Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Irine Dong. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Irine, thanks for joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Covid has changed people’s lifestyle and work habits. It reduced the outdoor activities for many families because of the Covid-spreading potential. People start to work from home, educating kids from home, social from home, and of course, eating at home.

Therefore, I put more focus on delivery of my desserts to my costumers after covid break out. Partnered with many deliver platform and personal drivers to hand the items directly to customers with the same quality compare to the time before covid.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started my business as a small bakery shop where only me and my husband ran it everyday back in 2017. Nowadays, I grew my business to a medium dessert shop with more than 10 employees and more than 20 distributors in town. My brand started as a small cake account among friends, to be a local significant dessert shop in town.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for me is the loyalty clients attracted by the quality of my products. They are the best social media to broadcast my brand and bring friends and families to visit my spot. This is exponential growth for new clients.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I sell my products on my site, as well as use delivery platforms like Chowbus, Doordash, Rushable, and etc.

My site has the lowest cost for delivery and pick up orders and I only need to pay some times to maintain the websites. But this method draws customers, especially new customers, slowly.

Other delivery platforms charge a high commission fee which lowered my profit and also increased the fee on the customer end. But this method draws customers fast and I do not need to spend much time on customer service.

Contact Info:

• Website: thecafetopia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eat_cafetopia/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Eat_Cafetopia-122318872503987/