Over the course of the past year, people shifted to an at-home lifestyle in order to be safe from the prevailing spread of Coronavirus. As people stayed at home, their buying patterns changed as well. More people now prefer buying things online as it is easier and less time-consuming.
Keeping this in mind, many CPG companies launched DTC platforms. Bimbo Bakeries USA is one of such brands. Its DTC platform, Sweet Snacking offers online snack delivery of their different product lines. The purpose of launching this platform is to incorporate the new buying behavior of their customers into their sales strategy and increase their market reach while at the same time ensuring the safety of their customers.
SweetSnacking.com
SweetSnacking.com is a DTC snacking store that was launched by Bimbo Bakeries USA in the midst of 2020 when COVID-19 was rampant in the United States. On the platform, they sell some of their most popular products like Takis, Entenmann's, Sara Lee, Barcel, and Thomas'. They have made bundles of products that complement each other and labeled them for what they can be used for. There is a Bite Size snack bundle for kids and a Coffee Pairings bundle that offers snacks that can be best paired with coffee or tea. The platform makes it easier for the customers to access Bimbo Bakeries USA's products online and enjoy munching on them with their family and friends while being stuck at home.
Bimbo Bakeries USA: The Last 2 Decades
Since the inception of the company in 1994, Bimbo Bakeries USA has made efforts to increase its reach in the U.S market. In 1997 and 1998 it acquired the respective companies Pacific Pride Bakeries and Mrs. Baird’s Bakeries. In 2009 it acquired the complete fresh baked goods business of George Weston Ltd adding brands like Oroweat, Entenmann’s, Thomas', Boboli, Arnold, Brownberry, Freihofer’s, and Stroehmann to the product portfolio. This led to a nationwide expansion and made Bimbo Bakeries USA the largest bakery company in the USA. In 2011, the largest acquisition took place. Bimbo Bakeries acquired Sara Lee’s North American fresh bakery business for $709 million. Since then, Bimbo Bakeries USA has only grown further and the addition of the direct-to-consumer platform will further increase the business's market reach.
DTC and the Digital Age
As technology has majorly taken over a lot of sectors and industries in the world, businesses are modifying their strategies keeping in mind the digital revolution and the changing customer buying behaviors. As more people are relying on different online mediums for the most trivial tasks including purchasing things like groceries or food items, the eCommerce sector is growing rapidly.
Direct-To-Consumer platforms take into account customers’ preference of buying things online. Many businesses in the CPG market have launched such platforms to cater to the increasing sales through digital platforms.
The benefits of having a DTC platform are: the business can personalize the entire customer experience as it has complete control over the distribution from marketing to delivery at the doorstep of the customer and it can also benefit from first the first-party data that can easily be gathered as the business will have direct interaction with customers.
The long-term benefits of the platform include increased brand loyalty achieved through personalization, exposure of lesser-known product lines, and application of the first-hand data gathered on different marketing strategies.
The launch of new D2C platforms by different brands has further added to the growth of the eCommerce sector. Businesses with such platforms would be able to establish their brands in the market for the long run as the world has now gone digital.
