Mobile is baked deep into Pizza Hut’s business. In fact, one of the first known online purchases was a Pizza Hut pizza back in 1994. The pizza chain’s mobile appetite continued to grow throughout the years, and in 2009 it launched the first ordering app in the pizza category. Today, digital ordering makes up 30% of Pizza Hut’s deliveries and carryout traffic, and approximately half of the company’s digital orders come from mobile devices—accounting for a 4,000% boost in mobile ordering since 2010.
“It’s the fastest growing piece of our business,” says Caroline Masullo, Pizza Hut’s director of digital and social marketing. “What started out as ordering online has advanced all the way to ordering via apps, mobile, and even Xbox.”
However, Pizza Hut is still hungry for better mobile experiences. As a result, the pizza professionals launched a new app this week that fuses together GPS-enabled capabilities with push notifications to deliver a faster ordering experience for its consumers.
Consumers can download the app for Android, iPad, iPhone, or Windows Phone from either Apple’s or Google’s app store or by scanning a QR code featured on Pizza Hut’s website. Once consumers have the app, they can place an order in about 30 seconds by picking their menu item and entering their payment information. In addition, consumers can opt-in to receive deal messages, as well as opt in to the app’s GPS technologies to locate nearby restaurants and obtain local deals. Furthermore, the app features real-time product updates that enables customers to view the latest menu additions without having to download a new version of the app.
Although Pizza Hut already had an existing app, Masullo recognizes that technology is constantly changing and says that it’s also important to address how consumers’ behaviors and expectations change along with technology.
“We need to be where our consumers are, and our consumers spend a large portion of their time online, either via their phone, computer, or tablet,” she says.
Activity from those who have downloaded the app has doubled since the app’s launch, Masullo says. In the future, Pizza Hut intends to add a reordering feature that will enable customers to reorder their favorite meals in as little as 10 seconds, as well as push notifications to let customers know their pizza is in route.
