It might seem hard for a soup business to go online, but Soup Restaurant has been steadily transforming operations over the past few years.

And its efforts have paid off, especially during the coronavirus period when diners have had to switch to takeaway meals or deliveries.

The company started in 1991 and now has 350 staff.

Ms Irin Lau, head of marketing, said: "In the past five years, we have digitalised our systems, ranging from back office to restaurant operations, such as our staff attendance to the restaurant ordering process, to contactless payment."

The business also started e-commerce and delivery services in 2018. Customers are able to order ready-to-eat meals, bottled sauces and frozen dim sum from the e-store for delivery or self-collection.

These are also available on all major food delivery platforms such as Deliveroo, GrabFood and Foodpanda, which are among the six platforms that Enterprise Singapore is providing support for under the Food Delivery Booster Package.

Ms Lau said the business first started by taking orders over a hotline and e-store. "This provided convenience to our customers, especially during festive periods such as Chinese New Year and Mother's Day. Customers are able to pre-order 24/7 online without the hassle of making trips to our restaurants. With real-time updates, our centralised system has improved process efficiency in terms of operations and resource planning."

The restaurant has 15 outlets, some of which are temporarily closed, according to its website.

Soup Restaurant also tapped the e-commerce booster package to get support in putting its bottled signature sauces on more channels, such as Shopee and Amazon, as well as to market retail sauces and frozen dim sum on such sites.

Its latest digitalisation efforts have also helped the company to adopt virtual work management processes, such as weekly virtual meetings to keep teams connected, and e-learning and online training sessions.

Ms Lau said: "We will definitely continue with our transformation, such as digital marketing and integrating customer experience from online to in-store. We will also continue to explore digital solutions to increase productivity and process efficiency."