The Jakarta Post reported that food delivery service platforms have seen a significant increase in transactions during the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), hence the trend of ordering food from home has led to food and beverage (F&B) MSMEs focusing more on online sales, as well as the emergence of new F&B businesses.

Businesses shifting from offline to online sales must bear a few things in mind, including strengthening their presence on digital platforms and adopting digital commerce tools, as pointed out by a briefing released on April 14 by market research firm Kantar, titled COVID-19 Impact on Indonesian Attitudes & Behaviors: Learning for Brands.

Thankfully, F&B businesses of any scale, from MSMEs to established brands, are faced with many options of digital platforms they can cooperate with, ranging from app-based delivery services to marketplace platforms that are part of tech giants, each with its own styles, features and campaigns to help them thrive.

One of many success stories of newly established F&B businesses that optimize the use of digital platforms is that of Bruule, a brand that makes baked spaghetti called “spaghetti bruule.”

Husband and wife Reza Harisky and Sarila, cofounders of Bruule, told the Post in a video conference that they started the business in late March, targeting to sell 12 pans a week using a social media platform.

However, as the business grew, they saw a higher number of transactions per day, hence the need for a marketplace platform to manage their business.

“We joined Tokopedia in July, three months after opening, when we felt challenges in administration, delivery and ordering process for the customers using social media,” said Sarila, who used to receive orders through Instagram’s Direct Message (DM) feature.

It turned out that opening a store at Tokopedia led to skyrocketing sales of Bruule’s baked spaghetti.

Reza and Sarila admitted that selling Bruule’s products through Tokopedia helped them reach a wider market, and it helps customers order easily, too, hence boosting sales. They still sell and promote the product through the Instagram Story feature, but now for customers, instead of sending direct messages to order, they only need to “swipe up” the story and will be taken directly to Tokopedia to place an order.

“This really helps us in with administration, because [digital platforms] already have a system that makes taking orders much easier. We will receive the order, [prepare the goods] and request [for the goods] to be picked up without having to [manually] confirm [the orders] with customers,” Sarila explained.

She went on to say that taking orders manually through messenger services and/or social media could be tedious, as she and her partners had to reconfirm a few times, and that taking orders through digital platforms was simpler and left less room for mistakes.

However, other than just optimizing the digital platform, Bruule owes its success to knowing its market’s preference.

Sarila said that spaghetti bruule is actually based on her family’s recipe, and the dish is often enjoyed at family gatherings.

The original spaghetti recipe has a strong taste of tomato, but Sarila and Reza decided that they wanted to adjust the flavor to cater to the common Indonesian palate, which is sweeter, with a strong hint of spices.

“At the base [of the spaghetti bruule] is the regular spaghetti bolognaise, with minced beef and mushroom, and on top of it, we put a layer of ‘bruule cheese’ and then we bake it,” said Reza, adding that “bruule cheese” refers to creamy cheese sauce the brand developed itself to top the spaghetti layers.

The couple then added chili flakes to the spaghetti bruule, as they understand Indonesians will like it.

“At the end, we have to look at our target market, what they like to eat, and that is why we decided to modify our family recipe, to create the [spaghetti] bruule that Indonesians like,” Reza explained.

Reza went on to say that 40-50 percent of the revenue Bruule earns was generated from sales at Tokopedia, and he hopes his store at Tokopedia will reach an even wider market, hence generating higher revenue from sales at the platform.

While its Tokopedia store has one dropping point in the South Jakarta area to cater to the market in the capital, Bruule also has dropping points in West Java’s Bekasi, Bandung and Bogor; Banten’s Tangerang; East Java’s Surabaya and Lampung.

The dropping points are to serve the market in their surrounding areas, and for those areas, orders still have to be processed manually. But, according to Reza, a discussion with Tokopedia for more Bruule stores in more areas is already in the pipeline.

As for customers, ordering ready-to-eat food from a technology company with a marketplace platform like Tokopedia, options that can satisfy various preferences abound.

If you happen to be in the same area as Bruule’s Tokopedia dropping point, you can place an order in the morning and expect to have the freshly-made food delivered in the afternoon. On certain days, however, you may have to be on the waiting list, as the day’s stock may have sold out quickly.

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