Q&A
What’s the Bon Cake genesis story and company vision?
Cao Jun: In 2014, Song Da, the founder of Bon Cake, engaged three young designers to
create a dessert that combined colour psychology, fashion design and technological innovation. They
came up with the first cake "surprise" which was completely white, and people loved it. The business
has continued to innovate with the same ethos ever since. We aim to delight customers in every
possible way.
As Bon Cake grew more complex, were you able to maintain the same levels of
customer service?
Jun: We started to generate a lot of data, yet had no means to collect or use it.
This resulted in inefficient internal processes, as we couldn’t access the information we
needed, such as which products were most popular and with which audiences. It impacted our ability
to deliver the level of customer service we’d have liked, as we couldn't decipher common pain
points from across our stores. The data was getting lost across different business units or not
recorded at all.
What was the breaking point with your previous business management system?
Jun: The breaking point arrived with a combination of factors, but ultimately the
management team felt like we didn’t have the control we needed to grow the business as we
wanted. We were running Bon Cake using basic accounting software and it was unable to provide
up-to-date financial, sales, inventory, supplier or customer data without lots of manual processing
and reporting. We needed control over everything and now we have it.
How has switching to NetSuite helped the business deliver a better service for
customers?
Jun: The main driver for us implementing NetSuite was to improve customer
satisfaction. First, we comprehensively analysed the feedback of customer pain points collected in
each business unit. Then we analysed the corresponding customer needs, and formulated action plans
according to customer needs. This customer-centric approach is now possible by having all of our
data in one place, available in real time.
What other key benefits has Bon Cake experienced since implementation?
Jun: Orders, inventory, customers, payments and all corresponding financial flows
are linked now, so the whole process can be monitored and traced from the creation of the order to
the final fulfilment. Now we [the management team] are able to look at the data to make decisions on
new store locations, product ranges, suppliers we use and customer segments we target.
Retail continues to face challenges due to the pandemic. How is Bon Cake
planning to mitigate risks?
Jun: The first is to improve the resilience of the business. Both market and
customer needs are changing all the time, so we need a business system and operational approach that
can adapt. The second is to build a smart and flexible supply chain. This will ensure our continued
development into new cities and new channels. The third is sophisticated cost control. By
understanding our data intimately, we can achieve better control of the enterprise operating costs
and become stronger, even during a pandemic.
Supply chain challenges have also impacted retailers globally. How do you
minimise disruption?
Jun: With the rapid expansion of the business and growth in sales volume, we need to
have full visibility of our supply chain or we’ll quickly run into problems. For a long time,
we’d been struggling with how to adapt production and sales to ensure everything runs as
smoothly as possible, but with NetSuite’s support, we've started to use data analysis to
develop more advanced production planning and safety stock settings. This will be beneficial for the
whole company as we navigate this year and beyond.
How will NetSuite help you in the future as you grow and open more stores?
Jun: NetSuite signifies a new era for Bon Cake. Now we have a powerful business
management system in place, we're able to develop clear digital business processes which will be
replicated in every store, and every new store we open. We're already realising the benefits of
aggregated customer data to aid decision-making, like which new products we should launch next. As
we move forward we hope to become more strategic (and less reactive), and start to forecast demand
with even greater accuracy.
