Eye on Restaurants: New Gambits From SpotOn, Toast, And Oracle

Few retail markets have rebounded from Covid lockdowns as fast as restaurants have. And few have attracted as much attention from payments companies. No wonder. Sales at what the National Restaurant Association calls “eating and drinking places” in the United States totaled $88.1 billion in April, up 0.6% from March. That’s a faster pace than non-restaurant retail’s 0.4% rise, according to the NRA.

Payments companies are responding to the opportunity with new strategies and new technologies to gain a larger slice of this pie. The latest gambits emerged this week as restaurant-payment specialists SpotOn Transact LLC launched a service that lets customers order meals while they wait for a table, Toast Inc. partnered with FreedomPay to process for larger restaurants, and Oracle Corp. unveiled a new, more sophisticated workstation.

SpotOn’s new service, “Seat and Send,” allows customers waiting for a table to enter an order and have it sent to the kitchen at the same time they’re seated. The technology, which combines three existing services—SpotOn Reserve, SpotOn Restaurant, and SpotOn Order—allows customers to scan a menu and enter dietary preferences or allergies, using a link from the restaurant. They can also pay using the same link.

Meanwhile, SpotOn’s major technology rival, Toast, is aiming at larger restaurant chains—or “enterprise brands,” as the company calls them—with its choice of FreedomPay for processing. The deal will allow Toast to market its technology to such brands already served by FreedomPay’s platform in the U.S. and Canada, according to Monday’s announcement. “We look forward to partnering with FreedomPay as we drive our enterprise expansion,” said Kelly Esten, senior vice president and general manager, enterprise, at Toast, in a statement.

Also aiming at eateries is Oracle’s latest workstation technology, the Micros Workstation 8 series, unveiled Tuesday. The new device works with Oracle’s Payments Cloud software and is built, the company says, for rugged environments, such as outdoor dining, as well as ordinary venues.

“Form meets function with the Oracle Micros Workstation 8 Series,” said Simon de Montfort Walker, executive vice president and general manager for Oracle Food and Beverage, in a statement. The device, he added, is “elegant and lowers the physical barrier between staff and customer.”

While restaurant sales are rising, the NRA statistics indicate a hint of caution, as much of the rise in sales volume over the past year comes not from an increase in orders so much as an increase in prices. “After adjusting for menu price increases, April’s eating and drinking place sales volume was just 0.7% above the April 2022 level,” the association says. The nominal increase, on the other hand, was 9.4%.