There’s a common plotline among stories of brands moving into the digital space: the need to scale up, expand its demographics, or make up for a cool portfolio. For 38 year-old Bicol-born restaurant chain BIGGS, it’s simply to let its customers continue the dining experience at home.

2020, of course, played the key role: quarantine regulations kept everyone at home. This meant restaurants trying to thrive through a business model that’s built around social interaction and the togetherness that ‘dining in’ actually is. With no clear timelines as to when customers would come back, restaurants scrambled to cut costs on all corners, grow its delivery segment, and even diversify its products. 

But instead of simply looking for means to survive, BIGGS found a way to thrive. To do this, they didn’t look very far: it’s a picture of a BIGGS customer who’s alone in the kitchen. He’s looking through his fridge for an easy-prep, delicious, filling comfort food which he can make with the help of a pan, an oven, or a grill. Along comes the bestselling Biggs Ready-To-Cook Ribs. 

Half a year later with over ten products and twelve more in the pipeline, the brand straddles the future by reigning in both the digital (with a vibrant e-commerce page) and retail spaces (being in over 50 stores in Metro Manila and Bicol).

While the product is already there–the Ribs being one of its flagship products for years–launching it in a platform so new and in a year so challenging is another story.

Here are five (5) of the key steps BIGGS took to successfully pivot itself to e-commerce.

1. Talk to your customers. For BIGGS, it’s not only looking at past sales performances to determine which product to develop but to have its customers be product co-creators. Through surveys, focus group discussions, and interviews–all done online–BIGGS asked its customers on how frequent they cook in a week, the food preparation methods they are looking for, even the flavor profiles they prefer.
2. Invest in Creatives. The e-commerce space is peppered with compelling visuals and rich content. The competition for attention is stiff. By having its in-house team work with creative suppliers, BIGGS is able to come up with fresh content every time through its many social media platforms.
3. Build relationships with an enabler. Besides being a landscape for creatives, the e-commerce space requires efficiencies to be made in the logistics, inventory, web development and operations departments. An enabler company builds these synergies within its team or outside to bridge these gaps.
4. After building an incredible website, invest in paid ads. In many cases, the website will be very much like a physical store: it requires careful construction, regular upkeep and constant improvements. Driving customers to it is another story. Driving traffic through organic content works to some extent, but with tight competition coupled with continuous changes in social media algorithms, it’s going to be a slow burn. Paid ads ensure the visibility of your products to your target audiences and guarantee optimal sales conversion.
5. Strike a balance between what you have (both product and data) and what your customers like. Fortunately, BIGGS already had a hero product in mind–the BIGGS Ribs. What needed to happen is to reformat this restaurant hit into something its customers can prepare at home with limited tools. Making data-driven decisions–supported by rich data found in its e-commerce systems–help the brand make changes quickly. If there’s one learning that stood out in this movement from dine-in to digital, it’s the importance of agility.

Check out BIGGS Ready To Cook via www.biggs.ph.

Aside from “We make it fresh,” the tagline of this pizza company is accompanied with “Ang pinakasulit na pizza.” Checking the prices – and comparing these to the likes of pizza giants Shakey’s and Pizza Hut – both claims have merit. But curiosity on the veracity of these claims were actually what drove us to check out Hunter’s Pizza.

To contextualize, this a franchise company, with over five branches already. For the taste test, the branch called was the one in Solchuaga St. corner Pasong Tirad, Barangay Tejeros, Makati City.

The pizza company doesn’t advertise in mainstream media; instead, it is active in online GCs (group chats) of various communities. There, the viewers are given photo info of the available goods for the day. These often include pizzas with: Triple Cheese (P129); Chicken & Mushroom (P109); Cream Cheese (P129); Cheese (P100); White (P105); Ham & Cheese (P105); Pepperoni (P109); Bacon (P109); New York (P129); and Sausage (P109).

We tried Triple White (another version of 3-cheese pizza, sans the company’s pizza sauce, selling for P129); Hawaiian (P109); and Supreme (P129).

To start, PM’ing the company was easy. At least the branch tapped emailed immediately, providing the needed additional information – e.g. Are the pizzas freshly baked? Yes, we were told. The dough used is freshly-made? Yes, we were told, too. Do they have delivery fee? For nearby places, no; but for somewhat distant places, add P20.

As soon as ordering was made, the goods were immediately prepped. At least that’s what we were told.

And this may be true since the pizzas arrived less than 40 after ordering. A driver who claimed to be related to the owner delivered the pizza; he was courteous… typical delivery.

Now, to the taste test…

Taste-wise, the pizza wasn’t bad at all.

Triple White was, indeed, cheesy. For the photoshoot, when pulling out slices, the cheese melted, leaving that… mouth-watering elongated cheesy trail.

Hawaiian was, generally, so-so; you can immediately tell when you’d notice there were just a few slices of pineapple chunks.

The Supreme was the tastiest; it had enough meat and veggie toppings to make it, truly, supreme-y (similar to those offered by pizza giants).

Here’s the one BIG issue I have, though: the pizza dough used in all the company’s offerings didn’t taste pizza-like. They’re more like… bread-like. So that if you’re extremely picky, these pizzas may actually taste more like bread with toppings. I know that this is a definite no-no for many; so this should be stressed. If it’s any consolation, this isn’t one of those frozen-then-heated-when-ordered type of pizza; meaning, it can justify its taglines…

The pizzas do not sell for much, so supporting this community pizza company doesn’t break the bank. Just temper your expectations and you’d get something that should, at least, satisfy your pizza craving…

Get more info or order from Hunter’s Pizza via the Makati Branch’s FB account.

By Chef Kin was only opened as an online bakery in May 2020, with a startup capital of approximately P100,000. But after less than a year of operating, Rankin Cailles said that they already reached ROI; and in fact, they’re already investing to buy more equipment to grow the biz.

To better understand the success, trying out the offerings of By Chef Kin is a must.

Now what makes its offerings different from those already offered in the market?

“It is personally special for me in terms that I am able to express my ideas and bring them to my client’s table. I often have these ideas in my head that I would like to try and see if it works but I can’t do because I’m busy with work,” Cailles said.

But these ideas are now… eatable.

What are the bestsellers?

Try the Mascarpone Tiramisù (P350 for petite, P700 for regular and P1,300 for party size); Limoncello Tiramisù (P500 for petite, P1,000 for regular and P2,000 for party size); and the Butternut Crinkles (P300 for 10 pieces).

These explain the success of By Chef Kin; and should be tried indeed.

Interested to try the offerings of By Chef Kin? Head to FB: https://www.facebook.com/bychefkin or IG: https://www.instagram.com/bychefkin/.