As Ordermentum celebrates its 10th birthday, Founder and CEO Adam Theobald highlights how technology can create the space for lasting relationships in the coffee industry.
When Adam Theobald founded Ordermentum with Andrew Low in 2014, the response he got from potential customers time and again was that they didn’t want to use an app. They believed customer relationships were formed by talking in person and that using technology would hinder the special bond that resulted in repeat business.
“I always found it to be a funny thing to say because it presumes the answer is either technology or relationship, and that the two don’t need to work hand in hand for success,” says Adam.
“In fact, the opposite is true. What technology and automation do is take away the transactional element of the connection, giving the business time to invest in the things that matter like relationships, great products, and helping customers get more out of each.”
Adam was ahead of the curve. In the 10 years that have passed, the coffee industry has evolved and the use of apps, technology, and automation is ingrained in everyday tasks and transactions. Today, his ordering, payments, and insights platform Ordermentum is used by half of Australia’s hospitality venues.
A huge portion of those businesses are cafés, which take advantage of the platform to source products from the hundreds of wholesalers, such as roasters, that use Ordermentum to streamline their workflow, increase sales, and keep their businesses in order. To date, it has processed over 50,000 tonnes of coffee beans. According to Adam, the app is thriving in the coffee sector because that’s where it all began.
“I had developed a different hospitality ordering platform (Hey You), but it wasn’t quite right for tracking orders between venues and their suppliers. When I spoke to café owners, they told me they were getting calls from suppliers during service and wanted a way to compile all their orders in one place, without having to pick up the phone,” says Adam.
“My Co-Founder Andrew was running [Sydney specialty roaster] Toby’s Estate at the time, so we were also collaborating with a lot of roasters. We could see that both venues and suppliers had an enormous opportunity to streamline. Roasters were finding it difficult to take orders and chase payments, and didn’t have a system to support them. We knew we could create something that was a win-win for both roasters and cafés.”
Since launching Ordermentum, the coffee industry in Australia has seen huge growth and the platform has grown and evolved alongside it.
“Speciality coffee has exploded over the past 10 years. We are really proud to have supported and played a part in this rich tapestry of roasters and cafés,” says Adam.
“With such growth comes competition, especially for the roasters. It’s an incredibly important time for them to be on top of their businesses so they can trade smarter.”
‘Fish where your customers are, not where you want them to be’ was one of the founding principles behind Ordermentum. With increased competition in the market, Adam believes the platform is a tool for roasters, as well as butchers, bakers, grocers, dairy farmers, distributors, fishmongers and more, to not only find new customers but also to increase sales to existing partners.
“When wholesalers connect with their customers on Ordermentum, they can expect to see an increased spend of around 40 per cent over two years. This is because customers can see all the great products in one place and can purchase in a few quick taps,” he says.
“Another benefit in the current economic market is that using the platform can reduce bad debts by up to 75 per cent. Whether the supplier decides to be paid upfront or on terms, automatically setting up payments through the app means they can spend their valuable time having conversations about what matters to the customer instead of chasing unpaid invoices.”
With the price of green beans continuing to fluctuate over the past year, the cost of a cup of coffee has been a hot topic of conversation. Alongside its ordering and payment features, Ordermentum offers business insights to help both suppliers and customers make data-based decisions on pricing and retaining customers.
“Many of our customers tell us prices are going up and it’s getting harder to manage. We’ve developed value-added services that predict churn and bad debts to help businesses protect themselves. We also provide data to suppliers on what’s selling well so they can forecast sales and confidently make changes that will have a big impact on their stock management and profitability,” says Adam.
“We’re also building the very best AI-powered tools to help our customers drive profit per customer. It is all about using the network data to give back to suppliers to drive their profitability.”
While Ordermentum was first and foremost developed as an order management platform to provide all these functions and tools, Adam believes its most valuable benefit is helping producers forge and maintain long-term sustainable relationships with the venues they supply.
“No one goes into coffee roasting to deal with orders, payments, and logistics. They do it because they love the products and want to help their customers create great experiences,” he says.
“We’ve developed a way for suppliers to make the transactional element automated, which allows them to invest that time in ensuring a quality experience for their customers. I firmly believe technology makes more space for people.”
As he looks to the future of the coffee industry and Ordermentum’s role within it, Adam says the brand will continue to drive profit by customer and ensure venues and suppliers can trade smarter and thrive in an increasingly complex environment.
“Our experience in the coffee industry is deeper than any other segment. We’re not going to move away from it, instead we’re doubling down to provide even more value for our coffee customers,” he says.
“We’ve got lots of projects running right now that are specifically designed for coffee roasters, centred around the idea of the complicated customer and using machine learning to help them scale their businesses cost effectively. We’ll be bringing these new tools, such as our Coffee Index, to market very soon and believe they’ll be a fantastic resource for coffee companies across Australia.”
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This article appears in the October/November 2024 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
