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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

contactless payments

Online Order Platform Zuppler Launches a Contactless Order and Pay Package for Restaurants

Online food ordering platform Zuppler today announced a contactless ordering package restaurants can use as they begin to open the front of house under new social distancing guidelines. Called Menu Anywhere On-Premise, the software specifically addresses the need for more flexible, dynamic menus and contactless ordering for dine-in customers. 

Zuppler currently works with about 15,000 restaurants. The Conshohocken, PA-based company’s platform integrates directly with restaurant websites and POS systems, as well as loyalty programs like LevelUp and Punchh.

The company is among those restaurant tech players now focusing on contactless solutions for restaurant dining rooms, most of which now have to operate with reduced capacity, fewer staff, and new standards for social distancing. Those social distancing measures are quickly phasing out things like reusable menus and self-service kiosks, which means more restaurants are now looking for digital options for customers when it comes to browsing menus, ordering food, and paying for it.

“Today’s launch is a natural extension of our current offerings, and is entirely driven by the needs of our clients,” Zuppler’s founder and CEO Shiva Srinivasan said in today’s press release.

Like other Zuppler products, The Menu Anywhere On-Premise tool integrates directly with a restaurant’s main system, including its website and any loyalty programs. Customers can then use their own mobile devices to browse a menu and select items to order. Those orders are automatically sent to the restaurant kitchen, and customers can track the status of their order on their phones as well as pay for their meal. Since Zuppler’s technology is integrated with loyalty programs, customers can earn points from their orders at participating restaurants. 

Restaurant tech companies across the industry are now pivoting to offer bundles of contactless software to restaurants. Presto, CardFree, ConverseNow, and Sevenrooms, among others, all offer some form of contactless order and pay features restaurants can add to their tech stack. While this shift in focus is partially a way to help restaurants reopen their dining rooms, it’s also a necessary move for these companies when it comes to staying relevant in a world that no longer revolves around the restaurant dining room.

Zuppler’s history as an online order platform as well as its existing integrations with POS systems, loyalty programs, delivery services, and services like Google ordering have given the company credibility when it comes to digital ordering in restaurants. Now we’ll see if that translates to the actual dining room as customers slowly but surely go out to eat once more.

Hold the Phone. Soon it Will Be Your Restaurant’s Menu

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A couple of years ago I came across a restaurant in Dallas, Texas that featured a menu written entirely in emojis. It was unexpected and creative, yet clear enough that a server didn’t have to come over and re-explain everything on the page.

I’m not (necessarily) advocating we battle the current restaurant industry fallout with emoji menus, but maybe we could use some of that outside-the-box thinking when it comes to revising menu formats to fit the new reality we live in. 

Since reusable menus are basically germ repositories, it’s no surprise they’re out now that dining rooms are reopening. The CDC’s recently released guidelines for reopening suggest restaurants “avoid using or sharing items such as menus” and to “instead use disposable or digital menus. . .” The National Restaurant Association’s guidelines tell restaurants to “make technology your friend” and suggest mobile ordering, and every other restaurant tech company that contacts me these days is offering up some form of digital menu for restaurants to integrate into their operations. 

A lot of restaurants will definitely start out by offering simple disposable menus. Paper is cheaper than software most of the time, and typing up and printing out a menu is faster than onboarding your business to a new tech solution.

Over time, though, that could change. As more emphasis gets placed on digital ordering for everyone, we’ll access more restaurant menus through our own phones and mobile devices. That opens up a whole world of possibilities in terms of what restaurants could one day offer on their menus beyond just the food items themselves.

Just a few examples: Menus could provide in-depth information the ingredients in a dish, like where that cilantro came from and how many months the apple traveled before it hit your plate. Menus might also include ratings from other customers, and Amazon-esque “you might also like” recommendations could show up on the screen. Maybe you could dictate the portion size you want, thereby reducing food waste.

With AI making its way into restaurant tech more and and more, restaurants could also build dynamic pricing into menus, based on time of day, foot traffic, weather, and offer coupons and promotional offers in real time. And sure, if someone really wanted to, an emoji menu would probably fly right now in more than a few places.

Most of these things exist already, though they’re not widespread and some are still in conceptual stages. The massive overhaul of the restaurant menu is a chance to start bringing those disparate pieces together to revamp the way we order our food.

Kitchen United Is Open for Business in Austin

One effect of this whole pandemic is that we’ve seen an uptick in to-go orders, and that trend won’t subside anytime soon. That makes now a good time for restaurants — some of them, at least — to consider adding a ghost kitchen to their operations. 

Those in Austin, TX can add Kitchen United to their list of choices when it comes to choosing a facility. The company, which provides ghost kitchen infrastructure (space, equipment, etc.) to restaurants announced this week its new location near the University of Texas is open for business. 

A number of restaurant chains have either already moved into the space or plan to do so in the coming weeks. Kitchen United has also allocated one of the kitchens in the new space to Keep Austin Fed, a nonprofit that gathers surplus food from commercial kitchens and distributes it to charities. As part of the deal, Keep Austin Fed will be able to “rescue” food from restaurants with kitchen operations inside the new KU facility. 

A press released emailed to The Spoon notes that “additional kitchen space is currently available” for restaurants that want to expand their off-premises operations. On that note, a word of advice for restaurants: make sure your restaurant is actually in need of a ghost kitchen before signing up with one. Kitchen United’s own CEO, Jim Collins, told me recently that restaurants need a certain amount of customer demand in order for the economics of a ghost kitchen to make sense. It’s not a small demand, either. In times like these, where the future of all restaurants is uncertain and what little money there is needs to be spent carefully, it pays to exercise some caution, even when it comes to an enticing new trend like ghost kitchens. 

Los Angeles Moves to Cap Third-Party Delivery Commission Fees

Behold, more fee caps for third-party delivery companies. This week, the Los Angeles City Council voted 14–0 to ask attorneys to draft a law that caps the commission fees delivery services charge restaurants at 15 percent. “Why should restaurants, and their customers, be put in a position to subsidize delivery app companies? We need to level the playing field,” Councilman Mitch O’Farrell told the Los Angeles Times.

This week’s proposal would also require that 100 percent of the tips customers leave on delivery orders through these apps go directly to the driver, which is pretty standard nowadays but caused some ruckus in the not-so-distant past. The fee caps would end 90 days after Los Angeles lifts its dining room closures. 

Needless to say, the move — which several other cities have already made — is not popular with delivery companies. Postmates, which is LA’s most popular third-party food delivery service, said governments setting a price on fees threatens jobs and creates “a false choice between local restaurants and the delivery network companies that support them.” The service wants instead to have a fee charged in delivery orders that would assist restaurants. That in turn would translate to yet-another fee for the customer, and be yet-another way in which restaurant food delivery services will suggest/try anything to avoid having to shoulder some of the burden the pandemic has brought on the restaurant industry.

As restaurants slowly reopen and the industry starts to adjust to its new normal, now we’ll begin to see if fee caps actually make a difference for struggling restaurants, and if they are here to stay for the long run.

Sevenrooms Is the Latest Restaurant Tech Company Serving Up Contactless Order and Pay Features

Restaurant guest management platform Sevenrooms today released a Contactless Order & Pay system for restaurants as businesses get set to reopen under new social distancing guidelines and regulations. The new system “aims to ease consumer hesitation around dining out,” according to an email sent to The Spoon.

Since Sevenrooms is first and foremost a tech company, it will obviously be using technology to minimize person-to-person contact in an effort to make dining rooms safer places once they reopen. 

The new contactless system includes a digital menu as well as ordering and payment functionality customers can access with their own devices by one of three ways: scanning a QR code, using near-field communication (NFC), or going to a URL. Importantly, there is no need for customers to download any additional apps, something that would only add confusion and extra steps to the process. 

Ideally, this setup will mean restaurants do not have to hand physical menus out to guests, and that items like order tickets and credit cards won’t pass from one person to the next, potentially spreading infectious germs along the way.

The idea isn’t specific to Sevenrooms. In its reopening guidelines for restaurants, the National Restaurant Association said that “Contactless payment systems, automated ordering systems, mobile ordering apps, website updates and simple texts can help you to communicate and conduct business with reduced need for close contact.”

Other industry figures agree. Seated cofounder and chairman Bo Peabody, who also sits on the task force in charge of restaurant reopening guidelines for the state of Georgia, told me recently that contactless payments are one of the most important pieces of tech a restaurant can invest in right now and that by the end of next year, “putting your credit card down will be a thing of the past.”

He added, however, that most restaurants right now are not equipped to easily switch to contactless ordering and payments. Making the process of adoption easier and affordable will be a major factor restaurant tech companies like Sevenrooms must consider if they truly want to help restaurants through the reopening process. 

Sevenrooms joins other restaurant tech companies pivoting to offer contactless order and payment capabilities. This week, Presto released its own version of a contactless order and pay tech bundle. Paytronix, which raised $10 million in April, has also added an online order platform and touchless payments to its tech stack. 

A subject we land on frequently these days is exactly how relevant will front-of-house restaurant tech companies be as more dining rooms reopen with limited seating capacity and consumers cautiously venture out to eat. The growing number of companies offering contactless order and payment options makes me think that the debate isn’t around whether these companies will remain relevant. Rather, the ones that can present restaurants with the most helpful, hassle-free ways to go contactless will be the ones the industry finds most valuable going forward. 

Presto Makes Its Contactless Dining Kit Free for Restaurants Reopening Dining Rooms

Restaurant tech company Preso has released a Contactless Dining Kit to assist restaurants with social distancing measures as they prepare to reopen dining rooms in the coming days and weeks. The kit, which Presto is making available free of charge to restaurants, notably offers technologies to assist restaurants with contactless order and payment, according to an email sent to The Spoon.

In certain states, restaurants are slowly but surely reopening. Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and others have all loosened stay-at-home restrictions to varying degrees, though restaurants are operating at reduced capacity and with stricter social distancing measures in place.

In a letter sent to California Governor Gavin Newsom, of which The Spoon has obtained a copy, the Redwood City, CA-based company outlined the technologies on offer in its Contactless Dining Kit. “As our state looks towards reopening for business, it will be important for restaurants to operate in an environment that can reassure customers about their personal safety,” the letter states, before going on to say that the new normal will be “very different” and that “technology can play a very critical role in enabling this new normal.” 

For the Contactless Dining Kit, that technology primarily addresses how restaurants can ensure social distancing during the order and pay process in the dining room. That means plenty of contactless solutions. Presto’s tech stack already offered a number of contactless order and pay solutions prior to the pandemic; for its kit, the company has pulled relevant pieces of software and hardware and bundle them together.

The contactless menu option lets restaurants place a QR code sticker on tables, which guests can scan to access the menu. Any loyalty or rewards programs the restaurant runs can be integrated into the process. For those guests that can’t use their own device or don’t want to, the restaurant can also provide the menu via a Presto tablet placed on the table.

Restaurants can choose to have those orders directly integrated into their main POS system, which would definitely be the more contactless way to go. Otherwise, orders from diners’ devices land in a Staff Tablet and will have to be input into the POS system. 

Finally, the kit’s contactless payments feature lets guests pay via their own devices or the aforementioned Presto tablet on the table. 

Presto says on its website that it will ship a kit within three days of a restaurant signing up for one. Deployment takes “less than an hour in most cases” — though that doesn’t factor in restaurant staff having to learn how to work a new technology. On that front, Presto appears to be trying to make the switch to a more tech-centric dining experience as easy as possible for restaurants. Kits arrive with a tablet, 60 QR code stickers and table placards, setup instructions, and a web portal from which businesses can create and manage their online menus. 

As I mentioned earlier, Presto is giving this pack away for free right now to restaurants. That’s a generous move, given the turbulent times, but it’s also a smart one from a business perspective. Presto is a front-of-house technology company, and at the moment, front-of-house players are fighting to remain relevant in a world where the in-house dining experience will probably never be the same. Allowing restaurants to sample its technology stack for free potentially gives Presto wider exposure across the sector and, so long as execution goes well, helps the company solidify its credibility as an important tech company in the space. 

The company hasn’t yet said if there is a time limit on getting the kit, only that “supplies are limited” and that the offer is only valid while said supplies last.

That it’s chosen to focus on contactless order and payments is also a move that could pay off down the line for Presto. As a growing number of restaurant industry figures have said, contactless will be the way forward, and one of the most important parts of the restaurant experience to get right is ordering and payments.

If Presto can take some headache out of that process for restaurants with its technology, it could win over a lot of new and loyal clients as the foodservice world starts to reopen.

Starbucks Leans on Digital Orders and Modified Formats to Reopen 90% of Stores by June

Starbucks plans to reopen 90 percent of its U.S. stores by early June, the company said this week on its Q1 2020 earnings call. As expected, stores won’t immediately reopen nationwide and with the same sit-down cafe format in which they operated before the pandemic. Instead, the Seattle-based coffee giant will open gradually, with modified service that emphasizes pickup, delivery, and drive-thru. 

The company hinted at these plans a little less than two weeks ago, when company CEO Kevin Johnson sent a letter to employees explaining the chain’s recovery plan. As I wrote at the time, Starubucks is an international chain that is already navigating this recovery process in China, so it has some experience other U.S.-based chains may not. It is also ahead of the curve — a major leader, actually — in both off-premises formats and digital business. 

On this week’s call, Johnson spotlighted both of those things. He noted that “continued recovery in China strengthens our belief that these impacts [from COVID-19] are temporary” and that Starbucks expects to emerge with an even stronger business. “We are well positioned to leverage our digital assets and new operating formats like contactless pickup and curbside to expand service to customers,” he said.   

Only 30 stores will reopen their cafes, Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer said during the call, and there will be no seating in those locations. “We will amplify delivery, we will have the Mobile Order & Pay channels open and then the addition of a new concept, the Entryway Handoff,” she said. Starbucks will monitor what happens in these stores before making the move to reopen other locations. 

For Starubucks, this slow reopening is less detrimental than it might be for a chain with a less robust off-premises strategy. Johnson noted on the call that 80 percent of customer occasions in U.S. stores were to-go before the pandemic even hit. “And so by augmenting the in-store experience with mobile ordering and contactless pickup, we can service significant volume of customers without having the cafe seating area actually opened,” he said. 

As states slowly begin to reopen their economies, bigger chains with similar store formats to Starbucks and existing digital strategies in place will likely operate with their own versions of this modified, to-go-centric format. Chipotle, which was already testing off-premises store formats pre-pandemic, has reported strong digital sales for the quarter. With more earnings calls set to happen over the next few days, we’ll get more intel into what other chains, such as McDonald’s, have in the works.

Smaller restaurants that can’t afford expensive mobile-order systems or accommodate drive-thru lanes can still look to some tech to help with the transition towards this new normal. While most independent businesses are more concerned with keeping the lights on right now, contactless customer service and digital payments will be two areas more restaurants will look to expand to in the coming months. 

Paytronix Raises $10M for Its Restaurant Guest Management Platform

Restaurant guest management platform Paytronix Systems announced today it had raised a $10 million round of fresh funding. The round was led by Great Hill Partners and Paytronix cofounders Matt d’Arbeloff and Andrew Robbins, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. This brings Paytronix’ total funding to $75 million.

The company said the funding is “designed to ensure that Paytronix is on sound financial footing and will continue to provide its restaurant, convenience-store, grocery, and retail clients with the communications tools necessary during this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.” 

The Paytronix platform offers a number of different solutions restaurants can add to their tech stacks, including loyalty program capabilities, custom mobile apps, messaging, and data analytics. Its software integrates with most of the major POS systems, and the company counts California Pizza Kitchen, Bloomin’ Brands, and restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You among its clients. 

Many of those brands, not to mention independent restaurants, are feeling the strain imposed by COVID-19 and the accompanying dining room shutdowns. And while we’ve called into question the value of certain restaurant tech solutions at a time when businesses need to cut back to necessary tools only, what we can count on is that some tech will be necessary for restaurants to both survive the pandemic and function once the world settles into its new normal.

Paytronix — whose website actually reads “slim down your tech stack — recently released a number of features that seem geared towards that particular approach to restaurant tech. The company now offers an online ordering platform that integrates with both POS systems and third-party delivery platforms. Even more important in these pandemic times, restaurants can now set up touchless payments through Google Wallet and Apple Pay integrations. 

Contactless payments, in particular, will be an important technology for restaurants of all sizes going forward. Bo Peabody, who sits on the task force that created the reopening guidelines for the state of Georgia’s restaurants, recently told me that it’s one of the most important pieces of tech a restaurant should consider right now. He went as far as to say that by the end of next year, “putting your credit card down will be a thing of the past.”  

Whether or not that will actually happen, we’re likely going to see many more guidelines around restaurant reopenings for the rest of the year, some of them focused on the most useful technology businesses can implement in this weird, uncertain time. Patyronix, with this new round, looks to be positioning itself as close to the center of that usefulness as it can get.

A Peek Into the Tech That Could Power Next Week’s Restaurant Re-openings

As you’ve already heard by now, some U.S. states — notably Georgia and South Carolina — are set to relax their quarantine rules and allow certain non-essential businesses to reopen next week. That includes restaurant dining rooms. We’ve already made some predictions about what those dining rooms will look like, and this week, I got some more intel from tech entrepreneur Bo Peabody, who is on the task force that helped create the reopening guidelines for Georgia restaurants. 

Peabody is also the co-founder and chairman of Seated as well as a board member of Boqueria Restaurants and a longtime industry vet. Over the phone this week, he talked through many of the guidelines created by the Georgia task force, which also had involvement from The National Restaurant Association. (You can read The Association’s full guidelines here.)

While many of those guidelines are around implementing social distancing and stricter health practices, Peabody suggested technology also plays a key role. That includes everything from using a text to let people know when their table is ready to implementing digital menus and contactless payment systems. 

“We suggest embracing technology wherever you can,” says Peabody, though he admits tech is “a tough one” in terms of a task for restaurants. In particular, contactless payments will prove challenging for many operators. “We suggested contactless payments if you have that in your restaurant. But most restaurants don’t have that technology,” he said.

Contactless payments take many forms. They can happen through an order-ahead system, at a tabletop kiosk, or with a handheld device a la Starbucks. The common denominator in all these technologies is that they eliminate the need for a customer to hand a credit card to a server and vice versa.

‘We’ve been behind in this country at pay at the table,” said Peabody. And to implement any new technology, restaurants need time and money, two things in short supply these days. While restaurant tech companies have been waiving and reducing some costs, restaurants large and small are just busy trying to keep the lights on right now.

One solution could be QR codes. Peabody describes this as every POS company adding the ability for restaurants to include a QR code on the check. When the server brings the bill, the customer can simply scan the QR code with their own phone to pay for their meal. Ideally, the server would be able to split a check multiple ways, just as they can with credit card payments. 

He says that Toast is currently rolling out such a system, and that others may do the same soon. In fact, he goes as far as to suggest that by the end of next year, “putting your credit card down will be a thing of the past.”

And while contactless payments will be a challenge until that day, mobile ordering might be even trickier for many restaurants to implement. While we’re quick to praise the efficiency of mobile order systems offered by massive chains like Chipotle and Starbucks, the reality is that those apps cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop.

Peabody recommends solving the contactless payments issue before trying to tackle mobile ordering.

Even for those that do look to mobile ordering, developing an expensive in-house solution won’t make sense for most restaurants. A more likely scenario, he says, is that customers will start using apps provided by POS vendors, reservations companies, or even credit card companies to pay for meals. 

Before any of that happens, though, we have to actually reopen restaurants. Georgia’s plan for next week will give us some clues. For example, the success or failure of the reopening may give intel into whether we’re putting enough emphasis on basic safety precautions.

It’s also important to note that not every restaurant in Georgia is going to open next week. “For the most part the bigger operators in Atlanta are not going to open on Monday,” says Peabody. “Outside of Atlanta I think you’re going to see a lot more opening. The pressure to open will mount on everybody in Georgia as the days go on.”

Even so, Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A has already said it will “take additional time” before reopening. Nationwide, Starbucks said its re-openings will be “gradual” and that some stores may just continue as off-premises-focused locations. TGI Fridays has also said it will sit out on this initial reopening phase. 

Finally, let’s not forget that experts have warned it is too soon to relax shelter-in-place measures, so it’s entirely possible restaurants that choose to open will face some massive health risks for their workers. If that’s the case, tech may need to take a seat even further in the back.

Peabody believes that long term, more good than not will come in terms of the new developments restaurants have been forced to adopt during this time, technology and otherwise. In the meantime, as Peabody says, “What’s going to happen in Georgia is a dress rehearsal for the country.”