From Curry to Cannabis, ResTech Providers Make Ordering, Paying for Everything Easier

Restaurant technology providers that power consumers’ digital orders are finding that, as even operators’ tech stacks become more sophisticated, it is no longer enough to simply offer a well-made restaurant ordering product.

Take, for instance, food ordering and delivery company Waitr, soon to be rebranded as ASAP. Along with the name change, the company intends to shift all of its offerings to one platform and to shift its focus from its ordering and fulfillment services to payments.

On a call with analysts Monday (Aug. 8) discussing the company’s second-quarter 2022 financial results, Waitr CEO and Chairman Carl Grimstad shared an update on the company’s instant pay technology created for its gig drivers. He noted that the company intends to “commercialize the rollout of this technology to restaurant partners” in the future and possibly to “all other verticals,” which include alcohol and cannabis delivery.

“Obviously [our payment solutions are] not quite big enough to break out individually just yet Dan, but I’ve always seen this business as an integrated payments company that also offers last-mile delivery,” Grimstad said. “So I think our future is … looking more like a financial technology company [with a] last-mile delivery [component].”

As Waitr builds out its FinTech offerings, restaurant technology company PAR is looking to consolidate its ordering solutions to integrate with other parts of restaurants’ operations. To that end, the company announced Tuesday (Aug. 9) its acquisition of digital ordering company MENU Technologies.

“Today, restaurants are overwhelmed with disparate technologies that are devoid of the connectivity or intelligence that a unified solution offers,” PAR Technology Corporation CEO and President Savneet Singh said, explaining the acquisition will allow PAR to consolidate off-premises and on-premises orders into one unified tech stack. “Restaurants will now have a unified, data-driven network from the point of order to the kitchen, and all the way through fulfillment.”

For all this focus on building out its ordering solutions, the company also noted that the focus on front-of-house solutions does not necessarily meet restaurants’ most pressing needs today, those related to their labor challenges and inflationary pressures.

“For the last two-plus years restaurants, have focused tech spend on the front of house with CRM, loyalty, digital and delivery,” Singh said. “Now that most restaurants have upgraded the front-of-house tech stack, they’re struggling with operational issues and profit leaking out the back door via food and labor challenges.”

He noted that the company has invested resources in boosting sales of back-of-house products including labor and scheduling products and inventory and food management tools.

Indeed, on the end user side, restaurants are noting the need to improve their back-of-house processes. In the past week alone, C-suite executives from restaurant companies ranging from Sweetgreen to Portillo’s to Restaurant Brands International to Shake Shack have discussed on earnings calls the need to boost operational efficiency and their efforts to do so.