Cupcake firm Rachael’s Kitchen looks back and forwards

RTIH talks to Rachael Halstead, owner of Rachael’s Kitchen, about making the move from finance to retail and the challenges and highlights that come from building a cupcake empire.

RTIH: You quit your job in the City to launch Rachael’s Kitchen. Can you talk us through making the leap into the world of baking and retail, the early days of the company and the journey to becoming an established bakery with a nationwide consumer base?

RH: I saw an opportunity for an e-commerce cake delivery service offering high quality gift cupcakes delivered across the country quickly. 

When I started back in 2009 this was a unique proposition and I had the great advantage of being in the right place at the right time. Internet shopping was seeing exponential growth, trust was building with online purchases, the delivery infrastructure was starting to service the huge home delivery market more effectively and the world of online presence and marketing made entry-to-market a level playing field. It was an exciting time and all at relatively low risk. 

With a basic website, a simple SEO strategy and a small paid search budget I was able to reach customers across the world. With an e-commerce business I had the luxury to be able to adapt and test appetite for new products and new markets quickly and flexibly. We are still the market-share holder for cupcake deliveries in the UK, but we also branched out to reach the corporate market.      

RTIH: What have been the major challenges and highlights along the way?

RH: In the early days I had two key challenges. Firstly, the inception of the idea to send cupcakes for any number of occasions in the same way you could send flowers etc. Not a problem today as we gift online all the time, but at the outset people couldn’t believe we had national reach for next-day delivery. 

Being ahead of this trend has been a real advantage to us, helping us respond to customer requirements and trends. Many of our USPs have developed since integrating Feefo’s consumer feedback platform. This has enabled us to implement policies such as our order cut-off deadline for next-day delivery moving to 4pm (as late in the day as possible) and increasing our range of personalised products. 

We value customer feedback hugely, using social engagement and Feefo to ensure we are listening to customers. Feefo is an outstanding platform for us, as we can use it to analyse the entire customer experience, giving us totally reliable results. It separates the product and delivery components of our service – meaning we get specific feedback and reviews on each, providing invaluable insights into where we are getting it right and where we could improve. It makes our decisions much smarter.

The second key challenge has been packaging and delivery. Our packaging is bespoke-made to ensure our cakes arrive safely and are also presented beautifully in gift packaging. We work with a number of delivery partners across the UK and Europe to ensure deliveries are made on time, in great condition and in communication with customers. The logistics infrastructure has really responded to the needs of businesses like mine.

RTIH: Rachael's Kitchen opened two stores but eventually closed them to focus on the online delivery service. What did you take from the excursion into bricks and mortar retail and could you envisage a return to that space in some form or another?

RH: I made the counter-intuitive journey from e-commerce first to high street retail as a secondary venture. I certainly didn’t imagine having traditional retail presence from the outset, but an opportunity arose which made sense at the time. 

It was exciting to see the brand name above the doors of a high street shop and it was a great experience to connect with the local community. However, after a few years of investing in the shops it became clear that as we could service a national customer base online, it made more sense to focus energies on a much larger market. At present we don’t have plans to revisit the high street, however I would love to have a flagship presence in London.

RTIH: What advice would you give to SME retailers looking to sell online?

RH: I believe it is really valuable for a brand to be known for doing one thing really well. It can be tempting to diversify and broaden product range, however it can dilute brand power for online businesses. This coupled with the central importance of user experience. 

We are in the process of designing the next version of our website, and as it’s our shop-front it is incredibly important that it is welcoming, easy to navigate and simple to complete the order process. 

We are continually responding to customer feedback through Feefo and social outreach to help shape our shopping experience. It’s important to view the relationship as: “What do customers want to buy, rather than what do you want to sell.” 

Feefo enables us to respond quickly and because it is genuine feedback from real customers, we gain a huge amount from it that informs how we improve our customer experience.

RTIH: What is your take on trends seen in the industry such as the increase in personalisation and new product offerings and how these can lead to huge percentage increases during holidays such as Valentine’s Day?

RH: We are in the business of cake which is synonymous with celebration – it’s a wonderful industry to be part of. There is a huge amount of emotional investment that goes into selecting a gift for a special occasion and it is a privilege to be chosen to fulfil that. 

Our most popular product is our Fill Your Own selection which allows customers to choose from our full menu, you can hand pick 12 cakes that the intended recipient would like best, it shows real care and consideration and customers love this option. 

We also offer photo cupcakes and message cupcakes which can elevate the exciting gift of cake to another personal level. Key gift giving days such as Valentine’s Day are important to us and many other businesses that see the importance of personalisation. We are working on ways to add more tailoring and personalisation for next year.  

RTIH: Where would you like Rachael’s Kitchen to be five years from now?

RH: Our plans for the next five years are focused on building our brand and our core aim – for Rachael’s Kitchen cupcakes to be an essential part of special celebrations. We will keep responding to customer desires and keeping service at the heart of our offering.