Intro: The Cost of Falling Behind
Between rising costs of goods, unpredictable labor shortages, and the increasingly competitive landscape of third-wave coffee, running a café today demands more than just good beans and cozy vibes. Real estate isn’t getting cheaper, margins are getting thinner; And while hospitality is still at the heart of the business, the backend strain is becoming harder to ignore.
Technology has started to fill in the gaps, but has become increasingly difficult to keep up with as the excess of rapid innovation becomes more difficult to navigate. That’s why it’s imperative to discern the technology built to help owners manage their backend operations seamlessly and increase autonomy. We’ve seen innovations like Numilk, which lets cafés make alternative milks in-house, cutting down on delivery costs and streamlining prep. That same spirit of operational ownership is what we’ve built into Dripos: a platform that quietly powers the most time-consuming parts of café operations.
For instance, instead of manually tracking inventory, Dripos gives owners the ability to own their supply chain. Ingredient usage is automatically deducted with every sale, giving you visibility into what’s being used, wasted, and reordered, eliminating the need to spend hours in the back room counting. The future of café operations isn’t about replacing people. It’s about freeing them up to make the time to curate better customer experiences. That’s why future-proofing, the deliberate act of simplifying operations to ensure long-term success, is crucial to any blossoming coffee business.
II: Reducing Friction in your Daily Operations
Too often, running a coffee shop means juggling a web of third-party dependencies: one platform for employee scheduling, another for payroll, a separate POS system, third-party delivery apps, an accounting tool, a roaster, and maybe even a farm connection.
The more fragmented your backend is, the more vulnerable your business becomes. This was evident during the pandemic, when a single break in the chain, whether it was delayed shipments or delivery platform outages, had the power to bring operations to a halt. When every system depends on another external player, bottlenecks become inevitable. Running a café with a dozen disconnected tools is just not a smart way to run your business while sustaining your piece of mind.
Dripos aims to quietly remove the friction of running a coffee shop. With tools like integrated supply chain tracking, you can actually see how your inventory’s moving, where the costs are creeping up, and what’s coming in tomorrow, all in one place. When things feel a little more in sync, it’s easier to stay focused on what actually matters: your customers, your team, your craft. Our prime mission is to prioritize the satisfaction of our patrons, which means alleviating the growing pains that technology can often provoke.
III: The Success Formula: Master Your Prime Costs
In the café world, prime costs like cost of goods sold (COGS) and labor, are where most of your profit either gets protected or quietly slips away. These two factors alone typically account for over 50–65% of a shop’s total operating expenses, which means keeping them in check is essential if you want to maintain healthy margins.
The formula is simple, but rarely easy in practice:
Success = Controlled COGS + Efficient Labor
Live Labor vs. Sales Tracking
The Labor vs. Sales Report gives café owners a running snapshot of labor costs relative to daily sales, broken down by the hour, the day, or any time period you choose. Available across the Web Dashboard, POS, and Hub App, this tool allows owners to adjust in real time: whether that means cutting a shift early when traffic slows or recognizing a sales spike and adding coverage.
Unlike spreadsheets or disconnected tools, everything is centralized, which makes labor cost management a proactive habit.
COGS Reporting That Gets Granular
Managing inventory is one of the most complex and overlooked parts of running a coffee shop, especially when ingredient costs are constantly in flux. With Dripos Supply Chain, shops can track down to the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU): understanding not just how many pounds of oat milk were sold, but how much it cost you, and whether your current pricing model actually sustains the volume.
Through the Ingredient Sales Report and Inventory Sales Report, café owners get access to:
- Unit Cost and Sold Amount for every tracked ingredient
- Total Cost of Goods Sold, auto-calculated and updated daily
- Clear records of inventory changes: additions, sales, manual changes, or waste
This visibility creates a full picture of your margin landscape. You’re not just looking at sales totals, you’re seeing which ingredients or products are underperforming, where waste is creeping in, and which menu items might need a price adjustment or portioning change.
IV: Using Data to Stay Ahead of the Market
In volatile conditions, sole intuition isn’t enough to guarantee the success of your business. The aftermath of COVID-19 exposed just how unprepared we were for supply chain fluctuations and how we manage our costs. That’s why reporting tools has become an essential part of any successful coffee shop’s day-to-day operations. Dripos recognizes that there’s a plethora of data that can be leveraged to help owners identify performance trends, understand overall sales and operations, and cut down on costs. Dripos Reporting ensures that café owners are given the room and data to adapt: adjust hours, cut low-performing menu items, and refine pricing.
Between the Web Dashboard, Point of Sale, and Hub App, there are several unique reports that provide a full ecosystem of reporting tools designed to help owners run tighter, smarter businesses without getting buried in spreadsheets.
The Metrics That Matter
At a high level, your Sales Summary gives a bird’s-eye view: tracking trends in net sales, refunds, discounts, tips, and processing fees. When you want to zoom in, reports like All Product Sales and Modifier Sales break down individual menu performance, so you can decide if your pistachio latte still deserves a spot or if it’s time to test something new.
On the operational side, reports like Labor vs. Sales and Category Sales help make sense of labor allocation and product mix. You’ll know if your Saturday afternoon staffing matches demand, or if your food sales are carrying more weight than expected.
And when it’s time to make strategic menu decisions or update pricing? The Ingredient and Inventory Sales Reports show how much you’re using, what it’s costing you, and where excess waste may be creeping in.
So whether you’re a seasoned operator or just getting started, you have the insight you need to make smarter, more confident decisions. After all, the cafés that thrive long-term are the ones that know what’s happening under the hood. With Dripos, that visibility is baked in.
Conclusion: You Don’t Need More Tech, You Need the Right Infrastructure
Dripos was built with the intention of streamlining the operations of the coffee business. Because we build specifically for coffee shops, understanding the ebbs and flows specific to a coffee shop is built into our DNA. Dripos is built on the foundation of knowledge from ex-baristas and coffee shop owners, people that have experienced the pains of running a cafe firsthand. Therefore, we’ve mastered the art of building technology that supports these operations rather than distracting. From streamlining daily checklists to reducing front-of-house friction with integrated online ordering, Dripos was built to support the full rhythm of a coffee shop, so owners can focus less on putting out fires and more on building for longevity.