Our work · Case study

Drakes Supermarkets

Drakes Supermarkets is an Australian independent grocery retailer with stores across South Australia and Queensland. Codium built DrakesConnect, the platform its suppliers use to submit promotions, offers, new products and price changes, book campaigns and catalogue panels, and talk to the buying team, with every submission moving through one approval workflow to a published catalogue.

Cloud applicationSupplier portalRetailWorkflow
Visit drakes.com.au
DrakesConnect promotions list on a buyer's monitor at the Drakes head office
  • ClientDrakes Supermarkets
  • IndustryRetail and grocery
  • The workDrakesConnect, a supplier-facing promotions, product and campaign platform with a Drakes-side review workflow.
  • UsersHundreds of suppliers, and Drakes' buying, promotions and catalogue teams.
The brief

Promotions entered once by suppliers, reviewed once by Drakes

Promotions used to arrive by email and spreadsheet in every format a supplier could invent, and the buying team re-keyed them before anything could be reviewed. DrakesConnect gives each supplier a login to enter promotions, offers, products and prices against the lines Drakes ranges, for the submission period and weeks that are open. The Drakes team works through them in one list, with comments, audit logs and bulk actions, and the approved result flows straight into catalogue preparation.

01

Promotions and offers

Suppliers build offers against offer sets and a week grid that shows what's selected, unavailable or already booked, with offer type, amount and a linked campaign package.

02

One workflow, every status

Draft, submitted, supplier review, Drakes review, approved, confirmed, locked and published, with unread comment counts on each tab and bulk approve, confirm, lock and publish.

03

Products and price

New lines, range extensions, product alterations and price changes submitted with GS1 data, parity links to similar items and contact details, and approved on the same workflow.

04

Campaigns and panels

Suppliers book into Drakes campaigns and weekly catalogue panels, with open and close dates, artwork due dates and sold-out tracking by region.

05

Prepare catalogue

Approved promotions costed in one editable sheet: suggested, PD and promo sell, GP, savings, Drakes funding, placement codes and page positions.

06

Comments and audit log

Threaded comments on every promotion that both Drakes and the supplier can see, with a full audit log of who changed what and when.

DrakesConnect supplier offers list on a monitor in a supplier's warehouse
Suppliers enter it themselves

Hundreds of suppliers moved off email and spreadsheets

Promotions used to arrive in whatever format each supplier preferred, and the buying team re-keyed every one before it could be looked at. We gave each supplier their own login, scoped to the products Drakes actually ranges from them and the weeks that are open, so an offer can only be entered the right way. The re-keying disappeared, and suppliers can see where every submission is without ringing the buying team.

  • Data captured once, by the supplier, against Drakes' own rules
  • Submission periods and week availability enforced at entry, not at review
  • Suppliers track status and comments themselves, so fewer chasing emails
  • Rolled out to hundreds of suppliers with two-factor login and access management
One review, one conversation

Buyers review from a single queue, with the discussion kept on the record

Reviewing promotions meant hunting through inboxes for the latest version and the thread that went with it. We put every submission in one list for the buying team and attached the conversation to the record itself, visible to both Drakes and the supplier. Decisions are made in bulk where they can be, and every change is logged, so disputes about who agreed what are settled by looking it up.

  • Every status from draft to published in one workflow both sides can see
  • Comments live on the promotion, not in someone's inbox
  • Bulk approve, confirm, lock and publish for the busy weeks
  • Full audit log of who changed what and when
DrakesConnect manage offer screen on a buyer's desk with product samples and printed promotion sheets
DrakesConnect prepare catalogue sheet on a monitor beside a printed catalogue proof
Straight through to the catalogue

Approved promotions flow into catalogue costing without a hand-off

Once promotions were approved, the catalogue team used to rebuild them in their own spreadsheets to cost and place them. We joined the two steps: approved promotions land directly in a costing sheet with the pricing, margin, funding and page placement fields the team needs, and campaign and panel bookings sit alongside with their artwork deadlines. The result is one record of each promotion from a supplier's first entry to the printed catalogue.

  • No re-entry between approval and catalogue preparation
  • Margin, savings and funding visible while placements are decided
  • Campaign and catalogue panel bookings tracked by region with sold-out status
  • Exports and reporting across periods, suppliers and campaigns
Technology stack

How it's built

DrakesConnect serves two front ends from one platform: the Drakes admin with promotions, offers, products and price, suppliers, campaigns, panels, reports and settings, and a supplier portal scoped to each supplier's own products and submissions. It handles GS1 product data, period and week availability, bulk workflow actions, exports, two-factor authentication and email templates.

Single page application

Built in Vue.js as a single page application, for a fast experience without page reloads and the flexibility to evolve as the system grows.

API-focused backend

The backend is built in Laravel and MySQL with an API-first interface, so the web and mobile apps share the same endpoints.

Continuous integration

Automated testing and deployment let us test new builds and update production quickly, so we can release as often as required.

Managed hosting

Amazon's Elastic Container Service runs each service in its own container within a cluster that scales up and down as needed.

Managed hosting

Suppliers or partners still emailing you spreadsheets?

A portal where they enter the data themselves, against your rules, ends the re-keying. Tell us what they send you.

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