Making your own chocolate chip cookies during your free time is plenty of fun. But what if you could make a part- or full-time living selling food online, especially your favorite baked goods? This is possible by selling baked goods from home and starting a bakery business.
Knowing how to sell cookies online is more than a pipe dream. With the right digital tools, business licensing, and a few phenomenal recipes, you can sell baked goods online. It doesn't have to end at cookies or, either. You can sell candy online, sell wine online, sell beer online, sell whiskey online, sell dairy online, or any other kind of food product you're licensed to purvey.
DTC food is an excellent industry to be in. More than 80% of consumers plan to buy from a direct to consumer brand, and food and beverage is the fastest-growing category of online retail.
Let’s look at the essentials of how to start selling baked goods from home.
Selling Baked Goods Online
Starting an eCommerce business that sells baked goods can be full of fun and profit when you do it right. There are some online business basics, legal precedents, and bakery marketing approaches you should be aware of first. Let’s examine each area before you start selling baked goods from home on your own.
Key Takeaway: It's possible to start selling baked goods online, but you first need to have a solid bakery business plan in place. This will allow you to make a profit and have a thriving business from the beginning.
Can I Sell Baked Goods Online?
If you’re wondering whether or not you can start selling baked goods from home through an online eCommerce marketplace or bakery website, the short answer is yes. However, there are certain food laws your business must adhere to.
The biggest requirements to be aware of are cottage food laws. These are national, yet state-specific food safety requirements for food creators. Whether you’re an up-and-coming cookie baker or an established food brand, these laws exist to protect both you and your customers.
In short, cottage food laws require the following from every business owner:
- Annual inspection by the US health department
- A no-animals-allowed kitchen and cooking environment
- A valid business license from your state of operation
- Adherence to zoning regulations and required permits
- Appropriate food storage equipment for both cold and dry goods
Once these requirements are met, here are additional fundamentals you should research before you start selling baked goods from home:
- Get your food handling certification. Becoming a certified food handler is an industry-recognized mark of professionalism. You’ll know how to keep all ingredients safe in your kitchen and also signal to consumers and the government that you’ve earned their trust. Consider buying eCommerce business insurance and a specific eCommerce business license for additional layers of protection. If you're making the offline-to-online transition (o2o), you probably already have this certification.
- Use the most specific sustainable eCommerce packaging and labeling requirements for your product. Avoiding proper labeling requirements for your products will quickly become a legal headache. Correct labeling practices include listing all ingredients in the item, proper label size, eCommerce packaging that’s appropriate for the product, and listing allergens. This is not an exhaustive list of requirements, but it will put you on the right path.
- Remember to include sales tax. One difficult aspect about collecting sales tax is these laws vary from state to state. However, most states require businesses to collect sales tax if they have a physical location for work functions (kitchen, storefront, or both). BlueCart’s B2B eCommerce solutions include calculating sales tax automatically so you don’t need to.
How to Start Selling Baked Goods Online
When your initial research on how to sell products online is complete, there are other tasks necessary in setting up your business to start selling baked goods from home. The more you can set up ahead of time, the less you’ll be burdened by unforeseen difficulties.
Here’s what you need to complete before the sales come rolling in:
Finalize Your Legal Paperwork
All of your business files should be completed before you start baking goods. This includes sales taxes, eCommerce shipping and handling fees, and any other cost you need to include in the sale of goods. It will also prevent legal issues later on.
Establish a Basic Business Plan
While your bakery business will grow over time, you still need a basic framework to guide your operations. At a minimum, your eCommerce business plan should include:
- Purpose of business (mission statement, values, culture)
- Type of products you sell (including wholesale products to sell)
- Target customer and buyer’s journey (a semi-fictional idea of who you sell to and why)
- Warehouse management procedures, including merchandise inventory and pipeline inventory
- Inventory carrying cost
- Starting bakery equipment, bakery technology, and miscellaneous inventory (any assets beyond raw materials inventory and products)
- Basic sales and eCommerce marketing plan (where, when, and how you’ll reach customers)
- Potential or realized funding sources
- Initial financial projections (cost of opening a bakery, sales, revenue, and net profit expectations for your first quarter)
This information acts as a reference tool when you’re feeling unmotivated, fleshing out a particular part of your business, or hiring employees. A business plan makes it easier to track goals and spot problem areas that need to be fixed.
Set Up Your Online Storefront
Every online business needs a customer-friendly hub for selling their products. When selling baked goods from home, it's important to take the right steps in order to get your business off the ground on the right foot.
Researching options early in the process makes it easier to decide what DTC or B2B eCommerce platform you’ll go with. Make sure the software or site you use provides all of the features your business needs.
Firm Up Your Product Offering or Menu
When selling baked goods from home, keep in mind that your shop needs at least one version of the menu for customers to start buying. The menu should include professional pictures, detailed descriptions, FAQs, and any other information buyers need to make a decision. Consumers are rightfully picky when it comes to food quality. Use this fact to guide your eCommerce catalog design.
Create and Equip Your Kitchen
Your kitchen will need reliable bakery equipment to make those delicious baked goods. When selling baked goods from home, it's smart to set aside enough money in the beginning so you don’t need to constantly buy new equipment.
Here are the essential tools every baked goods chef needs:
- Oven
- Multiple baking pans and/or sheets
- Baking rack
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- Mixing bowls, spoons, and spatulas
- Smallwares (knives, flour sifters, icing tips, etc.)
- Parchment paper
- Pastry bags
- Icing and decoration equipment
- Storage equipment
- Refrigerator, freezer, and/or other food preservation equipment
- Bread slicer (if making bread)
If any equipment on this list is too expensive, consider working in a shared kitchen or renting tools. This makes it easier to produce goods in large batches, then freeze or refrigerate them, and sell them later.
Buy eCommerce Packaging and Labeling Supplies
Every baked goods business needs attractive and legally approved packaging and labeling. Buy enough supplies to cover your initial batches and then some. Occasionally, you’ll need to repackage a product. You’ll definitely need more if you experience a surge in buyers.
If your operations are large enough that you rely on a warehouse, you’ll need to keep materials organized here, too. Buying the right warehouse labels and signage contributes to efficient warehouse management process flow and high fill rate.
Put Together a Marketing and Sales Plan
A business without a defined sales and marketing approach will be short-lived. You should have a clear idea of your ideal customer is when selling baked goods from home, what they need most, their purchasing habits, and their preferred price range. Then, look at the sites they would normally shop on, and reverse engineer from there.
If there’s a high-traffic website relevant to your goods, ask them for a media kit to see what kinds of advertising opportunities are available. Leveraging an established brand can create an influx of new customers.
Another important marketing approach is inbound marketing. This online marketing method focuses on using content, landing pages, and organic traffic methods to bring new leads directly to your business. Take the time to research the kind of content your buyers would be interested in, and then make your own version of it.
Main Marketing Channels to Sell Baked Goods
Every business should focus on the important marketing channels based on their audience and products. Therefore, people who sell baked goods need to carefully select the main platforms and channels to promote their products. Let’s dive a little deeper and see where to sell baked goods.
- Social media. In the last decade, having well-developed and maintained social media channels is a must for every business. Companies need to stay adaptable to the trends in the social media field. Currently, the most popular type of content is video. Therefore, bakeries and people who bake from home can promote and sell baked goods via platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
- Your own website. Having your own website gives you flexibility and opportunities to promote different products and services. It is a must if you want to scale your business. Furthermore, when you sell baked goods on your own website, you have the highest ROI.
- White labeling. A lot of businesses might be interested in purchasing baked sweets and pastries and selling them under their own brand. White labeling gives you the chance to establish a partnership with big brands.
- Marketplaces. Various third-party marketplaces give small businesses the opportunity to sell their products. Some marketplaces like Etsy might be more suitable for customized and unique products.
- Direct personal approach. Prospecting and reaching customers can be a useful approach as well. For example, you can contact local companies and offer them different types of partnerships. You can also partner with businesses in the field of catering and coffee shops.
- Subscription-based deals and websites. In the last decade, subscription boxes and services have become more popular. Baked goods make no difference. You can sell your products via subscription plans. Furthermore, you can contact other subscription businesses and partner with them.
Create and Bake Your Sweets
Finally, the truly fun part can begin! Set aside time blocks in your schedule to bake new goods. Aim to combine only as many raw ingredients as you need to finish your daily goals, as this reduces waste.
Your kitchen should be set up for maximum efficiency. The spaces used for non-preparatory actions, like baking and cooling, should be arranged logically. You can create a mini bakery floor plan and use standard bakery designs as a model for your kitchen.
Run a Business Launch Promotion
When your products are ready for sale, you can gain a lot of momentum up-front by running a launch promotion. Create an attractive offer that people will actually value. A couple examples are three free cookies for every purchase over $30 or 20% off all orders after signing up for your email list.
BlueCart’s eCommerce email marketing features make it easy to run promotions and get results. No longer do you need to worry about reaching the right customer at the right time, as our platform can handle segmentation for you.
How to Sell Home Baked Goods Online
Once your creations are complete, it’s time to make money with them! Selling your home-baked goods online is a straightforward process once the necessary resources are in place.
- Function test your website. Every button, form, and option on your website should be fully functional before launching. If a customer is trying to reach you or buy a product and your site doesn’t work, they may abandon their purchase altogether.
- Double-check your handling, packing, and shipping process. Running an eCommerce operation necessitates fast customer delivery, especially if you’re a B2B business. Most consumers today will consider buying from you a bad experience if shipping takes longer than two business days. You can still ship outside of this timeframe, but it should be clearly noted for your buyers during checkout.
- Announce that you’re open for business. It may seem like a no-brainer, but remember to share with the public that your business is officially open! Humans are naturally interested in new things, so you’ll probably win multiple buyers simply for opening up shop.
- Start executing your marketing plan. Your marketing efforts are only useful if you put them into practice and measure the results. You may discover that some marketing plans work, and others need to be adjusted. This is totally fine because the nature of marketing is thoughtful experimentation. Keep using and refining what has a numeric ROI over time.
- Use a long-term eCommerce marketing strategy. Even if you have hundreds or thousands of dollars at your disposal, spending this money poorly won’t help your business. Think about ways your business can garner attention that don’t need large amounts of financial resources. Recipe blogging, YouTube tutorials, and downloadable eBooks are all content marketing methods that are inexpensive and scale well over time.
- Strengthen your unique selling proposition (USP). Operating an online business, like selling baked goods from home, takes time to start, but once you have momentum, it can provide unprecedented convenience for you. The part most people give up on is attracting repeat buyers who love your goods. Focus on what makes your business unique; this makes it much simpler to sell home-baked goods online. You may find that transitioning into a baking subscription box business generates more revenue with less work. Check out these best baking subscription boxes for ideas on getting started with a subscription box business model.
Which Baked Goods to Sell Online
Wondering which kind of baked goods to sell online? This is an important question to ask. The exciting part is that you can sell virtually any kind of baked good online, provided your product adheres to state and food sales laws.
Here are some high demand products to get you started on selling baked goods from home:
- Cookies. There are hundreds of different cookie recipes. That makes them a great option for baked goods to sell from home.
- Cupcakes. They are primarily associated with events. That’s why you can sell baked goods online for people who search for sweet catering options.
- Cakes. Baking cakes is a hobby for many people. You can advertise your cake-baking services to people from the local community who plan birthday parties for their kids.
- Pies. There’s a wide variety of pies that people can prepare at home and sell these baked goods online. They can be suitable for events or just a tasty dessert after dinner.
- Bread. It’s one of the most popular baked goods to sell from home. A lot of families that wish to eat healthily search for high-quality bread prepared with organic ingredients.
- Cookie bars. They are a convenient snacking option. People who prepare baked goods to sell from home should know that these bars can be frozen to extend their shelf life to one year.
- Brownies. A chocolate brownie is a favorite dessert for many. Whether they are fudgy or cakey, brownies are rich in chocolate and can be the centerpiece of a party.
- Muffins. They can be a versatile product used for both corporate events or a child’s birthday party. Muffins are easy to make and entrepreneurs selling baked goods online can experiment with different recipes or art on the muffins.
Other less popular baked goods to sell from home:
- Cinnamon rolls
- Cheesecakes
- Cookie sandwiches
- Conchas (Mexican sweet bread)
- Scones
- Turnovers
- Crisped rice treats
Best Place to Sell Baked Goods Online
As long as you have the website and digital tools to meet customers’ needs, you can sell baked goods anywhere online. Modern Internet technology allows anyone with business gumption to get their own venture up and running.
BlueCart’s online marketplace simplifies your online food business’s tech needs. Schedule a demo today to learn more about our solutions.
You can also use existing platforms if you only plan to sell in your free time, or create a full website for your new food company. Here are a few more options to consider for selling baked goods from home:
- Shopify
- Bonanza
- Local Harvest
- Yummit
- WordPress
- Facebook Marketplace
- Squarespace
- Etsy
- Amazon
Bake It ‘til You Make It
The work that’s required to get a home-based baking business (or a business selling liquor online) off the ground is well worth it. You get to make your own sweets, offer them for sale, and make money in the process. You could combine these efforts with selling coffee online to create a dessert-centric business. Delivering value to buyers through unique and mouth-watering products will foster brand recall, whether you're selling alcohol online or dry food products.
Frequently Asked Questions About Selling Baked Goods from Home
If you’ve always dreamed of having your own baked goods business, the good news is it’s easier than ever before. Learn more about how to start selling baked goods from home with the frequently asked questions below:
How can I sell my homemade food online?
Selling your homemade food online is simple and rewarding with the right tools. First, you should use an eCommerce website builder to create an online presence for your business. Customers will be able to order directly from your site and find all of the information they need.
Second, you should standardize your recipes and eCommerce packaging. Fast, convenient shipping and handling is a cornerstone of selling food online. Customers expect their orders to show up in great condition, just like anything else.
Third, develop a comprehensive marketing plan that makes your business noticeable. Online food sales is already a crowded market, so you need a completely unique or fantastic product to make money consistently.
How can I promote my homemade food?
Promoting your homemade food is essential for a thriving food business. Here are some promotional strategies that are quick and simple to set up:
- Run flash sales and BOGO deals. Most food has year-round demand, which means strong sales can be hard to come by. Schedule a few buy-one-get-one deals and flash sales to incentivize customers.
- Use online to offline (O2O) marketing. With O2O, you use digital marketing to prompt offline sales. This includes sending emails with in-store-only discount codes, or setting up a webpage that is promoting an in-person event.
- Exhibit at festivals, trade shows, and community events. Food must be experienced in person to be truly effective. Investing some time and money in physical happenings will generate foot traffic, which leads to brand awareness and more sales for your food business.
Can you make money baking from home?
Yes, you can make money baking from home--the upside potential is unlimited. Launching your home-based baking business requires significant financial, time, and energy investments, though.
Whether you’re learning how to sell cookies online or another kind of sweet treat, there’s a lot of work to be done. Obtaining business licensure, buying equipment, and online sales and marketing are all part of making money with baked goods.
You should also learn how to ship cookies because sending food directly to customers is often more difficult than meets the eye. With a clear marketing plan, excellent products, and top-notch customer service, you can make as much money as you want baking from home.