Panera Offers Diners Ability to Pick Up at the Drive-Thru

Panera says it will allow diners to pick up their orders without leaving their cars.

The fast-casual restaurant chain Wednesday (May 31) announced the launch of its Drive-Thru Pick-Up program, which combines “the ease of the digital ordering experience with the comfort and convenience of the drive-thru window.”

According to a news release, the service lets customers choose Drive-Thru Pick-Up as an option when ordering ahead on the Panera app or website, and then pick up their food without having to exit their vehicles.

“Digital sales at Panera represent more than 50% of total system sales, and with more than 3 million average transactions each week from digital channels including the app, kiosk and web,” the company said in a news release.

And the guests making those orders, the company said, continue to seek Panera’s menu options “with the increased convenience, customization, speed and ease that the digital experience enables.”

With this trend in mind, the company joined forces earlier this year with Amazon to let its loyalty membership customers order via Amazon’s Alexa.

“Ordering with Alexa provides convenience for MyPanera members and allows them to order their Panera favorites via voice or touch — without having to open the Panera app,” Panera said in a news release in March.

“With this new feature, MyPanera members can simply ask Alexa to order their favorite Panera items for pickup or delivery, and the order will be completed.”

But it’s not just Panera’s diners who have embraced digital interactions with eateries. Online ordering has become the norm across the board, with a majority of consumers engaging with restaurants on the digital level. 

Research from PYMNTS’ study “12 Months Of The ConnectedEconomy™: 33,000 Consumers On Digital’s Role In Their Everyday Lives,” found that nearly 6 out of every 10 consumers order from restaurants digitally each month.

The launch comes at a time when diners are trading delivery for curbside pickup, a trend that — as PYMNTS wrote recently, gives “merchants an opportunity to reduce costs and improve customer loyalty.”

Our research found that 32% of online shoppers — or roughly 16.4 million consumers — picked up their most recent purchases via curbside or in-store pickup in 2022 — a 37% increase from 2021. Curbside pickup rose six times as much as in-store pickup during that period.