This is an excerpt from Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash’s latest ebook “How to turn surplus into success: Navigating the excess inventory dilemma” by Made By Das, the marketing engineers who build growth frameworks that scale.
Porto’s Bakery, a Southern Californian favorite, faced a turning point when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of its physical stores. The company’s Bake-At-Home (BAH) division, which shipped frozen pastries nationwide, became their primary focus for consistent revenue.
Made by DAS (DAS) stepped in to scale marketing and advertising for the BAH line, transforming e-commerce sales into the primary revenue channel.
DAS implemented an integrated strategy across Paid Advertising, Email & SMS marketing by deploying the DAS Audience Development system. DAS’ involvement and guidance played a crucial role in helping Porto’s manage excess demand by bridging the gap between inventory and sales activity.
Launched in January 2020, the BAH division aimed to supplement revenue from Porto’s retail locations. The early success of BAH, coupled with strong advertising and marketing campaigns, indicated nationwide demand for shipped goods. As the pandemic continued, Porto’s retail stores were mandated to close, leading to a dramatic, and necessary, shift in their revenue strategy.
DAS performed multiple scaling maneuvers during BAH’s initial marketing phase to widen coverage and reach, maintain cross-channel efficiency, and gain insights into forecasting and demand predictability. The success of BAH, driven by DAS’ Audience Development system, led to a significant change in Porto’s operational approach.
Audience Development is essential for e-commerce merchants, as it helps identify and engage target customers, optimize marketing efforts, and ensure inventory levels align with sales activity. By focusing on cross-channel efficiency, DAS helped Porto’s tackle excess demand at the source, ultimately improving inventory management.
DAS’ data-forward approach allowed them to identify trends, patterns, and product popularity, enabling Porto’s to make informed decisions about inventory levels and distribution strategies. This efficiency ensured that resources were allocated effectively, and products were available when and where customers expected them.
The collaboration between DAS and Porto’s also facilitated a more streamlined supply chain, as marketing, sales, and supply chain teams shared insights and data. By working together, these teams optimized inventory levels, minimized stockouts, and reduced excess inventory.
The demand from consumers to have their iconic Porto’s Potato Ball, or flaky pastry, showed zero signs of slowing down any time soon. To support and scale this further, DAS advised Porto’s to repurpose retail bakeries as production facilities for the BAH line, as their physical locations remained closed.
This strategic move enabled Porto’s to meet the growing nationwide demand for their products and maintain inventory management efficiency. While this wasn’t an excess inventory issue specifically, it was an excess demand issue to solve for. As a result, the e-commerce channel out-earned retail locations, showcasing the success of the repurposing strategy.
The DAS Audience Development system played a pivotal role in helping Porto’s Bakery navigate the pandemic and its associated challenges. By prioritizing healthy forecasting practices, paired with effective advertising and marketing, DAS turned excess demand into a sustainable growth opportunity for Porto’s, all while empowering fulfillment teams to maintain a real-time pulse read on inventory management.
Want to learn more? Check out the rest of our ebook on how brands can effectively tackle excess inventory and create more opportunities to engage customers:
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