BRU Direct
How OPEN built BRU an owned online ordering channel alongside third-party delivery platforms, connecting menu, cart, customer accounts, PromptPay payment, delivery details, staff workflow and direct fulfilment.
What was actually happening
BRU already sold through the major delivery platforms in Pattaya. They work, and they bring in customers, but every order on those platforms belongs to the platform. The commission, the customer relationship, the data and the rules all sit with someone else.
BRU did not want to leave the platforms. It wanted an additional channel of its own: somewhere regulars could order directly, pay the way Thai customers already pay, and have the order land in front of staff in a way that fitted the existing kitchen routine.
An online menu would not have solved that. The value was in connecting the customer side to the operational side.
Observe first, then build only what was missing
We started with the operation, not the storefront. How does an order actually get made and handed over? Who needs to see it, when, and what do they need to know? What happens when something is out of stock, or a customer is a regular?
From there we designed the customer journey to feed that process cleanly: browse the menu, build a cart, sign in, add delivery details, pay by PromptPay, and get confirmation. On the staff side, orders appear in a simple workflow that staff move through as they prepare and fulfil them.
The whole system is owned by BRU, hosted in its own accounts, and can change whenever the menu, pricing or operation changes, without waiting on a platform.
How the work flows now
- 01
Menu
Categories, combos and bestsellers
- 02
Cart
Build and adjust the order
- 03
Sign in
Customer account and saved details
- 04
Delivery details
Address, contact and notes
- 05
PromptPay payment
Pay from any Thai banking app
- 06
Confirmation
Order number and status
Designed around how regulars already order, with payment the way Thai customers expect.
- 01
New order
Appears with payment status
- 02
Confirm
Staff accept and start preparation
- 03
Prepare
Kitchen works from the same order
- 04
Ready
Packed and handed to delivery
- 05
Fulfilled
Closed with a full record
Orders arrive in the sequence staff already work in. No retyping, no second screen to reconcile.
Customer
- Menu with categories, combos and bestsellers
- Cart and checkout built for mobile
- Customer accounts with saved delivery details
- PromptPay payment
- Order confirmation and status
Staff and operations
- Order queue matched to the kitchen routine
- Status workflow from new to fulfilled
- Menu, pricing and availability managed in-house
- Delivery information in one place for hand-off
Ownership
- Owned domain, code and customer data
- Runs alongside third-party platforms, not instead of them
- Changes made when the business needs them, not when a platform allows
Own the channel, and build the technology around the real operation, not just the menu.
Third-party platforms are useful for reach. They are a poor place to keep your only relationship with your customers. An owned channel does not need to replace them to be worthwhile.
The part that makes a direct channel work is not the storefront. It is how cleanly an order flows into the way staff already operate. Get that right and the customer side takes care of itself.
Inside the business: the internal system
BRU Payroll Hub
A fingerprint scanner recorded attendance and exported CSVs. Turning those files into checked, accurate payroll was slow manual work.
Read the case studyIs there a similar gap in your business?
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