La Fresca
A unified Cafe Management System for a growing multi-branch cafe chain, integrating online and offline operations into a single platform.
Fullstack Application
Overview
La Fresca is a centralized Cafe Management System designed for a chain of cafes that need to manage multiple branches efficiently. It unifies online and offline order handling, inventory tracking, delivery management, stock and income prediction, and sales analytics into a single platform. Each branch can independently manage its operations while still contributing to a global view for owners and top-level managers. Compared to isolated tools like delivery-only or inventory-only systems, La Fresca provides an end-to-end, chain-wide solution with an integrated workflow from customer order to kitchen, to delivery, to reporting.
Problem & Goal
Problem:
La Fresca currently relies heavily on manual cafe management processes. These manual flows lead to long waiting times for customers, delayed orders, inconsistent service quality between branches, and frequent issues such as stockouts or overstocking. Since data is fragmented across locations, it is difficult to monitor chain-wide performance, optimize inventory allocation, or plan pricing and promotions effectively. The lack of a unified system creates operational inefficiencies and limits the ability to scale the cafe chain smoothly.
Goal:
The main goal of La Fresca CMS is to revolutionize operations for the cafe chain by acting as a central hub that connects all stakeholders—customers, cashiers, kitchen staff, managers, delivery staff, and owners—in real time. The system aims to streamline order processing, optimize inventory control across branches, enable data-driven decision-making with predictions and analytics, and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction and profitability across the entire chain.
Objectives
- Develop a user-friendly and comprehensive Cafe Management System tailored specifically for La Fresca.
- Streamline order processing by integrating online and offline orders from all branches into a single platform, minimizing errors and delays.
- Optimize inventory management through usage monitoring and data-driven stock prediction per cafe, reducing stockouts and waste.
- Enhance customer experience via consistent menus, branch selection, order customization, tracking, and feedback.
- Provide rich sales analytics and custom reports to support data-driven decisions and profit optimization.
- Offer transparent branch-level performance views, including best-selling items and profit breakdowns.
Scope
- Online and offline orders management: unified management of in-store, takeaway, and online orders with synchronized data across all branches, multiple payment methods, order modification within a time window, custom instructions, tips, confirmations, and feedback tracking.
- Menu management: real-time menu editing per cafe, support for promotional/seasonal items, automatic removal of expired promotions, and item-level ratings and filtering based on user preferences.
- Stock management: branch-wise inventory tracking, customizable stock items, and low-stock alerts to support better replenishment decisions.
- Delivery management: in-house delivery system with real-time geodata, driver tracking, status updates for customers, and delivery feedback.
- Analytics and prediction: data-driven stock prediction and income forecasting for each branch, plus detailed sales reports and trends to support strategic decisions.
Tech Stack
The system is a web-based application built on a client–server architecture to support scalability across multiple branches. The frontend uses React with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS for a modular, responsive, and highly customizable UI. The backend is developed with Spring Boot, providing production-ready features, REST APIs, and the ability to grow into a microservices-oriented architecture. Prediction services (stock and income forecasting) are implemented as Python models exposed via FastAPI, which integrates cleanly with the Spring Boot backend. MongoDB is used as the primary database to handle flexible, nested, and non-relational data structures like customizable menu items. Git is used for version control, and design/architecture artifacts are created with tools like Draw.io and Figma.
Screenshots & UI
Key Features
- Unified online and offline order management across all La Fresca branches, with support for multiple payment options, order customization, limited-time modifications, tips, confirmations, and feedback tracking.
- Real-time menu management per branch, including adding, removing, and updating items and prices, scheduling seasonal/promotional items, and automatically cleaning up expired promotions.
- Branch-level inventory tracking and management with customizable stock items and low-stock alerts so managers and storekeepers can replenish on time.
- In-house delivery management with real-time geodata, driver tracking, status updates, and delivery-related feedback to keep customers informed and improve service quality.
- Machine-learning-based stock and income prediction to anticipate future demand and support smarter purchasing and financial planning.
- Comprehensive analytics and reporting, including sales trends, peak times, best-selling items, and branch-wise performance breakdowns to support data-driven decision-making.