BlueCart: Vendor Analysis (Part 3) — Competitive and Summary Analysis

We fully admit, in just about as non-scientific an analyst manner as possible, that the Spend Matters team has had fun reviewing BlueCart. The Washington, D.C.-based provider is a unique online order management platform for small (and even mid-size) restaurant buyers in the food industry, the suppliers and distributors that serve them and the sales reps that manage the relationships. Since a number of the Spend Matters extended team have worked in the front and back office of restaurants and even owned them — and some of us are related to current chefs and owners — we are fully aware of the uniqueness of restaurant buying, including the typical chef obsession with food cost (the most cost-conscious chefs and sous chefs can tell you precisely what a plated item costs down to the dime). We’re simply too close to the restaurant business not to let our opinions and past experience get in the way of just considering BlueCart’s technology without also providing context, as well.

This final installment of our multipart Spend Matters PRO Vendor Snapshot series covering BlueCart offers a competitive analysis and comparison to other order management and procure-to-pay options in the restaurant industry, as well as lessons learned from this unique approach for other industries. It also includes a user selection guide, user interface and user experience (UI/UX) analysis and summary evaluation and selection considerations. Part 1 and Part 2 of this PRO research series provide a company and solution overview, a SWOT analysis, product strengths and weaknesses and a recommended fit analysis for what types of organizations should consider State of Flux and the BlueCart product line.