What’s In Mobile Ordering’s Future?

Mobile ordering has likely proven quite a boon for the food service industry; from simple rounds of coffee to go all the way up to high-end dining,it’s representing new sales and new opportunities for the whole field.

Customers seem happy as well, and that’s got plenty of places wondering what’s next for mobile ordering.

Starbucks’ quarterly earnings report showed just how far this particular field could go; with mobile order and pay services better than doubling in the time between 2015 and 2016, it was obvious people were interested in using it.

In fact, Starbucks found that fully seven percent of all its transactions are mobile based, and that number is only growing. That number is even more pronounced in the United States, as 27 percent of US company-operated transactions are mobile-related.

A growing variety of companies are getting in on the action, including places like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts and many others, all hoping that the mobile concept will drive similar success to that seen at Starbucks.

High hopes, but what will drive those hopes to reality? Some key points have emerged that may be the future of mobile payments, starting with improved speed in service.

Mobile ordering also opens up the possibility of better data mining—the mobile order represents a record, with potential patterns available for businesses to discover and exploit—as well as an improved overall efficiency.

It will depend on how each company executes a mobile ordering and mobile payment system, but these points certainly are available as possible outcomes for those who use the service. An available record does mean better understanding of the customer.

Certainly, speed through a business will be increased by mobile ordering and payments as it removes two components of the overall customer experience, instead routing these to outside operations.

Faster, better service, in turn, means greater efficiency, and a better understanding of what needs to be ordered and what doesn’t.

All of these add up to positive outcomes, and even if sales don’t increase as a result, there’s still enough improvement posed to make this a path worth following. It might not work out quite as well as restaurants would like, but mobile ordering and payment systems could still be a very big deal.