Case Study: Shark Tank contestant The Smart Baker achieves 5,000% sales growth with BigCommerce

Shark Tank - Customer Case Study

The Smart Baker, a home-based specialty baking business, earned a spot on Shark Tank and faced the classic challenge of preparing for national TV: how to scale inventory, fulfill a sudden surge of orders, and ensure a stable e-commerce site without crippling downtime. With only weeks to prepare, founders needed to balance inventory risk, website capacity, and order-processing logistics to avoid disappointing new customers.

They responded by investing heavily in inventory and partnering closely with BigCommerce for increased bandwidth and emergency support, keeping the site fast and crash-free at no extra cost. The payoff was dramatic: March sales jumped over 5,000% year-over-year, website traffic rose 1,200%, Q1 2012 outperformed all of 2011, and the company secured major retail and wholesale opportunities (including Jo-Ann Stores) while significantly raising brand awareness.

Shark Tank