First Data: Mobile Payments Increasingly on the Menu for Fast Food
If it seems like you’ve got more options for ordering ahead now than you ever did before, there’s a good reason: you likely do. New word from First Data says that mobile order and pay options represent 75 percent more orders this year than the same time last year, suggesting that this tool is catching on.
The same study noted that, at the current rate of growth, 10 percent of all quick service restaurant sales will be made through a mobile device in just the next few years. As it turns out, that’s likely to prove a catalyst for mobile order and pay options down the line as well, including not just other restaurants like casual dining but also for grocery stores.
Given that both of these have been spotted previously adding mobile order and pay to the roster, this isn’t exactly a leap of logic. Throw in the rising quantities of smart speaker devices like the Alexa system from Amazon and the opportunities for more mobile order-ahead options become largely self-evident.
While some restaurants have capitalized on the concept—pizza restaurants especially so—others have been much slower to pick up on the notion. Most quick service restaurants and casual dining have been behind the curve of development on this one, but there are plenty signs that’s changing all over as the First Data study notes.
Mobile order and pay has a great potential for restaurants, and the more places that take advantage of this, the better. After all, it becomes incredibly easy for customers; just punch a few buttons on your touchscreen interface and dinner’s ready soon; just pick it up. That also keeps customers moving through the lines much faster, and even improves sales for the business using it. Remember what happened when Starbucks ran mobile order-ahead; it worked so well it was actually costing them business as customers left the store while baristas struggled to fill mobile orders.
I’m personally a fan of mobile order-ahead; I recently managed to order enough Pizza Hut to get a free pizza myself. It’s convenient, it’s generally safe to use, and it makes the question of “what’s for dinner” that much easier to answer.