How do ice cream parlours make money in winter?

Ice cream doesn’t stop selling when it gets cold! The dessert chains worked that out years ago, and it’s the one thing most independent parlours still get wrong.

Look at any high street. Creams, Kaspa’s, Heavenly Desserts, Little Dessert Shop: a handful of these brands now run estates pushing towards 100 sites each, and they trade all year round, not just when the sun’s out (Restaurant Online, Aug 2026). In January they’re selling waffles, hot cookie dough, loaded sundaes, milkshakes and hot chocolate to people who’d have gone to the pub ten years ago.

Your ice cream parlour can do a version of the same thing. And the cheapest way to hang onto your customers through the cold months is to stop relying on them wandering past on a warm day.

Why does an ice cream parlour go so quiet in winter?

Because the trade runs on weather, and nothing keeps you in a customer’s head between the last warm Saturday in September and the first one in April.

Summer footfall is lovely – It’s also lazy money. People come because it’s hot and you happen to be there! Come November, those same people completely forget you exist. They haven’t gone off you. There’s just no reason to think about ice cream when it’s dark at 4pm and raining sideways 🙁

That leaves you with a memory problem, and memory is the easy kind to fix. Sort it and winter stops being a write-off!

How do the big dessert chains stay busy when it’s freezing?

They became year-round dessert spots instead of ice cream shops, then kept talking to their customers all winter long.

When Creams Cafe leaned into hot desserts, it reported festive sales up 5.8% on the previous December, with hot skillets and winter berry waffles doing the heavy lifting (The Grocer). Their own CEO summed it up: most people think dessert places are a summer thing, and they set out to change that.

You don’t need a franchise fee to borrow the idea. A warm waffle with a scoop melting on top is still your ice cream, just dressed for the weather. Hot chocolate with a flake in it. A sharing brownie with two scoops for a couple escaping the cold. Build a small winter menu and suddenly there’s a reason to open the doors in January.

But a menu on its own won’t pull anyone in off a freezing street. You need a way to tell people it’s there.

“Ice cream sells on habit, and habit is just a well-timed reminder. Get that reminder onto someone’s phone and the weather stops being the boss of your takings.” Ian Naylor, Founder at AppBuild.diy by AppInstitute.

What can an ice cream parlour app do that a chalkboard can’t?

It gives you a direct line to every regular you’ve ever served, so you can reach them on a wet Tuesday without paying for an advert or hoping Facebook decides to show your post.

This is where an ice cream parlour app earns its keep. Every customer who downloads it is someone you can message for free, as often as makes sense, straight to the phone in their hand. “New winter menu’s landed. Hot cookie dough, you’re welcome.” Send that to 800 downloaders and it costs you nothing.

Now compare that to the alternatives. Text messages charge you per message, so you ration them and most never get sent. Facebook and Instagram show your post to a sliver of your followers unless you pay to boost it. Push notifications through your own app have none of that baggage. There’s no per-message meter and no algorithm picking who gets to see you. You press send, it lands.

“Your customers haven’t gone anywhere in winter, they’ve just stopped thinking about you. A free push on the first cold Friday fixes that for nothing, which is more than you can say for a boosted Facebook post.” Becky Halls, Strategist at AppBuild.diy by AppInstitute.

How do you get the summer crowd back in spring?

You wait for the first warm day, then send one push notification before your rivals have even wiped their chalkboard clean.

The forecast makes your best marketing calls for you. It says 19 degrees on Saturday? Thursday night you send: “Sun’s back this weekend. Three new flavours waiting for you.” That’s the gap between a queue out the door and a quiet afternoon watching people walk to the shop down the road.

A digital loyalty card helps here too. Paper ones live in a drawer or go through the wash. A loyalty card inside the app can’t be lost, and “you’re two stamps off a free sundae” is a reason to come back that works in any weather.

Can you actually bank winter money, not just stay visible?

Yes, as long as you give people things to buy that don’t depend on them fancying a cold scoop in the cold.

A few that work all winter:

• Ice cream cakes and party tubs for birthdays and Christmas, ordered and paid for through the app with Shopify and Stripe, then collected when they’re ready.
• Gift cards. December is the one month people actively want to hand over money for something sweet. Sell them in-app and let someone buy one for their sister at 11pm from the sofa.
• Kids’ parties and sundae-making sessions booked straight into your diary. Plug in Acuity Scheduling or Square Appointments and the app handles the slot and takes a deposit, so you’re not chasing anyone the week before.
• A “ready to collect” push the second a cake’s boxed up, which saves you the ring-round.

None of that needs good weather. It needs people to know it’s on offer, which loops back to having their phone number in the shape of an app.

Isn’t an app a lot of hassle for a one-shop operation?

No, and that’s the bit that’s changed.

You don’t need a developer or a budget with three zeros on it. With AppBuild.diy you build it yourself, no code, and it’s live in about 15 minutes. One build gives you a proper iOS app on the Apple App Store, a proper Android app on Google Play, and a web app for anyone who’d rather not install anything.

Even Kaspa’s, now past 100 locations, credits its loyalty app as one of the things keeping customers coming back (MBS Group, Nov 2025). If it works for a chain that size, the same idea works for a single parlour with a few hundred regulars.

And here’s where a lot of the quick website builders trip up. Tools like Lovable or Bolt can knock together a web page, but they can’t publish a real app to the App Store or Google Play, and they can’t fire a push notification at a locked phone. That push, the free message that lands on the home screen, is the whole point. Without it you’ve just built another website that sits there gathering dust.

“A single parlour has something the chains would give their right arm for: a personal relationship with every regular who walks in. Put an app on their phone and you keep that relationship warm right through the quiet months.” David Hall, CEO at AppBuild.diy by AppInstitute.

Frequently asked questions

Do people really want to download an app for an ice cream shop?

They’ll download one that’s useful to them. Loyalty rewards, quick party bookings, a heads-up when a new flavour lands, a gift card they can buy in seconds. Give them a reason to tap install and the download looks after itself.

How much does an ice cream parlour app cost to build?

Less than you’d guess, and you build it yourself. AppBuild.diy is no code, so there’s no developer bill and no months of waiting. You start free, pick a paid plan when you’re ready, and you can be live in about 15 minutes.

Can I really send unlimited push notifications for free?

Yes. There’s no per-message charge, so you can tell your whole customer list about a new winter menu or a snow-day offer without watching a meter tick up. That’s the main reason an app beats SMS for a small food business.

Will it work on both iPhone and Android?

Yes. One build publishes a native app to the Apple App Store and Google Play, plus a web app (PWA) for anyone who doesn’t want to install anything. You do the work once and cover everyone.

Get set up before the cold really bites

Winter’s already here. The parlours that’ll be busy come February are the ones setting this up in November, while everyone else waits for the clocks to go forward and hopes for a heatwave.

You can have your own app built and live today. Start at appbuild.diy by AppInstitute: built without code or a developer, and live in about 15 minutes.

David

Last Updated on November 10, 2026 by Becky Halls