A Sweet New Site For A Neighborhood Bakery

A handcrafted WordPress site that captures the flavor of NaVis Bakery — cozy, approachable, and built to bring more customers through the door.

The Brief

NaVis Bakery is a beloved neighborhood bakery in Rosemead, CA—but it had no digital footprint. No website, no SEO, no easy way for customers to find them. As part of a self-initiated outreach effort, I designed and built a custom site to capture their brand story and help them grow.

My contribution: End-to-End Project Lead (Strategy, Design, Development)

The Challenge & Guiding Principles

How could I build a digital presence for a beloved local bakery that was simple to manage, captured their warmth, and would tangibly increase their customer base? To guide the project, I set four core principles.

The Process: From Research to Launch

Step 1 – Building a Brand Around Cravings

I started with research: reading Yelp reviews, visiting in person, and analyzing the shop’s posts. From there, I developed a look that matched their vibe—warm browns, soft fonts, and swirl accents that felt like whipped frosting. Color and texture were core to making the site feel “baked with love.”

Step 2 – Choosing My Tech Toolbox

The most critical decision was choosing the right technology. I needed to balance ideal performance with the client's reality.

This led me to WordPress + Elementor. It was a strategic trade-off. While I sacrificed the performance of a modern React framework, I delivered on the most important principle: Empower the Owner.

Tools Used:

Step 3 – Baking Sites with Responsibility

Beyond visual design, I focused on the responsibilities that make a website truly usable and sustainable. I ensured the site was accessible (WCAG), included a clear privacy policy, and respected copyright—then invited friends, family, and bakery staff to help test the site in the real world.

To boost performance, accessibility, and SEO, I:

• Compressed all images
• Added alt text
• Improved semantic structure

I also added client-facing features to make the site more powerful and scalable:

• Integrated Clover POS for easy menu management
• Connected their Instagram feed for automatic updates
• Created a contact form for inquiries
• Set up a marketing popup to collect emails for future promotions

The Results: Real-World Impact

The website launched and immediately began delivering on its primary goal.

• Front-page Google ranking for the high-intent search "mexican pastries in alhambra."
• 1,902 new users discovered the bakery online in the first month.
• 20% decrease in bounce rate, indicating a highly engaging user experience.

Client Reaction

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Jose Vivas

Owner, NaVis Bakery

When we decided to build a website for NaVis Bakery, I knew it had to be something special — something that truly represented who we are as a family-run Mexican bakery with big dreams. Xiushan took that vision and brought it to life better than I ever imagined.

She built our entire website from scratch, and from day one, she was incredibly professional, organized, and easy to work with. Every question I had, she answered quickly and clearly. Every change I requested — whether big or small — she handled with patience and precision. She respected every milestone and always delivered on time, which made the whole process stress-free for me, even while running the bakery full-time.

What stood out most was how much she cared about getting it right. The site is clean, beautiful, and easy to use — both on desktop and mobile — and it really captures the warmth and culture behind our brand. Our customers have complimented it more than once, and I’ve had other business owners ask who built it.

Working with Xiushan didn’t just give us a great website — it gave us a real digital presence that helped take our business to the next level. I’m genuinely grateful for her work and would recommend her to anyone looking for someone reliable, talented, and committed to doing things the right way.

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Final Reflections

This was my first real-world client project, and it taught me how to communicate, design within constraints, and ship something useful. It cemented my belief that thoughtful technology — no matter the stack — can have a profound impact on real people and real businesses.

Since then, I’ve been diving deeper into accessibility and performance using Next.js, Tailwind, and Framer Motion — tools that give me full control when the project calls for it.