Getting goodies from your kitchen to theirs
By Stacy Gilliam
October 25, 2005--Everybody knows somebody who makes a mean peach cobbler, mouth-watering ribs, or tantalizing crab cakes.
If you’re that person you may have a business in the making—and it doesn’t necessarily mean opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. In addition to selling their culinary creations from retail locations, the owners of Jive Turkey (www.thejiveturkey.com) and Little Pie Co. (www.littlepiecompany.com), both featured in the November 2006 issue of black enterprise, offer their products online.
Selling online can help step-up sales and attract the eye of a wider customer base. In its early days, the Little Pie Co. mailed one scrumptious product a week. Since putting up a shingle up on the Web the bakery now ships more than 100 pies per week and in November, a peak month, orders can reach up to 1,000. Although it has three Manhattan locations, today 80% of the company’s sales are generated online, according to co-owner Arnold Wilkerson.
But shipping perishable items isn’t as simple as seems—and one bad experience can alienate a customer for life. Anyone considering this kind of enterprise should do their research so they can get it right.
“Business owners should realize that shipping is as much a part of customer service as anything else they provide,” says Peggy Gardner, a spokeswoman for the United Parcel Service. “The ease by which customers can do business and receive items online has a lot to do with their satisfaction.”
The New Benefits of Web-Search Queries
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