The holidays are a perfect time to showcase your in-store bakery. This is the time of year when shoppers are more likely to take a chance on in-store bakery products, creating an opportunity for bakeries to win a regular customer in the process.
Offer Multiple Sizes and Customize
A general trend within bakery is to give shoppers the option of product in different sizes. During the holidays, customers are preparing for gatherings and get togethers — especially this year after taking a year off — and they are looking to splurge a bit on holiday sweets. Offering a variety of product sizes also allows you to be more attractive with price points. For example, moderately sized desserts are appealing to customers who want to offer more than one option to their guests and are willing to purchase multiple products when size and price are appealing.
Another advantage to in-store baking: It’s customizable. Given the ability to customize, items can easily take on a festive look. Holiday-specific icing colors can be used to convert everyday items into seasonal ones. Add an orange drizzle to everyday brownies and cookies to create seasonal offerings for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Shades of blue, red and green are perfect for the winter holidays.
This year, customers are going to be looking for full-size pies and cakes, full loaves of bread, bulk boxes of cookies, sweet breads and pastries. But also have on hand half pies and loaves of bread and smaller assortments of cookies to cater to the smaller households, as well.
Understand Seasonal Trends and Customer Favorites
It’s important to know what’s popular at a particular time of year and offer easy, ready-to-serve, sharing-sized options to drive impulse purchases. Key bakery categories tend to over-index this time of year and offering increased options in seasonal flavors creates excitement. Chocolate is always the top-selling flavor, so make sure to have enough chocolate items in the mix. Red velvet, peppermint, maple, carrot and pumpkin spice are all popular flavors in high demand during the holiday season. And salted caramel has been steadily climbing and deserves a spot in the holiday flavor mix.
For fall, demand will increase for pound cake, muffins, fruit pies and seasonal cookies, while cupcakes, cookies and brownies tend to perform well for Halloween. Dessert cakes, cream pies, holiday cookie and bar assortments, and bread pudding should be more of a focus for winter holidays. Find these holiday bakery recipes and more on the Seasonal Deli Recipes page of our website.
Understanding your customers and community will enable you to create the proper product mix you’re aiming for, particularly when it comes to specialty bakery items. For example, the Mexican holiday Día de Los Muertos (Nov. 1) features unique baked items, as does Three Kings Day (Jan. 6), which is a popular holiday among Hispanic communities. Día de Los Muertos is celebrated with a buttery sesame or sugar bread loaf called “Bread of the Dead.” Around Three Kings Day, the customary Rosca de Reyes — a wreath-shaped sweet bread with candied fruit on top and an infant Jesus figurine baked inside — is popular. Recognizing these occasions creates opportunities to capture sales.
Work with Expert Partners
Since the creation of many of these holiday sweets and specialty pastries requires an expertise that your staff may not have, you might want to look at working with outside vendors to ease the burden on bakery staff. Vendors can also provide quality premade products that fit into specific dietary guidelines, such as dairy free, low sugar and gluten free. These items often have specific government regulations, and you may not have the time, space and equipment needed to properly produce these products.
And finally, to drive awareness of both new products and limited-time-offer items, partnering with your marketing team is critical to making your holiday bakery products easy for customers to find. To execute a successful display, it is essential to practice the four Ps of marketing: Product, Placement, Pricing, Promotion. When you’re delivering high-quality, unique products, be sure to ask for help to create winning marketing strategies.
