The default advice for anyone selling anything is "set up a Shopify store". For a home baker doing weekend cakes, a maker selling at markets, or anyone testing an idea, that's overkill: monthly fees, theme setup, shipping configuration, product photography — before you've taken one order.
The form-first approach
What you actually need on day one is a way for customers to tell you what they want and how to reach them. That's a form:
- What would you like? (dropdown of your products)
- Quantity, and any customisation notes
- Name, phone, email
- Delivery address or pickup preference
Our order form template is exactly this, ready to customise. Publish it and you get a link you can put anywhere: Instagram bio, Facebook page, a printed QR code on your market stall. Every order arrives by email the moment it's placed, and lives in a submissions inbox you can mark as done and export for your records.
Taking payment
Keep it simple: confirm each order personally (you'll want to check dates and stock anyway) and send a bank-transfer reference, a PayID, or a payment link from your bank or Stripe. For pre-orders and made-to-order goods, payment-on-confirmation is normal and customers expect it.
When you've outgrown the form
Real signals: you're taking 50+ orders a month, repeating the same confirmation steps, or need live stock control. That's when a store platform earns its fee. Until then, the form + payment link combination costs nothing and takes orders tonight.
One tip from our own users: set a submission limit on the form to cap weekend orders at what you can actually bake. When it's reached, the form politely closes itself.
Use the order form template — customers order in 30 seconds, you get every detail by email. Free.