As digital nomads, we are frequently in cities that our customers are located in and have the ability to visit their brick-n-mortar stores to discover how they run their businesses. A lot of our biggest feature updates have come from learning about how we can better serve our customers during these conversations. Recently, we sat down with Giancarlo Guevara, one of the twin brothers who founded and run DBakers, a corner bakery in the Midtown neighbourhood of Miami, FL. DBakers offers a wide variety of baked goods from custom cakes, and macarons, to seasonally and locally specific cupcakes with very unique flavour profiles.

They have recently migrated to Shopify and have upgraded their services to incorporate Zapiet’s Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery to streamline their store pickup and delivery services. Visiting this bakery was really thrilling to hear about how easy it was for them to quickly change the the way they run their business - from installing the app to getting up and running with our service and highly rely on it for more than half of their orders in such a short period of time.

Us: When did you first start offering delivery? What solution were you using back before Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery?

Giancarlo: We opened our bakery in the summer 2018. Our customers expected free delivery but at that time we only offered it via the phone. The whole process was manual - we’d have to look up the address, then charge by the mile. 

The best part of moving to Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery was not needing to deal directly with customers who wanted delivery. They were able to place their order and immediately see calculated delivery charges before completing the order or abandoning it. It saves us - and them - a lot of time.

Us: How important is offering in-store pickup options to your customers? Did you have another solution before Zapiet?

Giancarlo: Launching our business on Shopify and adding Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery has been really important to our business. It facilitates a lot of things for us and for our customers: people can order whenever they want and in a way that’s most convenient for them. 

For us, it cuts down on needing to staff an extra employee to manage delivery calls. It lets customers transact directly on our store - which many of them prefer. Offering the flexibility of in-store pickup or delivery means we get sales we wouldn’t get any other way.

Offering the flexibility of in-store pickup or delivery means we get sales we wouldn’t get any other way.

Us: Over what distances do you offer local delivery?

Giancarlo: We go thirty miles north and south - all the way from South Miami to Hollywood, FL.

Us: What percentage of your customers choose to pick up, and how many request deliveries?

Giancarlo: For our business, it’s an even split - 50/50. We do a lot of deliveries!

Us: Is it hard to find drivers? Are your drivers employees or contractors?

Giancarlo: Right now, since our business is still so young, we use contractors. Our deliveries are sporadic throughout the day - often two batches in the morning and one or two more in the afternoon. So for us, a service like Uber makes sense for now.

Us: Is there anything you can’t currently do through the Zapiet app?

Giancarlo: We haven’t experienced any limitations so far! There are so many things you can do with it - the app is really big. You can set up your own rates, use calculated rates, or per mile delivery rates. Whatever you want to do, you can select it and personalise it to your business.

Us: Do you offer products that are seasonal?

Giancarlo: Yes, because we’re a bakery, a lot of our products are seasonal, according to the holidays. We’re always adding new products with each season. We offer store pickup and local delivery for all our products - and some we can even ship.

With the app, we’re able to easily choose which items can be shipped and which can’t, giving us lots of flexibility and reducing administrative burden.

Us: How easy did you find installation and configuration of the app, and to use its features?

Giancarlo: It was super easy. We had to ask for support to help us set up the calculation of rates directly on our Shopify store.

It’s always fun to see our customers and learn more about their business. This visit in particular was one of our favourites because we might just happen to like testing out the beautifully delicious cupcakes they offer in various flavours specific to Miami (flan on top of a cupcake anyone?!)