Online Ordering Launch – Sweet Crumb Bakery

Purpose: Rebuild the Sweet Crumb Bakery website on Squarespace so customers can browse and pre-order custom cakes and holiday pie boxes online for pickup, before Thanksgiving pre-orders open.

Assumptions made in this draft (please review)

• Thanksgiving pre-orders open on or shortly after November 1. If they open earlier, the whole timeline must move up.
• Square POS sync method is unconfirmed. This draft did not verify whether Squarespace connects natively to Square POS for orders and inventory, or whether a third-party connector is needed. This is the top technical question. Confirming it is Step 1 of discovery. You can also use your free change request to have this researched and the plan updated.
• Year not stated. Dates are given as calendar dates without weekdays. Please check them against your calendar.
• The freelance designer can be hired by September 18 and will also handle the Squarespace build.
• New product photos will come from a simple in-house or low-cost shoot. Whether a freelance photographer is used is [TBD].
• Jake makes day-to-day decisions while Maria travels (October 7–18). Maria approves the design before she leaves and gives final go/no-go after she returns.
• Customers pay in full online at the time of order. A deposit option is [TBD].
• The current 8 pages will be kept and refreshed, not expanded, apart from adding ordering pages.
• Budget allocations below are estimates, not quotes.

2. Executive Summary

Sweet Crumb Bakery will rebuild its 8-page website on Squarespace and add online pre-ordering for custom cakes and holiday pie boxes, for pickup only. Today every order comes in by phone, and we estimate that about 20% of calls are missed on busy weekends. That means lost sales and more chances for order mistakes. The new site must be live before Thanksgiving pre-orders open, with a hard deadline of November 1, and connected to our Square POS. The budget is about $4,000, including a freelance designer. Within 3 months of launch, we expect at least 30% of cake orders to come in online, with fewer missed calls and fewer order errors.

3. Background & Problem

• All orders for custom cakes and holiday pie boxes are taken by phone only.
• On busy weekends, we estimate we miss about 20% of calls. Some of those are likely lost orders.
• Phone orders are taken by hand, which leads to order mistakes.
• The current 8-page website does not support online ordering, and product photos are outdated.
• Thanksgiving is our key pre-order season. Launching before pre-orders open lets the new channel handle peak demand this year instead of next.

4. Objectives & Success Metrics

5. Scope

In scope

• Rebuild the existing 8-page website on Squarespace with refreshed content
• Online product catalog for custom cakes (sizes, flavors, options, inscriptions) and holiday pie boxes
• Online pre-ordering with pickup date and time selection
• Online payment at checkout
• Integration or sync with Square POS so orders and sales appear in Square
• New product photography for cakes and pie boxes
• Order confirmation emails to customers
• Testing by Priya and Leo, and staff training on handling online orders
• Basic launch announcement (in-store signage, existing customer channels)

Out of scope

• Delivery of any kind. This round is pickup only.
• Ordering for everyday walk-in items such as single pastries or coffee (suggested)
• Customer accounts, loyalty program or rewards (suggested)
• Subscriptions or recurring orders (suggested)
• Paid advertising campaigns (suggested)
• Third-party marketplace listings, such as delivery apps (suggested)
• Adding new pages beyond the 8 current pages plus ordering pages (suggested)
• Custom software development beyond Squarespace's built-in features and approved add-ons (suggested)

6. Key Deliverables