Feeding Everyone But Fraudsters With Order-Ahead

Dining out can be a jarring experience for customers used to the speed and convenience of mobile ordering. Increasingly, sit-down restaurants are looking to serve diners on a tight schedule by introducing mobile order- and pay-ahead services.

The January “Mobile Order-Ahead Tracker” examines how table-service restaurants and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) alike are leveraging mobile ordering to better serve customers, as well as introducing new upgrades to keep their apps compelling.

Around The Mobile Order-Ahead World

Shake Shack is one QSR hoping a fresh app design will ensure that mobile ordering will mesh with its customers. The company claimed that the ordering process is twice as fast with its redesigned app, and it plans to test out offering Apple Pay and Venmo as payment options.

Chipotle, too, is looking to make its mobile offering more compelling, and to build out its user base. The burrito chain kicked off the New Year with an exclusive promotion that offers new menu items only to customers who place digital orders. The exclusive bowl and salad options are designed to comply with diets such as Whole30 and Paleo.

Those who need a break from their diets, however, may be able to quickly sneak in some Taco Bell before anyone catches them cheating. The chain has been deploying more of its “Cantina” style restaurants, designed to facilitate speedy self-ordering, including mobile ordering and kiosks. Recently, Taco Bell opened three more Cantina venues in New York City.

For the rest of the latest headlines, download the Tracker.

Feeding Everyone But The Fraudsters

It’s easier for Taco Bell, Shake Shack and other major chains to leverage their existing reputations to get new customers to put their trust — and credit card information — into their apps. However, new players looking to enter the mobile ordering space don’t have a reputation to rely on. That makes it all the more important for startups like Food for All to have tight payment security and fraud prevention strategies to put consumers at ease.

In this month’s feature story, PYMNTS caught up with Food for All’s Sabine Valenga, co-founder and CMO, and Victor Carreño, co-founder and CTO. The startup offers a mobile app that lets consumers pre-order the meals that restaurants expect to have leftover by closing time, at a discount price. That’s no small quantity of meals, either, Valenga said, as restaurants intentionally make more than they expect to sell to avoid having their shelves appear empty.

Of course, mission-driven service wouldn’t be enough without the security to back it up. In an interview with PYMNTS, Valenga and Carreño explained the startup’s security strategies, including securely handling data with multiple encryption keys, as well as monitoring order history to detect red flags and catch any fraud attempts.

Find the full story in the Tracker.

About the Mobile Order-Ahead Tracker

The “Mobile Order-Ahead Tracker,” powered by Kount, serves as a monthly framework for the space, providing coverage of the most recent news and trends, along with a provider directory that highlights the key players contributing across the segments that comprise the mobile order-ahead ecosystem.