This case study is of the Sauce-enabled, Chowly Smart Pricing! Original article can be found here.

Introduction

Inspired by the founder’s personal experience that everyone in business loves donuts but no one wants to be “that person” in the office who takes an entire one, The Mini Donut Company was born. What began in 2019 as a delivery-only business, is now a full-fledged mini donut company serving San Diego, CA, and Portland, OR. Since 2021, The Mini Donut Company has partnered with Chowly to integrate their digital delivery and takeout orders into their point-of-sale.

Challenge

Operators in the restaurant industry are always looking for ways to increase their profitably. The Mini Donut Company had already optimized its food and labor costs and was looking for another way to increase its margin that would not impact the customer experience. Wanting to remain competitive and thrive in today’s evolving marketplace, The Mini Donut Company was curious about the latest technology in the digital ordering restaurant space.

"During a time with staffing labor shortages, we were able to increase our profit overnight without any additional work from our team. I’m thrilled at the results we’ve seen with Chowly’s Smart Pricing solution.” – Matt Whiffen, Owner/Operater

Solution

The Mini Donut Company decided to start with a pilot test of Chowly’s Smart Pricing solution at two of its locations for a limited time to gauge its effectiveness.

The implementation of Smart Pricing proved to be a successful strategy for The Mini Donut Company. By leveraging data-driven insights, they optimized pricing to align with customer demand, leading to increased profitability. In the 30 days following the implementation of this new solution average ticket size was up .56 cents and revenue was up 14.1%.

Following these results, The Mini Donut Company decided to roll out Chowly’s Smart Pricing solution across all four locations. Annualized, The Mini Donut Company expects an increase in over $25K of profit directly associated with Chowly’s Smart Pricing solution. Because these additional sales come from a price increase, it goes straight to the bottom line. This is $25,000 the restaurant can use to invest in more locations, software, equipment, etc.

With these results, The Mini Donut Company has made plans to reinvest in other aspects of its business for further business growth.

Optimal pricing that’s informed by real-time data

• Maximize profits, not just revenue.
• Take the guesswork out of increasing your digital ordering prices by using AI technology to dynamically price your menu during peak hours.
• Strategically offer the right price, at the right time.