KANSAS CITY, MO — The new year is here, and retail bakers have the opportunity to begin preparing their limited-time offers (LTOs) and seasonal products for the rest of the year. Especially as volume increases during major holidays, having best practices in place for innovation can keep offerings interesting for consumers and manageable for bakers.
With a seasonal twist
Melissa Trimmer, corporate executive chef at Dawn Foods, noted that specifically in the bakery segment, LTOs can drive impulse purchases.
“When somebody walks through the bakery and sees something they’re used to seeing, maybe they pick it up for their holiday celebration and maybe they don’t,” Melissa said. “But when those bakeries make that extra effort, that’s really when they see that uptick in sales.”
One way bakers can make something creative without overexerting themselves is simply switching up the ingredients on a classic baked good to something more seasonal, nodding to the “newstalgia” trend that is blazing a trail in the retail baking space.
“It’s really to add a seasonal fruit as [bakers] move forward through the year, but the point is that they can take what they’re doing every day and, with a few small tweaks, make it feel really seasonally relevant and enjoy those extra sales,” she said.
Other ways to make a familiar baked good intriguing to consumers is to switch up the decorations, swapping out colors on drip cakes to better fit the time of year or taking the time to add seasonal motifs to staple products.
Look back for the future
Melissa suggests that while bakers plan for LTOs and other seasonal offerings, looking back on what they’ve done over the years can help guide that future. This can look like inspiration guides from over the years or just previous products created seasons ago. While bakers may know these LTOs like the back of their hand, returning holiday products can be a new treat to recent customers or a desired item by regular patrons.
“Just because as a baker it’s not new for us, doesn’t mean it’s not new for consumers,” she said.
While looking back on what was done previously offers opportunities for bakers to reboot or revamp old concepts, finding inspiration online may also lead to innovations. Visual-forward platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest may offer unique ideas, but retail bakers should adapt these complex concepts into more realistic products.
“What we see specifically on TikTok is folks that do fun things, but we would never be able to replicate them in a shop in a way that would be profitable for the owner,” Melissa shared. “It’s about how you take elements from them that are still profitable and make sense in a production environment.”
Appropriately marking the occasion
While there are more heavily commercialized holidays like Valentine’s Day and Christmas, bakers creating baked goods for holidays like Hannukah and Kwanzaa should connect with members of the community who celebrate those occasions to ensure products are created respectfully.
“If this is not a holiday that you have personal experience with or may only know about through a few people in your life, it’s really important to run ideas through folks that are a part of that community prior to launching them,” Melissa recommended.
Especially when it comes to certain religions that have specific dietary needs such as kosher or halal, bakers can properly mark holidays for those communities by partnering with bakeries that specialize in baked goods for those diets. Similar to handling allergens or gluten sensitivities, having a separately managed and cleaned area in a bakery can create space for halal or kosher products.
“One thing that we’ve seen be really helpful is for bakers to engage with other bakers in their community,” Melissa shared. “Just because you’re not a kosher bakery doesn’t mean you can’t talk to another kosher bakery and say, ‘What are your three top-selling SKUs? I’d love to partner with you. Let’s put your brand on it and let me sell those for you here.’”
With these considerations in mind and a new year ahead for bakers, Melissa recommends that while it may feel overwhelming, planning as far in advance for holidays and LTOS is key for success.
“If you can think about what those holiday offerings are going to be in the middle of the summer, then when you’re in the middle of a really busy season, you don’t have to worry about it,” she shared.
And once those holidays pass, having plans in place for what to do with leftover items will help bakers continue to reap the benefits of their labor.
“You need your store to be full all the time but also have a plan for those leftovers and what you do with them,” Trimmer said.
