The Challenge
Brew & Fold is an emerging lifestyle brand in Manila that combines a cafe, laundromat, and cozy lounge spaces into a seamless, experience-driven business. With multiple service categories running under one roof, managing operations across different verticals and locations—each with its own rhythm—was increasingly difficult.
Some of the key challenges included:
- No centralized view of orders and customer traffic.
- Difficulty measuring unique customer visits and walk-ins.
- Lack of data-driven insights on peak hours and lounge occupancy.
- Limited budget and infrastructure to deploy large-scale enterprise systems.
At CloudMates, we believe in frugal innovation—delivering high-impact solutions without bloated costs or complexity. Here's how we made it happen for Brew & Fold:
Centralized Cloud POS (Built on Serverless AWS Stack)
We built a cloud-based Point-of-Sale system that unified all service verticals—cafe, laundry, and lounge—into one dashboard. It supports:
- Order tracking across categories
- Inventory management
- Basic CRM & repeat customer tagging
Business Impact:
- Reduced manual coordination across service counters
- Enabled mobile/tablet-based ordering for flexible floor ops
- Made it easier to manage promotions and loyalty programs
Customer-Facing App (For Ordering, Tracking & Payments)
To enhance user experience, we deployed a lightweight web and mobile app for customers. "Features included:
- Order placement (cafe/laundry)
- Queue tracking and notifications
- Digital payment integration
Business Impact:
- Improved operational efficiency by 30%
- Increased repeat visits with personalized experiences
- Reduced waiting time and customer frustration
Vision Powered Footfall Intelligence
The most innovative part? We used low-cost CCTV feeds + computer vision models to identify unique customer visits, track footfall, and match them with POS transactions.
How it works:
- AI model detects and anonymizes unique individuals via camera feeds
- System correlates timestamped visits with POS data (orders, services availed)
- Built a database of “anonymous unique visits” and mapped it to real transactions
Business Impact:
- Accurate understanding of walk-ins vs actual customers
- Real-time analytics for peak hour staffing and lounge utilization
- Data-driven decisions for promotions and layout optimization
This project is a proof point that you don’t need to invest heavily to harness AI and cloud. With minimal infrastructure and maximum reuse of existing systems (like CCTV), Brew & Fold now operates with intelligence usually reserved for enterprise retail chains.
What they gained:
- 360° visibility of customer engagement
- Improved staff planning and resource allocation
- Better business decisions through data
Final Thoughts
Brew & Fold is more than just a cafe—it’s a blueprint for resilient, modern, and customer-centric operations. And CloudMates is proud to power this transformation with smart, scalable, and cost-effective tech.
Want to do more with less? "Let’s talk: hello@cloudmates.me
Let’s Transform Your Operations with Smart, Scalable Solutions
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