NEW REPORT: How Shake Shack Is Shaking Mobile Order-Ahead

As early mobile order-add adopting restaurants are reaping the benefits of the technology, other merchants are looking to add their own mobile services. But now, it isn’t just restaurants that are exploring the tech – retailers and even hoteliers are getting in on the mobile ordering trend as well.

The latest PYMNTS Mobile Order-Ahead Tracker™ features news on how merchants in a range of industries are embracing mobile order-ahead solutions in order to entice new customers and offer improved ordering experiences.

Around the mobile order-ahead world

Perhaps inspired by the success of the mobile food ordering market — reportedly on pace to become a nearly $40-billion segment by 2020 — merchants from other industries are also looking to offer mobile services to their consumers.

A new partnership between brick-and-mortar shopping service Curbside and Yelp, for instance, will enable users of both apps to place advanced orders at brick-and-mortar retail stores. Partnership service users can pick orders up the same day via curbside pickup.

Similarly, mobile order-ahead technology is also gearing up to revolutionize the hospitality industry, according to POS provider Wi-Q. The company’s recent research projects mobile services will become increasingly common in hospitality, with hotels embracing cloud-based apps in the near future.

Shaking up mobile ordering, one restaurant at a time

While other companies race to embrace mobile order ahead, Shake Shack is taking the scenic route.

Abbey Reider, Shake Shack’s director of digital guest experience, recently told PMYNTS in an interview how the company realized there was greater value in perfecting mobile ordering experience than rushing for a wide-scale rollout of the service. For Shake Shack, this meant starting small with a select few locations and a basic iOS app. The New York City-based company finally debuted its Android app in July 2017 to a wider audience.

While learning from tests and early rollouts was crucial for the development of the Shake Shack app, what eventually helped nail the process was building an interface that mimicked the company’s in-house ordering system, allowing kitchens to continue operating in much the same way they already were, Reider explained.

“It’s the exact same process as when someone comes into a [Shake] Shack and places an order,” Reider said. “It’s integrated into our POS system, so when a guest first places an order and chooses the time they’d like to pick it up, the order is then directly filed into the POS. That way, the kitchen can begin cooking it at the appropriate time, and it is ready when that person comes into the store.”

To read the story, download the latest Tracker.

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About the Tracker

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