Today, the Atlanta bakery serves a wider menu than ever, from cupcakes, cakes and cake pops to specialty coffee, food and breakfast items, and it hosts events in its own space.

Walk-in cupcake customers still bring in most of the revenue, with online and catering orders close behind. Pre-orders are split roughly half pickup and half delivery, with a small share shipped. And since switching to Zapiet in 2020, Kupcakerie's online orders have tripled, while the labour needed to fulfil them has been cut in half.

Before Shopify, Kupcakerie ran its website on Squarespace. The templates were beautiful and easy to use, but the platform couldn't do what a growing bakery needed. There was no way to set lead times on pickups and deliveries, keep pickups and deliveries separate so they were easy to see, let customers choose pickup dates and times that staff could filter by date, or limit how far the bakery would deliver. 

The team even looked at hiring a developer to build a website from scratch. Then COVID hit, delivery orders skyrocketed, and they needed to move fast. 

After researching their options, Kupcakerie moved to a completely new platform to be able to use Zapiet. 

Different products need different amounts of prep, so Kupcakerie sets lead times by product. Standard cupcakes, where customers pick their flavours, have a one-day lead time. For last-minute orders, a baker's choice variety can be ordered online for the same day, up until 1:00pm. Cakes need three days and are pickup only because they're more fragile, and cake pops also have a three-day lead time to allow for preparation. 

Kupcakerie uses zip codes to set its Atlanta delivery areas and charges one flat delivery fee wherever the order is going, to keep things simple for customers. Orders are limited per three-hour time window rather than per day, and when a day looks too hectic, the team brings in third-party carriers to help lighten the load. 

The day before, the team uses the date picker to see all of the next day's orders on one page while putting together the prep board. On the day, front of house staff use it to make sure no order is missed when boxing everything up. 

Since setting up Zapiet, Kupcakerie takes more orders with very few mistakes. Third-party delivery partners and the routing the team uses for in-house deliveries are connected directly, so nobody has to enter orders manually. That time saved has let Kupcakerie deliver 7 days a week instead of 6.

Kupcakerie is opening two new stores by the end of the year. The plan is to use Zapiet to route pickup and delivery orders automatically to each store, giving more customers access and reducing delivery costs by having locations closer to them. As the bakery grows beyond that, it plans to do the same with future locations. 

Craving fresh-baked treats in Atlanta? Order fresh cupcakes for local pickup or delivery straight to your door. Visit Kupcakerie today!