Starter
Free
Test it on your store with no commitment.
Start free- ✓Reminders for up to 50 customers
- ✓Occasionly branded widget
- ✓Default email wording
Remind customers to order their celebration cake in time
Cakes need notice. Customers save the birthdays and anniversaries of the people they order for, and Occasionly reminds them under your shop’s name while there is still time to book.
How it helps a cake shop
Most celebration cakes are ordered for someone else, and plenty are ordered late. Occasionly gives your customers a simple way to save those dates. A short form on your website asks for a name, the occasion and the date. By default, two weeks before, a reminder goes out under your shop’s name, with a button back to your shop.
That first reminder, 14 days ahead by default, gives you the notice a custom cake needs, and a second a few days before catches anyone who meant to order and forgot. The dates repeat every year, so one sign-up keeps working. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and replies go to the address you set.
Who it is for
Custom cake studios, celebration cake shops and home bakers who take orders for birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations. It suits shops with customers who order more than once a year, and shops that need notice, whether that is a few days or a few weeks. The form works on Shopify and on any site where you can add a link or an embed.
Running a bakery? See the page for bakeries.
How it works
Put the form on your site
Create your account, add your shop’s name and colours, and copy the link to your form. Add it to your footer, your ordering page or a celebration cake page: anywhere you can place a link or an embed.
Customers save the dates
A customer types in their email, then adds each person they order for with a name, the occasion and the date. They can add several people in one visit, with no account to create, and a confirmation email arrives straight away.
The reminders do the chasing
By default the first reminder lands 14 days before the date, which suits a cake that needs notice, and a second follows 5 days before. Both link back to your shop, and both repeat each year without you lifting a finger. Both timings are yours to adjust in your settings.
What you control
Customers should feel they are hearing from your studio, so you pick the name that appears as the sender and the address that replies come back to. On every plan you can also look over any email in a preview and send a test to yourself before it reaches a customer.
Pro and Business let you rewrite the confirmation and both reminders in your own voice. The subject, the message and the button label can all change, and you can add a short promo line. Merge tags fill in the person’s name, the occasion, the date, the days to go and your shop name. The form customers fill in then shows only your branding, without the Powered by Occasionly credit.
With Business, reminders can arrive from an address on your own domain, such as hello@yourcakes.com.au, once you have added a few DNS records at your domain provider. It is a good fit if your cake studio already has a domain customers recognise.
Your dashboard lists who has signed up, which dates are coming round and how many people clicked through from each email. If you sell on Shopify, a small tracking snippet (a Shopify custom pixel) adds an estimate of the revenue from orders placed within 30 days after a reminder click. It is only an estimate, and it does not prove that a reminder caused a sale.
What a reminder looks like
An example of the default wording. On Pro and Business you can rewrite it.
Subject Jess's birthday is coming up
Hi Sam,
Jess's birthday is on 14 July. Just a heads up so you have time to sort something out.
Example Cake Studio
You are receiving this because you saved dates with Example Cake Studio. Unsubscribe.
Plans
Recommended
Pro
$29AUD / month
An unbranded widget and editable emails for growing stores.
Choose Pro- ✓Reminders for up to 500 customers
- ✓Editable emails
- ✓Unbranded widget
Business
$99AUD / month
No customer limit and your own sender domain.
Choose Business- ✓No customer limit
- ✓Everything in Pro
- ✓Send from your own domain
Every plan also includes a custom sender name, a reply-to address, a test send, the second reminder and estimated revenue tracking for Shopify stores.
Past your plan’s limit, new sign-ups are still saved and reminders are held until you upgrade.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work with my website?
It does. Your customers reach the form through a link or an embed, so any site where you can add either will do, Shopify included. Revenue tracking is currently built for Shopify stores only.
How much notice do custom cakes get?
By default the first reminder goes out 14 days before the date and the second 5 days before, which gives customers time to book a cake that needs notice. Both timings are yours to adjust in your settings.
Do my customers need an account?
No account is needed. A customer enters their email address and the people and dates they want to remember, and a confirmation email arrives straight away.
Can I write the reminders in my own words?
Yes, on the Pro and Business plans. You can rewrite the confirmation and both reminders, including the subject, the message and the button label, and add a short promo line. On Starter, customers receive the default wording. On every plan you can preview any email and send yourself a test.
Can customers opt out?
Yes. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and a single confirmation is all it takes. If an address bounces or someone reports an email as spam, Occasionly stops sending to it automatically.
Can customers change or remove their saved dates?
Yes. A link near the bottom of each confirmation and reminder email opens a private page for that customer and your shop, with no need to sign in. They can change the name, occasion, day or month of a date, add a date, remove one date, or clear everything they saved. Removing a date deletes it from our database. Removing everything leaves their name and email address on file with its unsubscribe record, and they can ask your shop or hello@occasionly.app to have their details deleted entirely.
Will the emails reach the inbox?
Reminders go out through an authenticated email service, and on the Business plan they can come from your own domain. Nobody can guarantee inbox placement and we do not promise it, but a sender your customers recognise gives you the best chance.
What if more customers sign up than my plan allows?
Sign-ups keep working: every new customer is saved and still receives a confirmation email. Reminders go to your earliest customers up to the limit of your plan, and the others are held until there is room, for example after an upgrade. Anyone who has unsubscribed, or whose address does not work, does not use up a place.
Can I send reminders by text message?
Not at the moment. Occasionly sends email only.
How do I know it is working?
The dashboard shows who has signed up and how many people click through from each reminder. On Shopify it also shows estimated revenue from orders placed within 30 days after a click. It is only an estimate, because it counts orders that follow a click and cannot show that a reminder caused one.
More answers are in the full FAQ and the documentation.