There’s a banana cake I keep buying at Bandung Station. I always buy it right before the train leaves, always from the same stall, just a few steps from the boarding gate. The brand name includes a district in Bandung, which oddly makes it feel more personal, more tied to the place itself.
I’ve made this repeat order twice this year. Not out of craving, but out of reluctance to leave. It’s my quiet way of bringing a part of Bandung with me.
Cake shops rarely realise that habits like this exist, let alone build around them. But if they did, they might learn that repeat order isn’t something you persuade people to do. It’s something that makes people want to do it again, without needing to be reminded.
Why Most Cake Shops Miss the Moment When People Search
Cake shops often assume that a social media presence or two is enough. They rely on Instagram grids and TikTok trends to keep people engaged, forgetting how quickly those trends can disappear in feeds.
The stall where I get my cake does the same. It has no blog, nor even written memory. It exists in the moment, but not beyond it. There’s nothing permanent to return to, unless you physically pass by the stall again.
When people like me try to search online for “banana cake Bandung station” or even try to recall the brand that uses that one district name in Bandung, we find almost nothing. That’s the moment cake shops lose the customers who were already emotionally attached.
Cake shops often overlook the fact that Google is where emotional habits are confirmed. People want to know they’re not the only ones who bring home the exact cake after every trip. However, the shop must first appear in that search. And without a proper website, it doesn’t.
How a Website Turns a Product into a Memory
A cake is rarely just about the flavour. Often, it’s about the moment it enters your life. The pause at a train station. The sigh before a journey. The quiet seat near a window where someone unwraps a box not just to eat, but to remember. These are moments that fade unless someone gives them a place to live.
That’s what a website can do for a cake shop. It doesn’t just list what you sell, but it tells why the product stays with people. It captures the rituals that go unnoticed: the husband who always picks one up before a business trip, the daughter who mails it home to her mother, the college student who brings it back to her dorm after the holidays. These aren’t transactions. They’re traditions in disguise.
Social media can hint at that, but it rarely holds the attention long enough to explain it. Reels are for novelty. TikTok is for virality. Instagram is for beauty.
But a website is for stories that last. And stories are what memories are made of.
If this particular banana cake brand had one simple article titled “The cake people take home when they leave Bandung,”, suddenly it’s not just a banana cake. It would say what so many of us feel. A website becomes the anchor that keeps that feeling searchable in weeks, months, even years after the first bite.
Without the web article, that stall near the boarding gate remains just another spot travelers forget to name. But with it, it becomes the cake that means something. And people don’t just come back to the flavor, but they return to the memory. That’s when a product becomes part of someone’s story.
Why Brand Memory Lasts Longer than Product Innovation
Many cake shops work hard to maintain their freshness. They change flavours, redesign boxes, and roll out seasonal releases. It’s exciting, but not always necessary.
Innovation is not the same as connection. People don’t always repeat order because of something new, but they repeat because of something familiar. For the thing that felt right the last time they had to say goodbye, like a taste that marks a place or a memory that doesn’t need to be improved, just remembered.
Brand memory is formed by anchoring the product to a story. It is more sustainable than chasing trends. Instead of asking, “What should we offer next?” cake shops could ask, “What moment do our customers quietly keep returning to?”
It’s what makes someone spot your packaging at a rest stop and suddenly remember a weekend trip from years ago. And that kind of memory doesn’t need to be reinvented, it just needs to be told.
A website helps with that. It allows the story behind the cake to breathe, long after the customer has gone. Not everyone remembers the name of a shop. But they do remember how something made them feel, and they’ll search for that feeling when they want it back.
If your cake once meant something to someone, a well-written article ensures that meaning doesn’t fade into the crowd. It gives your product a second chance to be found, but through a memory that people are actively looking for. You won’t need to depend on ads, or even worse, algorithms.
Because in the end, people don’t search for cake. They search for something that tastes like home.
Vicky Laurentina adalah food blogger, sekaligus dokter dan ibu dari seorang anak. Buka halaman ini, “Tentang Vicky Laurentina” untuk tahu latar belakang Vicky, atau follow Instagram dan Twitter untuk tahu keseharian Vicky.
Aku harus mengakui bahwa Google tuh tempatnya mengkonfirmasi suatu kenangan.
Aku ingat pernah dioleh-olehin bolu Meranti dari Medan. Aku ingat betul sama brandnya.
Suatu ketika, lidahku ingin sekali nyobain bolu Meranti itu.
Berhubung, aku sudah nggak bekerja sama dia lagi, aku ingin nyari di internet.
Mulailah cari nama brandnya di internet. Yah, meski belum nemu informasi pembeliannya apakah bisa secara online atau nggak.
Akurat banget! Bener kan, kalo konsumen seneng sama brandnya, pasti konsumennya bakalan nyari namanya lagi di internet. Duh, mudah-mudahan itu brand bolu masih eksis ya di area daring. Akhirnya dia eksis dalem bentuk channel apa?
Aku jadi ingat apa yg bos ku pernah bilang dulu. Pas lagi zamannya bank digital muncul, pembukaan rekening bisa dilakukan dalam beberapa menit Saja. Bunga gila2an tinggi. Mereka berusaha menarik banyak nasabah baru. Cs nya diganti digital , jadi cepet terhubung.
Trus gimana bank lama menarik pembeli baru, atau setidaknya maintain yg sudah ada? Di situ kami diminta utk kasih pengalaman yg menarik, yg selalu diingat nasabah.
Misal saat ada komplain, gimana caranya kita bisa solve sesuai SLA komplain yg ada. CS memastikan komplain nasabah ter- record, kasih update rutin tentang progress komplain, sampai saat komplain sudah solve, CS tetep kontak menanyakan apa solusi masalah sudah benar2 berhasil. Dengan begitu, bagi nasabah ada rasa , oh bank ini sangat memperhatikan nasabah. Mereka menyelesaikan confirm sesuai waktu yg dijanjikan, dan tetap memastikan solusi berjalan baik. Sehingga ada impression yg mereka rasakan, yg bikin mereka akan setia dengan bank kita. Itu 1 contoh aja.
Intinya, bikin customers tetap ingat dengan kita.
Aku sendiri yg lebih mencari rasa, bukan viral , pasti lebih suka sesuatu yg memang menjual rasa sehingga aku bisa tetep inget dan ga bakal bosan untuk repeat. Bahkan dengan senang hati merekomendasikan tempatnya ke teman2 yg bertanya.
Kalo viral, ntr duluuu. Itu mah suamiku, yg lebih cari viral, tempat estetik, rasa nomor belakangan .
Ternyata strategi bank konvensional dan toko kue mirip-mirip ya. Yang satu bikin nasabah merasa dihargai lewat follow-up komplain, yang satunya bisa bikin orang beli lagi karena merasa hubungannya lebih dari sekadar jual beli.
Orang yang puas biasanya akan lanjut jadi customer langganan, bahkan jadi promotor gratis ke teman-temannya. Jadi, mungkin kuncinya adalah bagaimana setiap pengalaman kecil bisa bikin orang merasa diperhatikan sampai akhirnya loyal.
Kalau sekarang tidak bisa dipungkiri sih ya brand atau UMKM itu lebih mengandalkan sosial media buat mempromosikan produknya. Padahal kalau pakai website ada banyak cerita yang bisa ditulis yaa terkait produknya
Bener. Dan ceritanya di sosial media itu cepat hilang karena post di sosial media itu sulit dioptimisasi.
Kadang nih mbak. Orang tuh belum teredukasi dengan baik tentang fungsi website. Mereka lebih banyak yang berjualan pakai sosmed. Karena dipikir gratis dan mampu menjangkau banyak kalangan. Dibandingkan website. Apalagi sekarang google juga pelan2 ditinggalkan. Pengusaha pasti pengen yg cepat untung.
Ya, nampaknya ini jadi peluang saya untuk mengedukasi orang tentang fungsi website buat para pengusaha. Mudah-mudahan lebih banyak jalan bagi saya untuk lebih gampang kasih tahu manfaat jangka panjangnya buat usaha orang-orang.
Jadi penasaran merek banana cakenya apa ya? Memang untuk menarik customer dan membuat mereeka repeat order butuh strategi khusus. Karena bisnis harus tetap berjalan, kalau rame di awal tapi gak ada repeat order ya nangis.
Apakah pebisnis lebih mudah membuat akun media sosial sehingga mereka mengabaikan (atau melupakan) fungsi website? Atau emang mau cari jalan murah saja, soalnya bikin akun medsos kan gratis sedangkan bikin website harus bayar domain, dll?
Maaf ya, saya nggak bisa sebutkan merk cake-nya, karena mereka belum bayar premi ke saya, hihihihi…
Meskipun para pemilik usaha tahu bahwa website bikin mereka lebih mandiri untuk dapat repeat order, tapi saya rasa mereka punya alesan sendiri-sendiri kenapa mereka masih memilih mengabaikan fungsi website.
Sejujurnya aku gak terlalu suka makanan beraroma pisang ketika masih muda. Namun sejak jadi emak2, saya mulai merasakan ada khas tersendiri dengan hal-hal berbau pisang. Apalagi sejak mengenalkan buah satu ini untuk anak-anak.
Aku tim suka baca review sih kalo mau beli2 sesuatu. Tapi kalo yg ngereview mbak vicky aku yakin approved deh. Cuma kapan nih ke bandungnya hehehe
Aku juga tim baca review dulu sebelum belanja, jadi ngerti banget kenapa review itu penting buat menjaring calon pelanggan setia. Bedanya, kalau review tentang makanan enak di Bandung, sering kali ending-nya bukan sekadar baca… tapi langsung ada repeat order terselubung, alias alasan manis buat jajan lagi