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CASE STUDY
CASESTUDY
OVERVIEWEstablished in 2013, Edith Patisserie is a locally owned,
home-style bakery that specialises in layered cakes for
birthdays, weddings and all types of celebrations. They are
well-known for their original designs with unique flavour
pairings tailored to local palates — one of their famous
creations is the Bubble Tea tart.
The small team behind Edith Patisserie means they bake in
small batches, focusing on freshness and quality. It also allows
them to take on customised orders ranging from single tier to
two-tier and fully customised cakes.
A small team means everyone needs to put in the e�ort for the
business to do well. Small businesses, in particular, can
leverage on technology to perform supportive tasks like
administrative work to free up crucial manpower for
operational needs.
As Edith Patisserie grew in popularity and the number of
orders taken a day, they quickly realised the need for a proper,
well-functioning website to streamline operations. Through the
Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG), Edith Patisserie partnered
with FirstCom Solutions to create an e-commerce platform
that would suit their needs and support their growth.
BRANDING DESIGN ONLINESTRATEGY
RESPONSIVEWEB DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL MEDIAMARKETING
PHOTOGRAPHY CONTENTCREATION
ONGOING SITEOPTIMIZATION
FIRSTCOM SOLUTIONS’ CONTRIBUTION
Although Edith Patisserie owns a physical location, the main bulk of their
business is conducted online via deliveries. Before taking up PSG solutions, the
business employed the use of e-commerce platform builder Shopify to create
and manage their online store.
However, the constraints of the platform caused a few hitches in business
operations and productivity.
For example, Edith Patisserie had to manage and handle orders on two separate
websites: one for standard bakes, and one for customised bakes. If a customer
wanted to order a standard and customised cake at the same time, he or she
would have to order it twice. Besides a poor customer experience, di�erent
websites meant that orders were tracked separately — so sta� had to spend
additional time tallying masterlists from both websites into one, in order to plan
ahead and schedule dates for baking.
Edith Patisserie also found the Shopify platform lacking in functionality. For
example, when they decided to install a third-party plugin to
implement a date picker for their e-commerce platforms, they
found that there were compatibility issues as the application
was unable to access their checkout pages.
Customer service processes such as confirmation of
orders and selection of delivery time slots were also
manually executed rather than automated. This meant that
an employee would have to take time out of their day to
call customers to remind them to pick up their orders and if
they did not pick up the phone, send a text. Or in the case of
selecting delivery time slots, manually go through the delivery
schedules to look for a free slot.
Overall, the business had grown and their needs could no longer be met
with third-party platform builders. Edith Patisserie needed to create a robust
e-commerce solution that would enhance the customer experience and
streamline back end operations.
CHALLENGES FACED BY THE BUSINESS
One of the worries shared by the team at Edith Patisserie is having to adapt to a new website when their existing
business processes were so ingrained with the old one. This is a common worry by all businesses and FirstCom
worked closely with them during the design phase to iron out potential issues and facilitate a smooth transition.
Many features were added to create a simple and streamlined customer experience for ordering customised cakes.
Dropdown menus were used to allow customers to easily select cake sizes, flavours and other accessories such as
fondants and candles.
Vital information such as storage instructions and recommended serving size were made easily available at
the bottom of the page, which saves time and reduces the back and forth needed to instruct customers.
DIGITAL SOLUTIONS UNDERTAKEN
A Better Ordering Experience
In order to facilitate a smoother customer experience, both standard and customised bakes could be ordered from
the main website in a single cart, an improvement over the previous solution which required the customer deal with
two di�erent websites and carts. To account for variation in cake customisation and lead times, the cart was also
programmed to be able to dynamically adjust expected lead times to better manage customer expectations.
On the backend, orders from both standard and customised cake categories could now be tracked using a single
masterlist. There was no longer a need to consolidate two di�erent lists, greatly reducing the amount of
administrative work needed and making it easier to schedule and update the status of incoming orders.
The backend system was also flexible enough to accommodate changes after a customer had placed their orders.
Sta� were able to edit orders and make changes once informed, which was not possible via Shopify.
Improved Order Management System
Prior to the launch of their new e-commerce platform, Edith Patisserie relied heavily on manual work to execute key
customer service actions such as the confirmation of orders, reminders and booking of delivery time slots.
With the new website, customer confirmation and reminder emails were automated, freeing sta� up to take on other
tasks. The business is also able to set up quotas for each time slot and leave the management of said delivery time
slots to the website. Leading to less administrative work and greater flexibility for customers.
Automated Customer Service Processes
The improved website and automation of business processes have freed up more time for the front-of-house crew
at Edith Patisserie to interact with customers face to face. The team is now able to accept more orders without the
worry of having to constantly keep track of everything. And with the ability to set lead times, they are also looking
to branch out into fulfilling B2B and bulk orders.
In the future, Edith Patisserie is looking into exploring digital marketing initiatives: such as incorporating a Facebook
ads extension onto their e-commerce page to further link the store with their social media pages and drive tra�c
from social channels.
BUSINESS CHANGES AND FUTURE PLANS
158 Kallang Way, #03-05 Performance Building, Singapore 349245
FirstCom Solutions Pte Ltd
T: (+65) 6848 4984 F: (+65) 6848 4284 E: [email protected]
