LOS ANGELES — For better or worse, the COVID-19 pandemic changed nearly every business, especially those in the foodservice and retail bakery sectors.
Operating six locations in the Los Angeles area, Porto’s Bakery & Cafe found itself navigating unchartered waters in 2020 when COVID lockdowns sent consumers online to order products from the full-service bakery known for its signature products including Cuban-style cakes, Danish and other pastry products, as well as a cafe menu that includes items such as sandwiches and potato balls.
Since opening the business in the ’70s, the Porto family never really believed in the word “no.” As a Cuban immigrant family, they did whatever it took to keep the business going.
“We did everything,” recalled Raul Porto, the bakery’s third-generation owner. “It was like, ‘Whatever you want … you want a cake? You want it delivered to Santa Barbara? We’ll do that.’ My dad would drive, my sister would drive. Whatever we had to do, from day one.”
As the business grew to its six locations, Porto’s maintained that work ethic. So, when foodservice operations had to close their doors in 2020, the bakery got creative with its online ordering and pickup availability.
“Like everyone else, we lost a lot of business during COVID,” Raul said. “We didn’t let anyone come into the bakery for almost a year, but we started relying a lot on online ordering.”
Although Porto’s produces many items at scale in its commissary, a huge amount of production — including custom orders and deli sandwiches — is still done onsite at each location, the smallest of which is 15,000 square feet.
When the stores shifted to online ordering through the Porto’s website and third-party vendors like DoorDash and Uber Eats, they didn’t have enough technology to fully automate the process, leaving employees at each location to manually enter orders into the point of sale (POS) system.
It was one small piece of serendipity from the upheaval, in that Porto’s customers took well to the digital process. When businesses reopened, the online orders didn’t wane. It was great for business, but an inefficient process. In every location, as many as four workers were needed to input the information into the POS.
“Our customers really wanted these platforms,” Raul said. “It became a huge part of our business. Even when customers came back in droves, a lot of people still wanted to order online.”
During the height of the pandemic, 100% of Porto’s sales came from online, and today, it’s almost 30%. Needless to say, manual integration became too cumbersome, and the bakery partnered with Tillster, a leading ordering technology company, to build on the customer momentum while streamlining the process. This was especially important for a bakery business that accommodates customer orders that come in a variety of customizations and lead times.
“There are a lot of different platforms available, but bakeries are unique in how we make and sell our products,” Raul explained. “Someone might order a cake and pick it up later that day or in a couple of days, or they might order a cake plus some other savory items. So, we need it to be in the system without going directly to the kitchen right away.”
Tillster aggregated the third-party formats and Porto’s online ordering into one platform through the bakery’s POS system at all locations.
“At Porto’s, most of their business was walk-in, and a portion of it was digital and order ahead,” said Hope Neiman, CMO for Tillster. “They knew the digital part was going to grow, so we helped fit our elements into what would best work for them operationally.”
The technology operates on a modular platform, enabling Porto’s to use the components that work for its specific business.
“Because our tools are modular, we used different components that helped enable their team to be much more effective at executing orders in a timely way,” Neiman said.
For example, the platform enabled Porto’s customers to enter an online order at any time for a specific pickup time or delivery through third party. Before the integration, online ordering was only available during store hours.
“At the beginning of the day, we run a report of what’s on Tillster that hasn’t hit our POS,” Raul said. “When people are ordering cakes online for same day and other days, it can get crazy. So, every day we determine how many cakes we need to produce for that day, and the Tillster system can help us keep that organized.”
While Tillster is a digital ordering platform and not inventory management, it can attach itself to inventory for further ease of use. Porto’s uses a “prep time” component from Tillster, which means for each element of ordering, the system knows how long the item takes to prepare. In some cases, it can alert a customer that an item they’re trying to order might take longer to prepare.
Porto’s is known around the Los Angeles area not only for its products but also for its long lines of people waiting to get those products. While for now Tillster’s capabilities are streamlining the online experience, in many ways, it’s helping the in-person experience as well.
With these tools in place, Raul has noticed that team members operate more efficiently, allowing them to better engage with customers for a more enjoyable experience and provide the opportunity to upsell at times as well.
Porto’s hasn’t finished growing. In fact, the bakery has a highly anticipated seventh location set to begin construction at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, CA, in 2025. With technology like Tillster in place, the bakery can streamline its operations to focus on areas such as customer experience.
“It’s not enough to just bring the technology to the restaurant space,” Neiman said. “The vision is to bring a variety of technology solutions to also help enable the hospitality component. What started as simply delivering an ordering experience, we see now it can be so much more.”
