An innovative new partnership with leading communications carrier MetTel will allow “Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro to bring fast, online insights and convenience to his Carlo’s Bakery locations in the United States and Brazil.
The debut of MetTel Wi-Fi Analytics will give the bakery an enhanced view of customer preferences in order to improve the shopping experience. Its technology learns in real time how consumers visit the bakery, where they browse, what they buy and don’t buy, and helps determine what products they may want to try based on their established preferences.
“We wanted to give our customers the best possible experience through a digital in-store approach,” says Buddy Valastro. “It’s no secret that more and more people are shopping online but many of our customers also like the look and feel and human touch of our bakeries. This technology can help uncover hidden opportunities to bring us closer to our customers while giving them the customized benefits of online shopping – the best of both worlds.”
According to MetTel, all Wi-Fi-enabled devices (like smart phones) continuously transmit signals to detect and connect to available networks several times per minute.
Through the Wi-Fi network, Carlo’s Bakery receives the pings from these customers. The service is anonymized and does not collect personal or private information.
Continuous monitoring helps to determine the extent of each visit. Other variables that will be revealed are what parts of the store the customer visits, their path through the store, how much time is spent at each stop, and if they made a purchase and what they bought.
Carlo’s Bakery then gets a clearer view of how their stores are performing at any time and allows them to react to and change any aspect of the operation or experimentation with adjustments to traffic flow, product placement, merchandising, marketing or new concepts, all in the interest of continuous improvement.
Carlo’s Bakery was catapulted from a Hoboken, New Jersey-based neighborhood bakery to a household name through the public’s fascination with the over-the-top cakes produced by Valastro and the success of TLC’s hit series, “Cake Boss.” Garnering attention from a variety of media outlets including Brides, “The Rachael Ray Show,” Huffington Post and “Good Morning America,” Carlo’s Bakery has locations in Hoboken and six other New Jersey cities: Marlton, Morristown, Red Bank, Ridgewood, Wayne, and Westfield; Las Vegas; Dallas, Frisco, and The Woodlands, Texas; Uncasville, Connecticut; Orlando; Atlanta; Bethlehem and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Bloomington, Minnesota (Mall of America); New York and Westbury, New York; and São Paulo, Brazil.
