Selling cake decorations online is something that people see as SUPER EASY. It’s not, but it’s definitely a good way to make some added income if you’re a custom cake decorator.
Deciding on what to sell is really important, though, because it can make your business successful and more profitable if you choose correctly.
This article includes affiliate links that will pay a commission if they’re used to purchase something. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
What to start selling.
When you decide what to sell it might take some trial and error to figure out what niche you want to target.
Part of it has to be what you enjoy making, and part has to be the profit margin. (If you don’t know how to price your items, get my custom cake pricing guide. It applies to the decorations too!)
When I started selling cake decorations online, I began with gumpaste flowers.
That was the most obvious choice for me since I like making them and I was targeting DIY brides who might be making their own cakes.
It’s also something that a lot of cake decorators don’t like to make or don’t know how to make, so you can sell to both DIY brides and professional decorators.
Edible decorations are good if you already have a cake business set up because you should have the proper licensing in place to sell food products.
Some of the options for online edible sugar cake decorations are:
- Gumpaste or fondant cake toppers
- Fondant cupcake toppers made with cutters
- Molded 3D cupcake toppers
- Cake decorating sets to do an entire birthday cake
- Gumpaste flowers
- Royal icing decorations
- Hand-formed fondant decorations for cakes or cupcakes
- Jewels, brooches, and pearls
- Cake Sprinkles, Jimmies, and Lay-ons
Click the links above to go to articles that go over selling each type of product more in-depth.
It also helps to have a few types of things that you sell, since it will give you some flexibility if one thing gets too competitive or falls out of fashion.
I sold the gumpaste flowers for a decent amount of time, then I decided to phase them out because of the difficulty in shipping them. If you have a few different products you can get rid of some things and add different ones as time passes or if you decide that you don’t want to make something anymore.
I would focus on one or two categories at a time, then add more things if you have the time.
In the articles that are linked above I go over the pros and cons of some different types of items, including profit margins, how to make the most from that category, and how to ship them safely.
I’ll also talk about marketing and what goes into that side of online sales.
Before you start: Think about what you like making and what you don’t like making. Decide on three or four things that you think you could make and research the average prices they’re going for online using Google shopping.
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