Selling and marketing
Baked Goods Delivery: 4 Costs to Add Before You Quote
Price a delivery order so the drive, the box, and your time are all paid for before you hand over the bag.
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What to remember
- Charge a delivery fee that covers the drive and the packing time.
- Cost the box and the label into every order, not just the ingredients.
- Keep raw flour and eggs away from anything ready to eat.
- Check the rules before an order crosses a state line.
- Put the fee on your menu so nobody has to ask.
Delivery is the part of a home baking business that eats profit quietly. A box, a label, a drive, and forty minutes of your afternoon all come out of the same sale. This guide shows how to make baked goods delivery pay instead of cost you.
What should you charge for a delivery order?
Start with the order itself. Price the cookies the way you always do, then put delivery on its own line. A fee buried inside the cookie price hides the one number you need to watch. Add four things to that line: the box and label, your packing time, the miles you drive, and your share of the monthly costs you carry whether you deliver or not.
A delivery fee is not a tip and not a rounding up. It pays for a specific set of things, and you should be able to name them. When a customer asks why delivery costs $8, the answer is the box, the label, the drive, and the hour.
For example, take a three dozen cookie order across town. Ingredients come to $9 and the boxes and labels come to $3. Two hours of your time at $15 an hour is $30. Your Brevl shop is $20 a month, so about $1 an order if you fill 20 orders a month. Gas for the drive is $4. That is $47 in cost. Charge $60 for the cookies plus an $8 delivery fee and you collect $68. You keep $21, about 31%.
How do you set up delivery from your phone?
Draw your delivery map
Pick the towns or the mile radius you will drive. Say it on your menu so nobody asks for a run you will not make.
Pick two delivery days
Bake on one day and drive on the next, or batch both into the same afternoon. Fewer trips means less gas and less time gone.
Set a minimum order
A single box across town can cost more in time than it earns. Name the smallest order you will drive.
Take payment before you bake
Take cards through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, or cash. Brevl charges one flat $20 a month and takes 0% of your sales.
Send one text when you leave
Give the drop window in a single message. It cuts the waiting at the door and the second trip.
Two delivery days a week is usually enough to start. Group the drops by neighborhood so the drive is one loop instead of four separate trips. The saved hour goes back into baking, which is the part that earns.
Your phone can run the whole route. Keep the day’s orders in one list, mark each one paid, and check them off as you drive. Brevl works on a phone and on a computer, so the list you build at the kitchen table is the same list in the car.
How do you keep baked goods safe on the drive?
Keep raw ingredients away from anything that is ready to eat. Iowa State University Extension says flour and eggs should be separated from finished items and from other ingredients. In a delivery bag that means a sealed box for the finished bake and nothing raw loose beside it.
Pack the finished order last and load it flat so nothing slides. Label each box with the item and the order name. A labeled box is faster to hand over and harder to mix up.
A flat box travels better than a stacked one. Pack the order so it can ride in the passenger seat and not in the back, where it will slide on every turn.
What changes when delivery crosses a state line?
A drive across the state line is not the same as a drive across town. Shipping baked goods across state lines runs into a three tiered system of federal, state, and private rules, according to SOCCaSH. Check what applies before you promise a date.
Local drops are simpler. Your state and county set the rules for a home kitchen, and the permits guide walks through the three checks most sellers face. Read it before your first delivery, not after.
If you are not sure whether a rule applies, ask your state or county food program before you take the order. The answer is free and the mistake is not.
What mistakes cost you money on delivery?
The mistakes below show up again and again in delivery orders. Each one costs money in a way you will not see on the receipt.
One more cost hides in delivery: the order you cannot take because you are driving. Every hour in the car is an hour not at the oven. Group your drops into one route and keep the rest of the day for baking and for the orders that come to you.
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Common questions
Do I charge for delivery or build it into the price?
Charge it as its own line. When the fee is separate, you can see whether the drive pays for itself, and you can raise it when gas or your time changes. A fee folded into the cookie price hides the loss until the month is over.
How far should I deliver baked goods?
Only as far as the fee covers. Pick a radius or a list of towns and put it on your menu. If a customer outside the area asks, quote a higher fee for that one run rather than stretching your standard zone.
Can I ship baked goods to another state?
Shipping across state lines brings in federal, state, and private rules at the same time, according to SOCCaSH. Check each one before you take the order. A local drop inside your own state is a much shorter list of checks.
How do I keep a delivery order safe in the car?
Keep finished bakes sealed and away from raw ingredients like flour and eggs, which Iowa State University Extension says should be separated from ready to eat items. Load boxes flat, and hand the order over as soon as you arrive.
What is the smallest order worth driving?
Work it out from your own numbers. If two hours of your time plus gas comes to more than the fee you charge, the order is too small. Set a minimum and hold to it, even for a regular customer.
Sources
General information, not legal, tax, or food safety advice. Check your state and county rules before you deliver.