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SpotOn Transact LLC has enhanced its online ordering platform for independent restaurants with several new features intended to engender customer loyalty and drive repeat business.
One of the new features is GoTo Place, a mobile app that allows restaurants to create their own branded mobile storefront. What differentiates GoTo Place from competing apps is that it enables the restaurant to control the brand experience and provides access to customer data for marketing and personalization, unlike third-party super apps that are essentially online ordering marketplaces for restaurants, SpotOn says. The app also enables restaurants to build a mobile storefront without paying a 20% to 40% commission to the app provider.
“The average margin for restaurants in the United States is 5%, which means restaurants using third party ordering apps lose money on an online order,” says Bryan Solar, SpotOn chief product officer. “We don’t charge a commission.”
Another new feature is Picked for You, an artificial intelligence-driven tool built with Amazon Web Services aimed at increasing conversion rates by personalizing the digital menu for customers. The new feature enables restaurants to access customer data they normally can’t through third-party ordering platforms, such a customer’s order history, time of day, and day of the week, to make personalized recommendations. Early adopters have seen a 6% average increase in online orders, SpotOn says.
“Technology is an extension of a restaurant’s brand and with third-party platforms, restaurants don’t have access to their customer ordering data,” which is key for personalization, marketing and loyalty, Solar says.
Solar adds that SpotOn believes “the customer relationship belongs to the restaurant,” not SpotOn. Providing restaurants with access to customer ordering data is a way to help restaurants build a direct connection with their customers that order online. “Our goal is to be as white-label as possible,” Solar says.
The addition of SpotOn Loyalty to the SpotOn platform allows customers that opted-in to a restaurant’s loyalty program to receive special offers such as birthday perks and repeat dining incentives, as well as marketing messages.
“Online ordering is here to stay and is very sticky, and with restaurants feeling enormous profit pressure in today’s economy, we want to make sure that independent restaurants don’t fall behind on the technology front and have more control over the customer relationship and their brand,” says Solar.
In related news, Global Payments Inc. struck a deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League to process payments for food, beverage, in-stadium merchandise purchases, and ticket purchases. The Lightning is the fourth NHL franchise Global Payments has struck a deal with for payment processing.
Overall, Global Payments provides processing for 160 stadiums globally and has struck deals with teams in every major professional sports league in the U.S., the company says.
