How To Deliver Baked Goods

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The Paper Mart Guide To Packaging And Shipping Baked Goods

How to Package and Ship Baked Goods

Shipping cookies, cupcakes, or chocolate? Make sure your baked creations come out of their packaging just as they came out of the oven perfect! Just because you sell tasty baked goods doesnt mean shipping your products isnt serious business. Ensuring that delicious creations arrive in mint condition can get a little tricky, especially if youre shipping perishables that require temperatures of 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower during shipment. After all, who wants to open a box of crumbled cookies or melted chocolate?

To help keep your customers happy and their sweet tooth satisfied we put together some essential tips to ensure that your baked goods are delivered in prime condition.

Move More Product While Its Still Fresh On The Day You Make It

Day-old bread always sells for less, even though you incur the same cost to make it. What if you could move more of it out the door the day you bake it?

The flexibility of same-day delivery can help you push as much fresh bread, cakes, or cookies out the door at the highest price. Maybe youre regularly left with a large amount of day-old goods, but you dont want to reduce quantities. Customer preferences change and having extra on hand is better than running out.

With a same-day delivery service provider like Dropoff, you can move as much product out the door at full price while still having a surplus just in case.

What other ways does your bakery benefit from same-day delivery? Tell us in the comments.

Delightful Bakery Goods To Order Online

Give the gift of homemade desserts without toiling away in the kitchen. Our gift baskets can be ordered from the comfort of your own home, which means that last-minute deliveries are never a problem. We have an assortment of gourmet baked goods for any occasion. Send the birthday boy a Mrs. Fields Sunshine Basket filled with rich brownie bites and a variety of cookies. There are treat trays of chocolate-dipped nibbles, boxes of tasty macaroons, and so much more. Classic desserts like chocolate chip cookies are thoughtful choices for memorial services. Send your heartfelt condolences with our sympathy gift baskets filled with sweet treats and baked goods.

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Heres How Bakeries Can Benefit From Same

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Aaaahthe smell of freshly baked treats. We all know and love that smell. And what makes it even better? Having a bakery delivery option to drop off the goods at your doorstep same-day.

Customer expectations are increasing in virtually every market segment, and the bakeries that make fresh bread, cakes, cupcakes, and cookies are no exception.

With bakery items,freshness is paramount. That means that customers want to purchase smaller quantities, but more frequently.

Bakers: how can you keep up with the increase in smaller, on-demand orders? You can invest heavily in logistics and supply chain infrastructure on your own. Or, you can plug into a same-day delivery provider with the infrastructure already built in.

For many small bakeries, the funds required for infrastructure upgrades just arent available. And in practice, these bakery owners could keep doing exactly what theyre doing have staff double up as delivery drivers, or outsource to a local courier service.

SusieCakes Bakery leverages same-day bakery delivery for its stores across the country. With its size and national scope, partnering with a reliable and professional courier was a no-brainer. With a national partner, SusieCakes can offer cake lovers nationwide a same-day delivery option, with the added benefit of being able to track all of the orders in real-time, with visibility at local, regional, and national levels too.

Consider Freezing Before Shipping

Best Baked Goods

Hedeman is a big proponent of freezing, both as a way to protect the baked good by making it harder and more solid, and to help it stay fresh en route. He recommends enfolding the treat tightly in plastic wrap or a ziploc bag before freezing. For cookies, he says, you could even wrap them on a plate with plastic, and then freeze them in the arrangement youd like them to present in.

If going the frozen route, you dont need an insulated shipping container, says Hedeman just keep the cookies or baked goods in their plastic packaging and let them defrost as they travel. There might be some moisture due to the defrosting, but not so much that the package leaks, which would go against USPS rules. Still, just to be safe, Hedeman advises against using water-soluble packaging materials like biodegradable packing peanuts.

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Reason : Guessing Or Pricing Like Your Competition Isnt Accurate

There are several ways that people decide on a selling price. Here are a few examples of scenarios I have been in as a business owner.

Pricing based on your competition Lets say you are a gourmet cupcake store in a town with another gourmet cupcake store. The other cupcake shop sells their cupcakes for $3.00 ea. You know that your customers will pay that price because they already are at the other store. You price your cupcakes at the same price as your competition.

Pricing based on demand You are the only cupcake store in town. People love your cupcakes and stand in line to buy them. You price your cupcakes at the highest price that people will continue to pay.

In very simple terms, you should be trying to make the right quantity of product that your customers will buy, then charge as much as you can to get rid of it. If you cant get rid of that quantity, start discounting it and adjust your quantity the next time you bake.

In the end it really comes down to finding a balance between how much you make and how much you charge.

How To Pack Up Baked Goods For Shipping By Mail

Doubling up on packaging is essential. First, the box to hold the baking. Bakery boxes work, of course, however Tupperware or metal tins are preferable for airtight seals and reusable options. Choose appropriately sized containers to hold everything close. If there is headspace, fill with bubble wrap, balled up plastic wrap or parchment paper, so nothing tumbles if inverted. If you are concealing the interior contents with festive paper, make sure to include an open now tag so the recipient doesnt hesitate to unwrap.

Place the container inside a slightly larger shipping box. Stuff the surrounding gap with crumpled recyclable paper, scrap fabric, or an additional gifta scarf, gloves or rolled socks. When you think all is set, give the box a light shake, understanding the mailing process might not be as gentle. If nothing shifts with the movement, youre good to go.

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How Will Your Business Benefit

Delivery is an added service that your customers will not necessarily take for granted, but it is definitely something that they may appreciate. If they are regular customers of your home baking business, they likely already know what products you have to offer and would love to save the time needed to drop in by getting the goods delivered directly to their home.

Customer satisfaction is important for the continuity of your business. Offering a service like delivery is likely to keep your customers happier with your business and become regular customers.

In addition, a delivery service may help to expand your client base and make more sales of your products. Youd be surprised how many people would like to buy your products, but just dont muster up the energy to drive to your home and buy the goods. Delivery makes it easy for people to access your business and buy your products, increasing your business.

Delivery can also be an additional source of revenue, as it is normal to charge a service fee. This fee can simply cover costs or make a little profit to increase the benefits for your business.

How To Ship Macarons

Your Guide to Packing, Wrapping & Shipping Baked Goods

Follow these steps to protect your delicate French macarons in transit:

  • Place your macarons in a macaron container. These French cookies are extremely fragile, so they require sturdier packaging than other types of cookies. Their strong flavors diffuse, so we recommend using airtight packaging and separating flavors.
  • Use a shipping box that fits your plastic container snugly. You dont want to leave room for the plastic container to knock around during transit.
  • Slide icepacks around the macaron container. This keeps them fresh and safe to consume.
  • Use packing materials. This keeps the macarons in place during the shipping process.
  • Choose next-day shipping. Work with a carrier you trust.
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    When Packing Keep Flavors Separated Bags And Containers Airtight And Everything Snug

    Vitak packs her cookies in separate ziploc bags, often one big one for the majority of the cookies, and additional smaller bags for cookies with strong flavors. The biggest lesson Ive learned is that when you have several flavors in a bag for a few days, those flavors diffuse across all the cookies, she tells me. From her years of experience, shes learned to always separate lemon, coffee, ginger, mint, and almond-flavored cookies. She then squeezes as much air out of the ziploc bags as possible before sealing, places the bagged cookies in a shipping box, and surrounds the contents with bubble wrap or styrofoam packing peanuts.

    Cookie tins are also an option, but they come with some limiting factors: namely, youre much more constrained in the number of cookies you can pack and the tin needs to be full to minimize movement, per Vitak.

    Jannuzzis Cookies favors a similar packaging method: for each standard order, Rush packs a kraft paper bag typically one with a tin tie, although there are also ziploc varieties with a dozen cookies, seals the bag, and then slips it into a bubble wrap pouch, which then gets surrounded by a layer of tissue paper and tied off with bakers twine. Jannuzzis uses corrugated shipping boxes measured exactly to size from East Coast Packaging. Generic boxes are fine, too, says Rush just be sure to pad out the package with materials like tissue paper, kraft paper, inflated air pillows, newspapers, or even old rags and towels.

    Can You Ship Baked Goods Internationally

    If youre asking yourself, How do I ship baked goods internationally for Mothers Day, then youve come to the right place. All the above couriers – USPS, UPS, and FedEx, will get your goods to international destinations across the world, including Canada, the EU, and Asia. You can even use USPS to send baked goods to military destinations.

    The US only allows the shipping of baked goods if they are going from one individual to another. It must be marked as a gift on the customs form. So, if youre shipping to a relative in the US from Canada, do keep that in mind.

    Some countries dont allow home-baked food items to be shipped at all. Australia, for example, only allows commercially-made and packaged goods with no raw parts through its mail service. Make sure you check that in advance. You may also need to consider taxes and duties if youre shipping cookies internationally. Dont forget, youll also need to fill out customs forms. Easyship can help you with this by automatically generating these for your shipments.

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    How To Ship Cookies

    Given their hearty nature, cookies are one of the best baked goods to ship. They transport so well, ghost kitchen entrepreneurs have created entire concepts around cookies. Household name Mariah Carey even has a virtual brand, Mariah’s Cookies. However, some cookies ship better than others. Cookies with eggs in their recipe are sturdier than their eggless counterparts , making them better candidates for shipping orders. We explain the ins and outs of how to ship cookies below:

    How Do I Ship Baked Goods Fedex

    Breakfast Gift Baskets

    Package insulated container in a corrugated box

    Place the insulated container inside an outer corrugated box. Close and securely tape the box with pressure sensitive plastic tape. Using the H tape method, apply tape to all flaps and seams. Complete the required paperwork, dangerous goods labeling, and markings.

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    Align Cost Expectations With Customers

    In addition to shipping timing, its also important to align expectations with your customers about how much it costs to ship your baked goods. Perishable items need to be shipped faster and require extra packaging that can add weight, so the total shipping cost is usually higher than the average for non-perishable items.

    You dont want shipping to become a conversion killer, says Mike Elmgreen, the CMO at Handshake, a B2B commerce platform. Provide multiple shipping options, such as standard, express, or rush delivery, which accommodates your customers urgency and their desire for freshness. Online shoppers dont like surprises, and as Elmgreen notes, stating shipping options and costs early in the order and checkout process will help set expectations.

    Customers who are looking to have baked goods and other perishable items shipped usually understand and anticipate the extra costs, but shipping prices may create sticker shock that turns some customers away. Depending on your business model or marketing strategy, it may be worthwhile to offset shipping costs by raising the list prices of your items.

    You can either include the shipping in the price of your items and say shipping included, or you can estimate the cost of shipping and charge the customer that amount at the end of the order, says Zingermans Hedeman. Either way, you should be unapologetic about the cost of shipping. It costs what it costs, and most customers are used to that.

    Package Your Baked Goods For Shipping

    The ideal packaging for baked goods varies by the type of sweet treat youre shipping. No matter what, you must secure them inside their shipping container. There is nothing more disappointing than receiving a crumbled pastry mess in the mail. We provide some bakery shipping tips that will help preserve the structural integrity of your sweets.

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    How To Reach Out To The Possible Businesses

    Once you have narrowed down a few places you would like to approach, it is then time to approach them and ask to sell there.

    The best way to do this is to create a professional email template to send to them.

    Start your email out by introducing yourself and telling them about your fully licensed home business. You should then express that you want to work with them and how your two brands complement one another. Attach a menu of everything and offer to bring them samples of your items.

    Make sure to end your email by asking for a time to meet with them and include all of your contact information. This is a great template to work with and engages a small business so that they are prompted to reach back out to you quickly!

    Many home bakery business owners have even found that once they get their foot in the door with one or two different coffee shops or small businesses, several others tend to reach out and ask to work with them and sell their products as well.

    Keep Bakery Staff Focused On What They Do Best Making The Goods

    3 Ways to Wrap Baked Goods for Holiday Gifting

    Youve likely hired employees who are passionate about and great at baking. And you probably invested countless hours in training to ensure consistency down to every bite.

    In order to deliver baked goods yourself, youve got a couple choices: pull your highly-skilled workers off the task of creating delicious treats to make deliveries, or hire an employee just to manage deliveries.

    Even if you rotate deliveries between baking staff, youre still removing them from what they are best-trained to do. And you would need to supply and maintain vehicles and provide insurance. By hiring a driver, you have someone dedicated to driving but that person might have a lot of paid, idle time, depending on your volume of deliveries.

    With a service who can provide same-day bakery delivery like Dropoff, bakery employees can focus on making delicious baked goods and leave the deliveries to our drivers. And you only pay for deliveries as needed, which cuts out any payment for an idle driver.

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    How To Post A Cake

    Thereâs plenty of reasons why you might want to send a cake via courier. Maybe youâve baked the most scrumptious desert known to humanity, but the person youâve made it for doesnât live locally. Perhaps youâve started your own local baking business and want to know the easiest way to send your cakes to your customers. Posting cakes can be tricky, as thereâs no way to ensure theyâll remain upright, which can lead to some sticky situations. Weâve put together this guide to explain all this and more!

    PREPARING A CAKE FOR POSTING
    PICK THE RIGHT PACKAGING FOR SENDING A CAKE
    HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO POST A CAKE?

    Now that your delicious cake is safe and sound inside the box, itâs time to whip out the old tape measure and weighing scales. When you have this info to hand, simply enter the details into the My Parcel Delivery quote form and youâll get a list of courier delivery costs for posting your cake. Itâs worth booking a Next Day delivery service for something like a cake and we recommend Parcelforce. Prices start at £13.74 and they also offer delivery on Saturday. Perfect for when youâre posting a cake as a gift.

    MPD can cater for a wide range of parcel delivery services.

    Consider Par Baking Your Bread For Shipping

    Par baking stands for partially baking. To par-bake bread, bake the dough 80% of the way and then freeze the loaf. Quick freezing kills the yeasts future power and creates a stable inside without browning the crust. The customer can finish the bread by baking it for an additional 10-15 minutes when it arrives. This allows the customer to enjoy a truly fresh, perfectly browned, and warm loaf of bread.

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