The Restaurant Empire That Runs on Shopify
Zapiet Eats
By Andrew Cargill
Running food ordering across more than 100 restaurants is a logistics problem most platforms weren't built to solve.
Menus vary by store. Inventory moves daily. Peak demand hits fast and unevenly, and when December arrives, it hits all at once.
For Conti's, one of the most recognised bakery and restaurant brands in the world, this wasn't a hypothetical. It was every holiday season. Thousands of orders flowing through dozens of restaurants, each with different menus, schedules, and delivery zones.
They didn't lack demand. They lacked the infrastructure to handle it without constant manual coordination.
That meant rethinking how orders were placed, routed, and fulfilled across every restaurant.
The results speak for themselves. More than 100,000 Shopify orders processed, approximately 30% year-over-year growth in online revenue during December, and the strongest holiday sales performance the company had seen.
One of the fastest-growing multi-brand restaurant groups in their market, Eight-8-Ate Holdings operates more than 160 restaurants nationwide across brands including Conti's, Wendy's, Masuma, Good Mood Food, and Better Coffee.
The group was founded in 2018 with the acquisition of Conti's, one of the best-known bakery and restaurant brands in their region. It expanded further in 2019 with the acquisition of Wendy's, becoming its master franchisee.
Today, Conti's alone operates over 100 stores nationwide, with Wendy's covering major metro areas and Better Coffee running kiosk locations across several cities.
Before moving to Shopify and Zapiet Eats, Conti's relied on a custom-built ordering system managed by a third party.
The team couldn't adjust the ordering experience on their own. Updating a scheduling rule, modifying a delivery zone, launching a seasonal promotion, responding to a spike in demand. Every change required external coordination and took days to implement.
For a business where menus rotate between breakfast, lunch, and dinner, where delivery coverage and fees differ by location, and where holiday demand can double overnight, that kind of delay isn't an inconvenience. It's lost revenue.
The deeper problem was visibility. Headquarters had no clear way to see what was selling across locations, no way to compare menu performance between stores, and no way to understand which products were actually driving profitability. Decisions were made on instinct rather than data.
When the company's e-commerce lead joined the team, the diagnosis was clear. The system had to change.
The first step was moving online ordering to Shopify, a platform the team was already familiar with.
From there, the focus shifted to pickup and local delivery. Several apps were tested from the Shopify marketplace, but many lacked the stability or functionality that restaurant operations demand. Scheduled pickups, restaurant-specific menus, delivery zone logic, allergen handling, menu dayparting, staff access controls. These are not nice-to-haves when you're coordinating orders across dozens of kitchens.
Zapiet Eats stood out because it matched how the business actually operates. Pickup scheduling, delivery routing, and location-based fulfillment built for multi-site food businesses, not retrofitted from a general ecommerce tool.
Getting Zapiet Eats running across the Conti's network meant configuring the system to reflect how a real restaurant chain operates, not how a typical online store works.
Each restaurant needed its own menus and menu schedules. What is available for pickup might not be available for delivery, and the hours can differ. The time it takes to deliver to different areas must be carefully calculated, so customers are not left waiting. With Zapiet Eats, all that can be set up or adjusted in a matter of minutes, making it easy to respond to live events.
Delivery fees were set up to reflect the reality that each restaurant serves a different area. Some charge based on distance, others based on order value. Each restaurant covers its own delivery costs accurately rather than absorbing a flat rate that doesn't fit.
Sam Forde from Zapiet visiting the Conti's team
Product bundles were configured to encourage upsells. When a customer adds a cake to their cart, drinks and sides are suggested alongside it, increasing average order value without adding friction to checkout. For a bakery brand known for celebration cakes and party platters, this changes what a typical order looks like.
Dietary restrictions and allergen information were built into the product setup so customers with specific needs can order with confidence. For a bakery where ingredients matter and the menu spans dozens of items, this isn't a bonus feature. It's a trust signal that turns first-time buyers into regulars.
Staff permissions were structured so the right people see the right things. Kitchen teams see incoming orders and preparation details. Store managers control local availability and scheduling. Delivery coordinators manage routing and driver assignments. Headquarters sees reporting, analytics, and performance across every brand and restaurant. Nobody is overwhelmed with information they don't need, and nobody is locked out of information they do.
The result is a system where 100 restaurants run independently while headquarters sees everything in one dashboard.
After launching Zapiet Eats, the ordering process became significantly more structured and predictable.
Scheduling, pickup management, and delivery routing now run without manual coordination. That matters most during peak periods, when higher order volumes previously required constant intervention from the sales team.
Customers see real-time pickup windows and delivery availability for their chosen restaurant. Order status widgets on the storefront let them track progress after placing an order, which cut down on support calls and "where's my order?" messages.
Reporting gave headquarters something they never had before. A clear view of what's selling, where, and when. Bestsellers by location, menu performance across dayparts, revenue trends across the network. The decisions that used to rely on gut instinct now have data behind them.
Conti's team celebrating their 100,000th Shopify order milestone
December is the most important month for the company's online sales. It's when demand peaks, operations are tested hardest, and the gap between a good system and the wrong one shows up in the numbers.
Following the launch of Zapiet Eats, the business saw 30% year-over-year growth in online revenue during December, reaching record levels. The increase exceeded internal expectations and marked the strongest online sales period the company had experienced.
During the holiday rush, Zapiet handled order flow, scheduling, and pickup and delivery coordination across restaurants. The team processed significantly higher volumes without adding headcount or manual oversight.
When Conti's crossed 100,000 orders on Shopify, it wasn't just a number on a dashboard. It was proof that a complex, multi-restaurant operation could run at scale on a platform most people associate with t-shirts and candles.
Sam Forde, Zapiet's Head of Operations, flew out to meet the Conti's team in person. He brought a small gift to mark the milestone, a gesture that reflects the kind of relationship built between the two teams over months of close collaboration. Not a vendor handoff. Not a support ticket closed. A partnership where both sides showed up.
The visit gave Sam a firsthand look at the operation behind the numbers. The kitchens processing orders, the staff managing fulfillment across locations, and the team that made the migration happen.
A small thank you gift from the Zapiet team to Conti's
As Conti's continues expanding, each new location adds complexity to ordering, fulfillment, and delivery. The infrastructure now in place on Shopify with Zapiet Eats was built to absorb that growth.
What started as a migration away from a rigid third-party system has become the foundation for how the group runs online ordering across all of its brands. The flexibility to adapt as the business evolves is already built in.
The 100,000-order milestone wasn't the ceiling. It was the proof that the system works.
Running a restaurant, bakery or coffee shop on Shopify? Give Zapiet Eats a try today.
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Your restaurant. Your orders. Your Shopify store.
If a 100-location restaurant chain can run on Shopify, so can yours!
Your restaurant. Your orders. Your Shopify store.
If a 100-location restaurant chain can run on Shopify, so can yours!
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