Staying Ahead in F&B through Cloud-enabled Business Model Innovation

The F&B industry is no stranger when it comes to change and there is no doubt technology has been a key driving force in the global dining scene throughout the past decade. From navigating the challenges of a global pandemic to universalising mobile ordering and food delivery, cloud-enabled solutions have answered emerging digital transformation needs and unleashed business model innovation for hole-in-the-wall restaurants and billion-dollar food chains. Maxim’s Group, Hong Kong-based F&B conglomerate, has leveraged the extensive cloud infrastructure of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to break new ground in developing mobile solutions and scaling up businesses, making contactless experience and on-demand delivery possible and accessible for hungry diners across Hong Kong, Mainland China and the South-east Asian region.
With average mobile screen time and mobile ecommerce on the rise, every brand is racing to offer seamless mobile experiences, in hopes of igniting customer engagement and growing a loyal customer base. For, a coffee chain under Maxim’s Group, boosting mobile app usage and overall sales across the 170 outlets in Hong Kong are evidently long-term strategic goals. AWS stepped into the scene to transform the conventional user mobile experience in 2022 with personalised recommendations through big data analytics. The app leverages an AI machine learning model that was trained on specific customer behavior data, enabling the app to analyse and respond to user interactions, identifying overarching trends and patterns from customers' past purchases to generate custom suggestions and create seasonal promotions that would appeal to individual users. The exceptional UX personalisation resulted in a 30-50% sales boost, demonstrating the importance of a well-designed customer journey in the success of taking a well-known household brand to the next level.

AWS not only helps brands respond to market change promptly by deploying automation practices to experiment, build and deploy applications with ease, the team also solves distinct business needs actively through detailed data analysis, streamlining existing workflow for digital enhancement and integration to bring about a more refined and unique customer experience. For instance, the predictive algorithm forecasts customer demand, facilitating real-time omni-channel inventory management, thus allowing accurate and timely inventory replenishment while avoiding unwanted and unnecessary workload spikes. Cybersecurity is also at the core of the AWS ecosystem: end-to-end security is achieved and there is never a trade-off between security and speed. Backed by a deep set of 300 security services and features, huge amounts of data from millions of customers are stored at the data warehouse while upholding the highest compliance standards, empowering brands at all stages to accelerate innovation and digital transformation in the new era.

Business expansion is every company's intention, which is now easier than ever to accomplish with the aid of cloud solutions. F&B partners have seen exponential mobile order growth and other industry trends in recent years due to the shift in the hospitality sector, which has served to uncover untapped potential for businesses to expand product offerings while entering new markets. Cloud solutions address and solve complex technological challenges faced by traditional enterprises, take Genki Sushi, a Japanese chain brought to Hong Kong by Maxim’s as an example. The brand was the first to introduce self-service ordering in 2015 to decrease frontline workload, revolutionising the pen-and-paper process used to manually take orders to the kitchen. Now, with the support of AWS and cloud technology, diners and staff can track orders simultaneously, cutting down unnecessary labour expenses to allow businesses to branch out easily.

Mr. Louis Mah, Director of Group Information Technology of Maxim’s Group, remarked, “The adoption of emerging technologies relies on three crucial factors: right timing, right market and environment, and most importantly, the right people. I am happy with the innovation and agility achieved through our collaboration with AWS. Cloud technology has been instrumental across our business and we look forward to exploring future partnership opportunities.”