Food-ordering app Seamless rolled out its “reverse activation” restaurant on wheels Presto! Resto! in April 2021 to help provide New Yorkers the dine-in restaurant experience they had been unable to enjoy since March 2020. Twitter and Instagram users throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens could post stories about what they missed most about dining in restaurants and tag them with “@Seamless” or “#PrestoResto” for a chance to get the truck dispatched to their homes.
Seamless would select three winning posts each day, decorate its truck to match the decor of one of four native-New York City eateries and send the vehicle to winners’ front doors. The Presto! Resto! truck was an experiment that disappeared from the streets of New York City by May, but the connected devices that enabled it to deliver dine-in restaurant experiences to consumers’ doorsteps remain firmly situated at the core of the restaurant industry.
Aggregator and app-enabled ordering features have become central to restaurant customers’ lives over this past year, and it is becoming increasingly clear that they will remain key long after consumers may safely return to restaurants in the approaching economy.
INSIDE THE JUNE STUDY:
- 27%: Share of superconnected consumers have shifted to ordering online from at least one restaurant.
- The average superconnected restaurant customer spent 26 percent more on food orders than average in the last 12 months.
- Two-thirds of all 'connected-me' consumers use at least one restaurant’s loyalty program.
