If you have a devoted set of customers that buys from you regularly, you may want to set up a sort of subscription service for your weekly pickups. We get this request all the time, especially from bakers to sell loaves of bread weekly to friends and neighbors. We’re working on building out more features that will help you manage subscriptions but in the meantime, we have some tips on how to use current Hotplate features to make this happen.
Most chefs do this by setting up 1 drop at the start of the month and having their customers pre-order a month’s worth at a time. These are the steps to follow:
Create a drop for the first pickup
Use the description to explain what the pick up schedule will be. We love this one from Laune Bread:
Create a menu item for each subscription type
For example a “4 week subscription” would be a different item than “2 week subscription". Be sure to price the item for the whole month and include the number of weeks included in the description.
When you set inventory: Remember that you’re setting inventory for the number of subscriptions for the month, not individual items. So if you set the inventory to 10 for your "4 week subscription," that’s 10 loaves each week, 40 for the month.
Simplicity is key, especially when you’re offering subscriptions for the first time. Fewer options = fewer headaches for you and your customers!
Add only the first pickup window
To keep things simple, we strongly recommend you offer just 1 or 2 options and keep the same date and time for pickups every week. Your customer will only be selecting their first pickup window when paying for the subscription.
For example: if your customer selects 5pm on Wednesday March 5th at checkout, pickups for the month would be
WEEK 1 5pm on Wed 3/5
WEEK 2 5pm on Wed 3/12
WEEK 3 5pm on Wed 3/19
WEEK 4 5pm on Wed 3/26
Be sure to announce to your customers know that pickups in future weeks will be at the same day and time. We recommend you add this a a section title on your menu to draw attention to it! Like Capitol Jill did here:
Do my customers get text reminders?
As usual, your customers will get reminder texts for the pickup day and time that they selected at checkout (Week 1’s pickup). After Week 1’s pickup, there are 2 ways to get reminder texts out for the following weeks:
Move your subscription orders forward each week:
Edit each order and move the pickup window to the following week, to re-send the automatic reminders.
For example: after the customer picks up at 5pm on Wednesday March 5th, click on their order and change the pickup day/time to 5pm Wednesday March 12th. This way they’ll get automatic pickup reminders for the 12th.
Send a manual message:
On the Orders tab, filter for customers who ordered your subscription item. Click the 3 dots > Text Customers to send a manual text blast to everyone.
For example: Attention March Bread Clubbers! Week 2 pickups are tomorrow 3/12 at 5pm. Your loaf will be on my porch!
Need some help?
If you’ve drafted a subscription drop, we’ll be happy to look over it and offer suggestions. Feel free to email us at [email protected]!
Hotplate Bakers rocking subscriptions
We showed some examples above from how these two bakers set up their bread subscriptions. If you’re local, show some love to their Hotplate storefronts:
Capitol Jill Baking does a Carb Collective Membership which allows customers to pre-order a loaf for every week of the month.
Laune Bread lets customers pre-order bread for every week or every other week through their March Bread Club.
At the start of the new year, Betty Jo's dropped 12 Months of Betty Jo's so customers could purchase all 12 pints ahead of time!