Recently in Mobile Ordering Category

Ghost kitchens are not new.

Commissaries are well known & failed to scale.

Why well it be different this time?

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Here is the obvious point: most restaurants cannot make money on delivery.

Domino's with its industrial strength pizza and 20 years of technology is the exception.

Joe Caruso

Not at confiscatory commissions they can't Michael (Mike) Webster

Robert Blackwell

Jimmy John's should be added to the exception list, and they have the industries best POS technology supporting them! In house delivery is easy...and very profitable!

Jeremy Theisen

Robert Blackwell I know that Jimmy John's has made very bold statements about Third party delivery but my gut says this will all change with the acquisition by Inspire brands.

Groups like inspire that have shared service IT teams tend to like to standardize over time across brands for the purposes of costs and efficiencies.

To this point Jimmy John's has basically followed in the footprints of Panera as it relates to digital and delivery. I could be completely wrong but I would not bet against it.

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Here are (3) dangers lurking with the delivery apps.

1. Traffic mismatch. The guest can use your brand's app or a 3rd party delivery app. If the latter, your brand has to pay a commission.

2. The delivery app is going send your customers to a nearby competitor, if they can make a food delivery sale.

3. When something goes wrong with the order, your brand will be blamed -- even if you aren't responsible for the delivery.

What are the alternatives?

1. "Jimmy John's is satisfying customers one sandwich at a time -- but what if you don't live in one of chain's highly coveted zones?

Well, the sandwich maker might just buy you a house.

Jimmy John's announced its "Home in the Zone" contest this week, a first-of-its kind competition where a deserving superfan will win a new home within one of Jimmy John's famous five-minute delivery zones."

2. Panera is accessing new customers from the aggregators, but not using their delivery service.

"We're open to it now because it's additive and, very importantly, the customer experience is protected.

There's a standard of quality that we believe in, and the economics work for us and very importantly, for our franchisees, which a lot of these models don't," Wegiel says.

He says delivery companies told Panera it was one of the top search brands on their sites. Panera was only willing to partner up, however, if aggregators agreed to some conditions.

The company wanted to ensure a deal would add incremental volume instead of cannibalizing what it had already built, which was confirmed through testing."

3. Domino's, the acknowledged leader in pizza delivery, says: "Despite the pressure, Dominoʼs is not planning to partner with a delivery site.

Allison said that he doesnʼt think partnering with third-party platforms creates incremental sales, and that those platforms will end up hurting restaurant profits."

For more, see the discussion on LinkedIn, below.

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Two years ago, Jim Cramer declared, about the deal Yelp in which Yelp sold Eat24 to GrubHub.

""I think this partnership has the potential to give both companies a major shot in the earnings arm," Cramer said."

Now, 2 years later, we find out that Yelp/Grubhub have trying to trick users to order food from Grubhub controlled telephone numbers, instead of the restaurant's number.

Yes, that will boost their earnings -- until people find out about it....

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Why do people consistently order using 3rd party aggregators, instead of using the restaurants's own website or app?

Interesting discussion, have your say.

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The POS hardware industry in restaurant franchising is lucrative. Franchisee have to spend $2,000 - $6,000 yearly on service contracts.

That might come to an end -- when the guests show up with their own built in POS devices, their iPhones.

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Our partners, Prompt Cuisine, have spent 3 years getting a smartphone mobile app to comply with the rigorous privacy rules required by Europe.

Now, you can become a member, and jump to the front of the line.

Here is how it works.

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Have you been to the newest McDonald's and used the big kiosk to order?

Is it more convenient than your smartphone?

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Is the smartphone generation going to accept that they have to order off a menu?

Or is it more likely that they will demand that they be able to use their smartphone?

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