WhatsApp ordering for home bakers: complete cake orders, starting free

You can keep taking cake orders on WhatsApp and stop typing them out. With Menuthere, a home baker gets a free ordering page with every cake, size and flavor. The customer picks what they want and places the order. Then a green Send Order to WhatsApp button opens a chat with you, with the items, total, their name, phone number and note already written. They press send. This works on the Free plan (US$0, 50 orders a month), with 0% commission and no card needed. Card payment and notice periods come with Lite (US$17 a month). Automatic replies from your own number come with Pro (US$39 a month).

Create your free ordering pageBook a demo (opens in a new tab)

Why "just DM me" stops working

A home bakery usually runs on one chat thread per customer. The first ten orders are fine. Then the details start to slip: the flavor was in a voice note, the date was changed three messages later, the name on the cake was in a different chat. Each order has to be read back, copied into a notebook and priced by hand.

An ordering page changes who writes the order. The customer chooses the size, flavor and extras from your list, writes the message for the cake in the note, and the total is worked out for them. You still talk to them on WhatsApp. You just start from a complete order instead of an empty chat.

How to get your first order on WhatsApp for free

1. Create your ordering page. Sign up and add your cakes. You can import your menu from a photo or a PDF, or add items by hand. Each cake gets sizes (6-inch, 8-inch), a flavor choice and extras such as candles or a gift box.
2. Add your WhatsApp number. In Store details, type the number you take orders on and press Save. That's the number customers' orders go to.
3. Share your link. Put the link in your Instagram bio, your WhatsApp Business profile and your status. The free WhatsApp link generator also makes a chat link for your posts.
4. The customer orders and taps the green button. When the order goes through, the confirmation screen shows Send Order to WhatsApp. WhatsApp opens with the order already in the message box.
5. You confirm in the chat. Agree the collection time or delivery, and mark the order's progress in your dashboard.

What the message contains: the order ID, the order type and time, the customer's name and phone, each item with quantity and price, any delivery and packaging charges, discount and total, the delivery address and map pin if they shared one, and their note.

One honest limit: the customer sends the message, so it only arrives if they press send. The order is in your dashboard either way, so check it there too.

Your capacity: notice and bake days

A home baker's real limit is oven time. On Lite, prebooking lets you set that limit once instead of saying no in the chat.

Example: you bake Thursday to Saturday and need 3 days' notice for custom cakes.

Cupcakes or cookies you keep ready can stay ordinary items, with no date picker. A notice cake has to be ordered on its own, so a basket with a notice cake and brownies is split into two orders.

Taking payment before you bake

On the Free plan there is no online payment: customers pay on collection or delivery. From Lite, you can connect your own Stripe account (outside India) for cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. The money goes straight to your Stripe account, not through Menuthere, and Stripe's own fees apply.

Menuthere takes the full order total online, or cash. It has no deposit or part-payment option at checkout. If you want a deposit on a large custom cake, agree it in the chat. See how to collect a deposit for a custom order on WhatsApp for the options.

Pro: let your number ask the custom-cake questions

When the chats take hours a day, Pro connects your WhatsApp Business number to Menuthere. You can link the number you already use in the WhatsApp Business app. Then:

• A bot answers "hi" with a button that opens your menu, already signed in for that customer.
• A Questionnaire step asks for custom-cake details inside WhatsApp: text boxes, checkboxes, choices and dates, such as the event date, servings, flavor and theme. Answers appear under Responses in your dashboard.
• Buttons give quick routes: up to 3 per message, for example "Order a cake", "Custom cake" and "Prices". WhatsApp allows no more than 3.
• Order updates go out from your number: accepted, ready and completed, each switched on when you want it.
• An inbox in your dashboard shows every chat on your number, with a countdown for WhatsApp's 24-hour reply window.

Meta charges per message on Pro, billed to your own WhatsApp Business account. The price depends on the message type and the customer's country. Menuthere adds nothing to it. The WhatsApp cost calculator shows what a typical order costs in your country.

Which route pays off for a home bakery

At 60 orders a month, Lite works out at about US$0.28 an order. There is no percentage taken off a big cake order on any plan. Lite and Pro have a 7-day free trial. A card is needed to start the trial, and nothing is charged until it ends.

Getting the cake to the customer

Most home bakers offer collection, deliver themselves, or both. Menuthere handles both order types and can charge a flat delivery fee on every plan. You can also let customers book their own courier to collect a pickup order; checkout shows them the pickup and drop details to copy into their courier app. Before you send a tall cake by bike, read whether cakes travel safely with a bike courier.

If you open a shop later, see WhatsApp ordering for bakeries for counter-and-catalog set-ups, or build a full home bakery website.