WhatsApp ordering for bakeries: daily bakes, cake orders and pickup updates

WhatsApp ordering for a bakery means customers order from your WhatsApp number instead of typing their order into a chat for you to copy out. With Menuthere, a customer says "hi" to your number and gets a button that opens your menu. They can also browse today's bakes in a WhatsApp catalog without leaving the chat. They order and pay, and WhatsApp tells them when the order is accepted and when it's ready to collect. Celebration cakes can only be booked with the notice you need. You pay 0% commission. Automatic messages from your own number are on the Pro plan (US$39 a month). Meta charges a small fee per message on your own WhatsApp Business account.

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Two ways a bakery can take orders on WhatsApp

Many bakeries start with the free hand-off and move to Pro once answering "hi" by hand takes up the morning. If you bake from home and have no shop, see WhatsApp ordering for home bakers, which deals with that set-up.

A bakery morning on WhatsApp, step by step

Here is how a typical Saturday runs for a bakery on Pro. The times are an example; the behavior is what Menuthere does.

Two details make this work for a bakery. First, prices in the catalog are checked against your live menu at checkout, so an old catalog can never charge the wrong price. Second, the order link a customer gets is signed in for them and works for 23 hours, so they don't type a code. A forwarded link doesn't work for anyone else.

Cake orders: let the menu do the writing, let WhatsApp do the talking

The mistakes bakeries know best come from orders typed into a chat: the wrong Saturday, a missing flavor, a name spelled wrong on the topper. On WhatsApp the fix is simple: don't take the order in the chat. Your bot, or you, replies with the menu link, and the customer fills in the cake themselves: the size, a required flavor choice, extras, and the message for the cake in the order note, which prints on the kitchen ticket.

Then WhatsApp handles what a chat is good at: questions before the order, the "it's ready" message after it, and the photo of the finished cake. For the menu side (sizes, notice periods and bake days, pickup dates), see online ordering for bakeries. Pricing a cake? The free cake price calculator works out cost per size, and the cake order form is a printable form for counter orders.

What your bakery's WhatsApp messages cost

Since 1 July 2025 Meta has charged for WhatsApp Business messages per message. The price depends on the message type and on the country code of the customer's number, not where your bakery is. From 1 October 2026, Meta also charges for service messages (your replies inside a chat the customer started) after a free 1,000 per number each month. Menuthere takes nothing from these charges. They go on your own WhatsApp Business account.

A collection-only bakery can skip one message per order. If you don't deliver, leave the Order dispatched flow off. Customers can also follow their order on the order tracking page, which is a web page and has no per-message charge. To put numbers on it for your country, use the WhatsApp cost calculator.

"Fresh out of the oven" broadcasts, used well

A broadcast sends one Meta-approved marketing message to many customers at once. A bakery is tempted to send one every morning. Don't: marketing messages cost the most, and customers who reply STOP are taken off your list.

• Send them for real news: a new seasonal bake, holiday cake pre-orders opening, a Saturday market stall.
• Pick the audience: your customers, an uploaded file, or numbers typed in. Duplicates and bad numbers are removed.
• Big lists are spread out. Each number can send only so many marketing messages a day. The first batch goes up to today's limit and the rest goes at 6 pm, store time, each day until everyone is covered.
• Opt-outs are automatic. A reply such as "stop" or "unsubscribe" adds the customer to your blocklist. "Start" brings them back.

More on writing one in how to send a WhatsApp broadcast to customers.

Before you switch it on: a bakery checklist

• Every bake has a photo, a name and a price. WhatsApp won't list an item in the catalog without all three.
• Cakes have sizes, a required flavor group and the right notice under Prebooking settings (Lite and above).
• Your working hours are set, so "we're open again" fires when you really open.
• Your WhatsApp Business number is connected (Pro). You can link the number you already use in the WhatsApp Business app.
• The catalog is linked to your number once, by hand, in WhatsApp Manager. Menuthere can't do this step for you.
• The order-update flows are switched on. They start switched off.
• A QR code by the till sends walk-ins to your WhatsApp. The free WhatsApp QR sticker maker makes one.

Which plan fits a bakery

Lite and Pro come with a 7-day free trial. A card is needed to start the trial, and nothing is charged until it ends. The Free plan needs no card. Compare everything on the pricing page, or see the full bakery ordering system.

Selling through a delivery app as well? Their commission comes off every order. See what Uber Eats charges in the US and compare it with orders that come straight to you.