Like many businesses in Ghana and across Africa, Bakeshop Classics is undergoing a digital transformation to enhance its operations. Their initial steps included adopting digital payments and signing onto Hubtel, making it easier for customers to purchase their favorite treats without visiting the physical store. 

Passion and talent turned into a business 

Bakeshop Classics has been in operation for more than 30 years. The business was started by Mrs. Blanche Musah Agyemang upon her retirement from the corporate world, where she served as a secretary to several notable firms. “This business was born out of passion,” says Mr. Dan Asare, Business Development Consultant of Bakeshop Classics. “One favourite story Mrs. Musah Agyemang loves to share is how, at the age of 12, she baked a cake for a dearly loved teacher’s birthday and received glowing praise. Many years later, upon approaching retirement from Swissair, she decided to try her hand at commercial baking. Surprisingly, the business was an overnight success, spread only by word of mouth.” 

Currently, the bakery has two branches, one in La and the other in Spintex, with a staff of 75. Bakeshop Classics has always ensured they put the right measures in place to keep the business growing and to retain customers. “We have always had a sincere approach to business,” says Mr. Dan Asare. “As such, we ensure we use the finest baking ingredients for everything we sell here: pastries, bread, and cakes. Additionally, we make sure there are no leftovers, especially on the pastries side. Customers are always served freshly baked pastries.” 

Steering the business for growth 

“As a business, we make it a point to keep up with current trends. With this in mind, we set out with a new objective: a 360-degree digital transformation to meet customers at the point of their need. We started looking for avenues that could help us achieve our goal, and that’s when Hubtel came into the picture.” 

The primary business goal that prompted Bakeshop Classics to shift to Hubtel was to ensure customers received the best service at every touchpoint. This included having minimal friction when making payments and meeting customer needs right at their doorstep. 

To achieve this, they decided to integrate an online storefront with their physical storefront by signing onto Hubtel. This enabled them to deliver orders directly to customers wherever they were, offering flexibility to their customers and increasing sales for the bakery. 

The bakery also adopted Hubtel’s Unique USSD to enable mobile money collections from all networks. With the Unique USSD, customers can make payments on any mobile device without the need for internet connectivity. This method of payment is simple for customers, and for the business, it allows tracking of sales with the dashboard provided. It also reduces the risk of losing money if a payment does not go through, which was a common issue when using the traditional method of collecting mobile money payments. 

Leveraging Hubtel for growth  

Using Hubtel to receive payments and signing onto the Hubtel app were not the only benefits Bakeshop Classics gained. The dashboard that accompanied the Unique USSD provided a solution to another challenge they faced: maintaining a comprehensive customer database. 

“One major challenge we faced was capturing customer data. The dashboard that came with the Unique USSD to track payments automatically solved that problem. Now, with the database we have, we can leverage it for marketing purposes. We send SMS messages to customers for special occasions and promote ongoing promotions, among other uses.” 

With Hubtel, Bakeshop Classics has been able to: 

• Keep track of sales 

• Drastically reduced friction when it comes to receiving payments 

• Build months of data on autopilot, to help with marketing, planning, and forecasting  

• Increase sales by signing onto the Hubtel app 

Pivoting a business can be challenging without the right tools and solutions. The team at Bakeshop Classics believes that with Hubtel, they are moving in the right direction. By meeting customers at their doorstep and making payments faster and more frictionless, they have enhanced their overall customer service delivery and maintained their mass appeal to a wide range of customers while strategically evolving their business to meet current trends.