Digital ordering in the restaurant industry began with pizza. In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, the big three (Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's) found a new way to capitalize on the rise of home dial-up by letting hungry customers place orders over the World Wide Web. Online ordering was a natural fit for pizza customers, who were used to calling their local stores and placing orders for home delivery by phone. Instead of dialing in only for the phone to ring and ring, be put on hold, or get the dreaded busy signal, pizza lovers could now log on, pull up the menu and pricing of their local store, build their customized orders and submit for delivery. The whole process was quite similar to a typical e-commerce purchase. Ordering online from Amazon.com would kick-off a process of warehouse employees assembling and packing an order and then shipping it from the warehouse to the customer's front door. Ordering online from Dominos.com would kick-off a process of restaurant employees assembling and boxing an order and then delivering it from the local store to the customer's front door.
The convenience of the consumer experience was only half of the story. The increased efficiency and accuracy of the operational experience was the other half. Together, these created both an improved customer experience and a more profitable restaurant operation. It's no surprise that the big three have all seen digital ordering climb to over 50 percent of their transactions, becoming their primary business channel.