Case Study 1: From Local Bakery to Local Buzz
Building the Online Presence of Sunrise Bizeal Cakes
1.0 Background:
Sunrise Bizeal Cakes is a pure vegetarian retail & wholesale bakery outlet, known for its high-quality cakes, pastries, and beautiful cake designs. Despite its quality offerings, the bakery struggled with visibility due to its location in a narrow street (gully), leading to extremely low footfall & very limited brand awareness in town.
1.1 Problem:
When I joined as the Store Manager, the bakery was receiving:
Only 2–3 orders per day.
Less brand awareness in the local market.
No online presence.
Heavy reliance on walk-in customers, which were already few due to the shop’s location.
1.2 Challenges Faced:
Low visibility due to physical location.
No online presence to reach potential customers.
Underutilization of product quality in marketing.
Limited delivery system to serve customers outside the immediate area.
2.0 My Approach
After observing the extremely bad condition of the bakery, my approach began with proposing to the owner that I take full charge of building its online presence and convincing him to allot a small budget for marketing. I then leveraged the full potential of social media to expand the shop’s reach through hyperlocal marketing, shifting dependency away from aggregators towards a more personalized and flexible delivery system that served customers directly.
To accelerate this shift, I personally called customers after they received their Swiggy/Zomato orders, encouraged them to save our number for future orders at 25–30% lower prices, and assured them of safer, more careful cake delivery. At the same time, I included small notes in aggregator orders requesting customers to share honest feedback on Swiggy/Zomato, which improved ratings and boosted our ranking on those platforms.
This combined approach grew direct orders to 70%, improved customer engagement and retention (60–70%), and maintained both turnaround time and issue resolution time under 1 hour.
2.1 Digital Activation:
Created & managed Instagram & Facebook pages, increasing content output from 0 to 12–15 posts/month.
Implemented a structured posting schedule at peak engagement times.
Used SEO-optimized hashtags via tools like Hashtagify, Later, and Meta Business Suite.
Leveraged analytics to track audience behavior and refine content strategy.
Ensured posts were both engaging and discoverable, driving organic growth and visibility.
Registered the shop on Swiggy and Zomato to enable online ordering.
Targeted local audience within a 20 km radius using Instagram reels, WhatsApp marketing.
2.2 Direct Customer Engagement:
Used Instagram DMs, phone calls, and WhatsApp to take 70% of total orders directly (bypassing aggregator fees).
Followed up with every customer post-delivery to collect feedback/ reviews.
2.4 KPI Tracking & Retention Strategy
Customer review collection rate: 85%+
Average response time to inquiries: <20 minutes
Issue resolution SLA: Within 1 hour
3.0 Reasons for reducing sole dependency on Swiggy/ Zomato:
High Commission Fees - Platforms charged 30-35% per order, cutting deep into margins, especially for mid-priced items, which often forced higher listed prices, making customers think our rates were generally higher.
Loss of Customer Data - No access to buyer contact details, preventing direct re-marketing, loyalty programs, or personalized follow-ups.
Weakened Brand Positioning - Bakery listings were displayed alongside competitors with similar to lower pricing, making it harder to stand out without paying extra for ads.
Limited Promotional Flexibility - Unable to upsell, cross-sell, or offer exclusive discounts and festive bundles directly to customers.
Operational Dependence - Reliance on third-party delivery timelines and service quality risked impacting the customer experience.
