How to Sell Baked Goods Online (Pre-orders & Made-to-Order)

Not all bakery orders are the same, and each type has different operational requirements. Understanding these categories will help you set up a system that works for your specific product range rather than fighting against it.

Daily bakes are items you produce every day regardless — loaves, croissants, rolls, pastries. Customers order today and collect today or tomorrow. The key challenge here is managing availability. You bake a set quantity each morning, and once it is sold, it is sold. Your online system needs to reflect real-time stock or have sensible cut-off times (order by 8am for same-day collection, for example).

Pre-orders for a specific date are the bread and butter (literally) of bakery online ordering. A customer wants a sourdough loaf for Saturday, a batch of rolls for a dinner party on Friday, or a dozen sausage rolls for a work lunch on Wednesday. They order days or even weeks in advance, you bake to order, and waste drops to nearly zero.

Custom and made-to-order items — primarily celebration cakes and event catering — are a different beast entirely. These involve consultations, variable pricing (a two-tier versus three-tier cake), flavour choices, decorations, and often significant lead times. The ordering process needs to capture detailed requirements, not just a selection from a dropdown.

Subscriptions are a growing model for bakeries. A weekly bread box, a Friday pastry delivery, or a monthly sourdough subscription gives you predictable, recurring revenue. The customer sets it up once and receives their order on a regular schedule. Subscriptions are brilliant for cash flow forecasting and production planning, but they require consistency — miss one delivery and you lose the subscriber.

Your online menu is your shopfront for customers who cannot smell the bread or see the display case. Everything has to be communicated through images and descriptions. For bakeries, this means photography and product information matter enormously.

• Photograph in natural light — baked goods look best in soft, natural light near a window. Avoid flash, which flattens texture and makes everything look artificial. Show the crust of the sourdough, the layers of a croissant, the crumb of a sliced loaf. Texture sells baked goods. Shoot from above for flatbreads and cookies, at 45 degrees for loaves and cakes.
• Handle variable pricing clearly — custom cakes are rarely one-price-fits-all. You can list a starting price ("from £45") and invite customers to enquire, or create tiers (6-inch, 8-inch, 10-inch) with set prices. The simpler your pricing structure, the more orders you will receive. People hesitate when they cannot see a final price.
• State lead times per product — a sourdough loaf might need 24 hours notice, a custom birthday cake might need 5 days, and an elaborate wedding cake might need 4 weeks. Display the required lead time clearly on each product page so customers know what to expect before they start ordering.
• Plan for seasonal rotation — your menu should not be static year-round. Hot cross buns appear in March, mince pies in November, summer fruit tarts in July. Set up your system so you can easily add and remove seasonal items, ideally with dates so they appear and disappear automatically.
• List allergen and ingredient information — this is a legal requirement in the UK under Natasha's Law. Every pre-packaged item must have a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised. Even for non-prepacked items, you must be able to provide allergen information on request. Build this into your product listings from the start.

Pre-orders are a gift to bakeries. Instead of guessing how many loaves to bake and hoping you sell them all, you know exactly what is needed and when. The trick is building a system that turns incoming orders into a clear production plan.

Order cut-off times are the foundation of everything. A cut-off time is the deadline by which customers must place their order for a given collection date. For daily bakes, this might be 6pm the evening before. For custom cakes, it might be 7 days before the collection date. Without firm cut-offs, you will end up with last-minute orders that disrupt your production schedule.

• Batch your production — once the cut-off passes, compile all orders for that collection date into a single production list. Group by product: all sourdough together, all focaccia together, all croissants together. This is far more efficient than making each order individually. A baker working from a batched list can produce 50 loaves as efficiently as 30.
• Set capacity limits — be honest about what you can produce. If your oven fits 20 loaves per bake and you run two bakes per morning, your daily capacity is 40 loaves. Set that as a limit in your ordering system. Once 40 loaf orders are placed for Saturday, Saturday shows as sold out. This prevents over-promising and keeps quality consistent.
• Manage custom cake capacity separately — if you can realistically decorate 10 custom cakes per week, cap it at 10. Custom work is time-intensive and rushing it leads to disappointing results. Many bakeries find that 6-8 custom cakes per week is sustainable for a single decorator, alongside regular production duties.
• Choose your payment approach — for standard pre-orders (loaves, pastries, rolls), take full payment at the time of ordering. No exceptions. For custom cakes, a 50% deposit at booking with the balance due on collection is standard practice. The deposit secures the slot and covers your ingredient costs if the customer cancels.
• Have a cancellation policy — make it clear upfront. For standard pre-orders, full refund if cancelled 24 hours before the collection date, no refund after that (because you have already baked it). For custom cakes, the deposit is non-refundable within 48 hours of the collection date. Put this on your ordering page where customers will see it before checkout.

How the customer receives their order is the final and often most fragile part of the process. Baked goods are delicate. A beautifully decorated cake in the wrong box can arrive as an expensive mess. Plan your fulfilment carefully.

Local collection is the simplest and most cost-effective option. Offer collection time slots so customers do not all arrive at once. Saturday mornings are typically the busiest window for bakery collection — spread it across 2-3 hour slots rather than having everyone turn up at 9am. Label each order clearly with the customer name and have a designated collection area, separate from the shop counter if possible.

• Invest in proper packaging for collection — cakes need rigid boxes with non-slip matting inside. Bread should go in paper bags (not plastic, which traps moisture and softens the crust). Pastries and smaller items work well in kraft paper bags or boxes with a window so the customer can see the contents.
• Local delivery requires extra care — baked goods are fragile, and a sourdough loaf can handle a bumpy ride far better than a layered celebration cake. If you offer local delivery, use flat-bottomed bags for bread and rolls, and rigid cake boxes with internal supports for cakes. Drive slowly over speed bumps. Consider charging a delivery fee (£3-£5 is typical) or setting a minimum order value.
• Define your delivery radius — for most bakeries, a 5-mile radius is sensible for local delivery. Beyond that, the time and fuel cost eats into margins. Batch your deliveries by area and time slot: all north-side deliveries at 10am, all south-side at 11am. This keeps your driver efficient and your costs predictable.
• Postal shipping is only viable for shelf-stable items — biscuits, brownies, flapjacks, and some cookies ship well. Fresh bread, cream cakes, and anything with a short shelf life does not. If you want to offer nationwide shipping, create a specific "letterbox" or "gift box" range designed for postal delivery. Use food-safe packaging with cushioning, and choose a next-day delivery service. Factor in packaging (£1.50-£3 per box) and shipping costs (£3-£6 for Royal Mail next-day).
• Seasonal shipping spikes need planning — if you sell Christmas hampers or Valentine's brownies online, expect order volumes to multiply. Order your packaging supplies well in advance (October for Christmas), book courier collection slots early, and set a clear last-order date for guaranteed delivery. Nothing damages your reputation faster than a Christmas gift arriving on the 27th of December.

Start with collection only. Once that runs smoothly, add local delivery. Only consider postal shipping if you have products that genuinely travel well and the margins to support it. Each fulfilment method adds complexity, so layer them in gradually.