With the rise of in-store pickup, today’s restaurants have been forced to adjust to the security risks that come along with the channel and to accident-proof the error-prone fulfillment method. Now, many are looking for ways to get smarter about pickup.
According to data from PYMNTS’ new Restaurant Friction Index, created collaboration with Paytronix, the ability to ensure that orders are picked up by the correct person is the No. 1 feature in which restaurants plan to invest going forward.
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The study, which drew from a survey of more than 500 managers of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and full-service restaurants (FSRs), found that 41% of restaurants are looking to invest in this capability, while a slightly smaller share, 39% of restaurants, already have a system to do so in place. Meanwhile, only one-fifth of restaurants do not have this feature and do not plan to invest in it going forward.
Ensuring order pickup accuracy ranked ahead of a range of other features that restaurants also plan to implement in the future. Thirty-nine percent of restaurants reported plans to invest in offering the ability to pay with a card on file, 36% in QR codes enabling end-to-end experiences, 34% in self-service kiosks at the restaurant, and 34% in the ability to pay in-store with contactless cards.
Opportunities for fraud have grown as transactions have moved online. In an interview with PYMNTS, ACI Worldwide Executive Vice President of Merchant Solutions Debbie Guerra noted that online ordering fraud in card-not-present transactions has shifted toward smaller-ticket items.
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“What it tells us is that fraud can’t be a secondary thought or an afterthought,” she said. “It must be an integral component of how we address this shift to digital.”
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Of course, ensuring accurate pickup also prevents less deliberate errors, making sure that consumers do not pick up the wrong order by mistake, leaving both them and the intended recipient of the food they took with the wrong items.
