that helped us, and helping other businesses get extra exposure is just a small way for us to give back.
Do you have any advice for other small business owners who are up against similar challenges right now?
It’s OK to completely change your business model during this pandemic. Try your best to stay on brand, whether this is including your branding on new products or selling items that you and your brand will truly stand behind.
We’re continuing to explore how we can help support businesses through this challenging time, and have created resources for how restaurants and cafés can adapt and respond. You can also visit our Business Resource Hub to see additional opportunities and resources.
Has your business adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic? We’d like to hear from you.
Tags
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