QSRs Bring the Picnic to a Beach Umbrella Near You This Summer

As consumers gear up to go on summer vacation, aggregators and restaurants alike are looking for ways to keep customers engaged even when they are away from home.

Most recently, quick-service restaurant (QSR) giant Domino’s announced a couple weeks ago the launch of Domino’s Pinpoint Delivery, which lets consumers order delivery to pinned locations, enabling the chain to deliver to specific spots in parks, on beaches and in other locales where a street address may not be specific enough.

In the news release, the company specifically highlighted the utility for summer beach hangs and park picnics — a move to capture more of summer vacationers’ food spending. The feature mimics convenience retail giant 7-Eleven’s 7NOW Pins option.

QSRs and c-stores are not the only ones looking for ways to offer consumers on-demand food delivery wherever their travels may take them. Restaurant and grocery aggregators are also making moves into the travel space, beginning by partnering with hotel and extended-stay brands to offer on-demand delivery to consumers’ rooms or suites.

Grubhub, for instance, announced a new partnership last month, teaming with Homewood Suites by Hilton to offer delivery at close to 500 of the hospitality chain’s locations. The program gives guests at locations without in-hotel restaurants the option to order from their rooms and offers them free one-month trials of the delivery marketplace’s Grubhub+ subscription program.

Similarly, in the spring, Target-owned aggregator Shipt, which provides on-demand delivery of groceries, daily essentials and other items, announced a number of hospitality partnerships, going after travelers’ desire to feel some sense of their usual day-to-day routine when they are away from home.

“Through these new hospitality partnerships, we’ve found that more traveling workers and extended stay guests seek the same stability of routine shopping and reliability of last-minute shopping solutions … whether they are close to home or farther than usual,” Alex Ross, Shipt’s vice president of business development, told PYMNTS in an interview.

Indeed, summer travel is coming back. For instance, Delta is gaining steam in PYMNTS’ CE 100 Index, rising 10.9% this month amid company reports that air travel is returning to its “long term trend,” and is on track to reach its historical average this year, while revenue for the fiscal year should grow by 17% to 20%.

Plus, research from PYMNTS’ study earlier this year, “How the World Does Digital: Daily Digital Engagement Hits New Heights,” which drew from surveys of more than 17,500 consumers across 11 countries, found that consumers engaged 9.7% more in digital travel activities year over year, marking one of the highest increases in digital engagement seen across all consumers’ day-to-day routines.

As Domino’s and 7-Eleven look to meet beachgoers where they are, and as aggregators seek to win hospitality guests’ loyalty, Starbucks is looking to woo travelers in another way — by offering cross-brand rewards with Delta Air Lines. Last fall, the coffeehouse chain announced the rewards program partnership, offering one Delta SkyMile per dollar spent at the restaurant. Conversely, loyalty members can get double Stars (Starbucks’ loyalty points) for purchases made on days when they have a scheduled Delta flight.