Data Shows Restaurants Can Boost Spending With Ordering Tech, Loyalty Programs

When consumers engage with restaurants today, they expect to be met with digital features enabling simple and convenient transactions.

However, not all technologies go an equally long way in boosting consumers’ spending. Ordering and fulfillment features are a top priority for many, according to data from PYMNTS’ new study “Digital Divide: Minding The Loyalty Gap,” created in collaboration with Paytronix.

Get the report: Minding The Loyalty Gap

Frictionless Ordering

The report, which was conducted in mid-November and featured the results of a census-balanced survey of more than 2,000 United States adults, found that 34% of consumers identified ordering-related capabilities as being among the technologies that most encourage them to purchase from a given restaurant, while 30% said the same of pickup options and of loyalty programs. Meanwhile, menu updates and the availability of QR codes, while still important to a significant share of restaurant customers, were not as top-of-mind.

Restaurant customers not only seek out simple, intuitive ordering experiences — they expect them.

“I think the bar will continue to raise in terms of guests wanting that personal experience, and then I think that the winners in five years will be those who can really differentiate their experience beyond that,” Steph So, head of Digital Experience at Shake Shack, told PYMNTS in an interview. “Frictionless will be absolute table stakes.”

Read more: Shake Shack Sees Digital Experience Driven by Dynamic Kitchens

The Loyalty Boost

The study also found that consumers rank the availability of loyalty and rewards programs as the single feature most likely to encourage them to spend more at a given restaurant. Sixteen percent of consumers ranked these programs as their most sought-out digital capability, significantly more than the second-most popular pick, the ability to order online.

A significant share of consumers also sought out a range of on-site order collection channels, while other features, such as menu updates to digital platforms and QR code capabilities, were not very important to most restaurant customers.

Given the powerful draw that rewards programs have for many restaurant customers, brands are challenged to create the best possible loyalty experience, leveraging these membership bases to bring consumers into contact with other features within their digital ecosystems.

“As we go into 2022, one of our focus areas is how to increase the value proposition within our reward program that goes beyond spend and redeem,” Vincent Szwajkowski, brand and growth leader of fast casual pizzeria Blaze Pizza, told PYMNTS in a conversation for the October edition of the Order to Eat Tracker, also created in collaboration with Paytronix. “There’s an opportunity for us to create more of an inclusive yield with our loyalty program members and provide more of a community environment.”

Get the Tracker: Order To Eat Report