Food Retail Partnerships Deliver Success

Once again this year our team has been talking a lot about “The 65 Inch HDTV Syndrome” that Foodservice Solutions® Tacoma, WA based Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson was the first to identify, quantify, and qualify for clients and the industry. Why, have we been talking about; simply it drives sales.

Foodservice Solutions® team loves leaving success clues and when we learned that Olo, a leading digital food ordering platform for the restaurant industry, announced that it is working together with Google to enable customers to order directly from restaurant brands across Google Search, Maps and the Google Assistant we has to share the news about the new electricity this partnership could drive for your brand.  

So, the integration allows Olo’s network of more than 70,000 restaurant brand locations to be enabled on Google’s platforms so that consumers can order directly on Google from Search and Maps. Users can also use their voice and ask the Google Assistant for help. On Android and iOS phones, users can say, “Hey Google, order food from [restaurant],” or “Hey Google, order food again from [restaurant].”

Olo’s platform called Rails, enables restaurants to efficiently process orders originating from third-party destinations, is now integrated across Search, Maps and the Google Assistant, transferring each order directly into the restaurant’s point of sale and ordering stream to improve operations efficiency and guest experience.

Brands working with Olo and Google enjoy efficiencies of a two-way integration, benefiting from accurate pricing, menu, and product availability, while inbound orders are automatically placed into existing point-of-sale (POS) systems. Rails makes it easy for restaurant operators to list menu items on third-party marketplaces and drive incremental sales without the need to manage multiple tablets on the restaurant counter and disparate order flows. This integration reduces lag, increases order success rates, and enables faster and more accurate ordering experiences.

Noah Glass, founder and CEO of Olo  stated “Search is increasingly becoming the path to purchase in the restaurant space and we are thrilled to team up with Google to make ordering easy while allowing restaurants to own the digital relationship with their guests,” …”Any consumer searching for a restaurant brand should have easy options to order from the restaurant directly with as few clicks as possible, which is what this integration enables.”

The integration is one of the latest tools to help restaurant brands receive online orders. Portillo’s Hot Dogs and Checkers & Rally’s were the first Olo brands to pioneer this integration with Google, providing enablement to their high-volume locations for customers. Is your brand ready to grow? Are you looking for some new electricity?

Consumers are dynamic not static how is your brand keeping up with consumer demand for fresh fast food? How are you driving new electricity into your brand?

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, plant based  foods,  sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why?

For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, local educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit www.GrocerantGuru.com , www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or call 1-253-759-7869