Sarah Marsh had been selling sourdough at her local farmers market in Bath for three years. Good bread, loyal customers, a stall that felt alive on Saturday mornings. But after her second child, the 5am starts stopped adding up. She needed something different.
Eight months later, she was turning away custom three days a week and had quit the market entirely. Here is exactly how she did it.
The Starting Point
Sarah had roughly 200 customers on a WhatsApp list she had built manually over two years. She had been pricing her loaves at GBP 7 each — market rate, maybe slightly premium — and selling 30–40 most Saturdays. That was roughly GBP 1,000 a month in market revenue, not counting the cost of her stall, fuel, and the hours she was not paid for.
She did not have a website. She did not have a social media presence worth talking about. What she did have: a product people asked about at the market, and a list of people who had already said "I wish I could buy this during the week."
Step 1: Pick One Platform and Commit
Sarah's biggest mistake in month one was trying to be everywhere at once. She opened an Etsy shop, set up an Instagram, tried a Shopify site, and posted in four local Facebook groups. Spreading herself thin meant nothing got traction.
In month two, she deleted everything and picked one: Depop. Not the obvious choice for bread, but hear her out. She had noticed her best customers were renters in their twenties and thirties — the same demographic using Depop. The app handled payments, had built-in local discovery, and did not require her to drive traffic from scratch.
Her first week on Depop: 12 orders. Her first month: GBP 1,800 in online sales.
Step 2: Price for the Channel, Not the Market
Farmers market pricing does not translate directly to online. At a market, customers feel the atmosphere, touch the product, impulse buy. Online, they are making a considered purchase with delivery costs on top.
Sarah repriced her loaf bundle strategy. A single sourdough went to GBP 9 (covering production cost plus a small margin). A "weekly bake box" — four loaves, a batch focaccia, and a tray of sourdough crackers — went to GBP 32 with free local delivery. She offered a 10% discount on subscription orders to create loyalty.
Her cheapest product covered her time at roughly GBP 18 per hour. Her margins on the boxes sat at 38%.
Step 3: Turn Existing Customers Into Repeats
She sent a single message to her WhatsApp list: "I am going online-only. If you want to order during the week, here is the link." She did not make it a big deal. She just made it easy.
Within a week, 34 people had placed orders. By month three, her subscription base was 28 households ordering fortnightly. She moved to a Google Form linked to a simple Stripe payment button — no website required, no monthly platform fees beyond Stripe is 1.5% cut.
Step 4: One New Channel at a Time
After subscriptions were stable, she added Instagram in month four. Not to post every day. To post the two things that actually sold: process shots (her hands scoring dough, the oven at 2am) and finished loaves arranged simply on a wooden board. She did not style them. She shot them quickly, in natural light, on her phone.
The first month on Instagram brought 11 new subscription customers.
The Numbers at 8 Months
- Monthly revenue: GBP 4,200 average (up from GBP 1,000 at market)
- Hours worked: 32 per week (down from 45+ at the stall)
- Subscription revenue: GBP 2,100 per month (50%)
- Cost per sale: GBP 0.38 (payment processing only)
- Customer acquisition: almost entirely word-of-mouth
What She Would Tell Herself at the Start
"Do not try to build a brand before you have repeatable sales. One platform, one clear offer, and a way to take payment. Everything else is a distraction."
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