QSR May 2022

DIGI TAL TRENDS

cent more sessions, year-over-year, in food and drink apps last year, reaching the 62 billion mark. Across all of 2021, McDonald’s col lected 24 million app downloads in the U.S. Restaurants raced to this arena because COVID leveled the digital playing f ield. Guests sought brands as much as platforms, which was a course change from pre-pan demic trends. Previously, the debate over whether or not third-party delivery transac tions were, indeed, incremental, was often a question of “was this a customer I would have got before?” Now, guests didn’t take to deliv ery solely to look for, say, burgers or because they were aggregator loyalists; they wanted food from a specif ic eatery that closed its front doors. So restaurants worked quickly to enable off-premises. In a TouchBistro study from early 2022, which focused on full-service restaurants, 34 percent of operators said they were now offering online ordering directly from their website. More than half (57 percent ) said they had a loyalty or rewards program of some kind, and two in five implemented loyalty in the last year or two. Tillster, from a report released roughly the same time, indicated consumers would rather interact directly with their favorite brands. Forty-four percent of respondents said they’d prefer to order delivery directly through the restaurant’s website or mobile app. Less than 10 percent put third-party delivery experi ences at the top of their list. Shake Shack CFO Katie Fogertey told investors at the ICR Conference in January

funneling customers into native channels would be a major area of emphasis in 2022. The chain launched a new website in 2021. “We’re building personalized marketing opportunities to help drive frequency and guest connection,” she said. “We just know and we continue to see it, when we bring a guest into our digital ecosystem, we see higher frequency, we see higher checks. There’s a bet ter guest experience associated with that. We just think they understand who we are and the value that we offer more.” THE NEW FACE OF VALUE This far into the COVID story, it’s clear why apps gained relevancy, and why brands invested behind that wave. Going forward, the ability to market lower price points through direct channels (versus third-party delivery) will play a key role in getting customers to fork up invaluable data. For those aged 45–64 in Tillster’s study, nearly a third ( 29.6 percent ) said they’d be willing to spend $5 in delivery fees. Yet among those aged 65-plus, 35.7 percent said they wouldn’t pay $1 in delivery fees. According to Paytronix, 96 percent of res taurant managers mark down prices for loyalty program members, and the average loyalty discount clocks in at roughly 3.8 percent. Restaurants charge an average of 24 per cent more for menu items listed on aggregators than for the same items on their own chan nels. Twenty-seven percent of quick-service managers added they sell the same foods for

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MAY 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com