Escalating the arms race in the online pizza category, both the Pizza Hut and Papa John’s chains this week rolled out desktop widgets that let users place their online orders without surfing to the companies’ Web sites.
Papa John’s downloadable myPapa applications are customized for a wide array of different Web placements, from the desktop to start pages in iGoogle or My Yahoo to MySpace and Facebook. Customers can click on the pizza box widget icon and place an order that will be sent to their nearest Papa John’s location.
The company will also stream up to a dozen custom discounts and product offers to users based on their order histories. The discounts will be specific to restaurants in their area and will appear round the clock.
Users will also have easy access through the widgets to the Papa John’s menu and nutritional information, its restaurant locator and catering menu. They will also be able to send gift cards for Papa John’s purchases.
“MyPapa will offer deals that are relevant to each individual customer and will be accessible the minute hunger strikes,” said Jim Ensign, vice president of marketing communications for Papa John’s International, in a statement. “No sifting through e-mails, newspaper coupons or online offers. It’s all right there on your desktop.”
On the same day, pizza chain category leader Pizza Hut debuted the “Pizza Hut Shortcut” widget for Mac and PC desktops. The chain’s mini-app also lets customers order quickly, reorder stored favorites from a “Pizza Playlist” and build custom orders. Pizza Hut said the application will be used in future to drive storewide deals and special offers from users’ local outlets.
Phone sales still rule at the nation’s pizzerias, but online sales are becoming a crucial channel for the big national chains. Earlier this month Papa John’s announced that it reached $1 billion in online sales since it first started taking orders over the Internet in 2001. The company said Web purchases had grown 50% each year to reach $400 million in 2007 and that orders via the Internet or text message now constitute 20% of its sales mix.
Pizza Hut was quoted in a May 7 Associated Press report as saying that its online orders have grown six fold in the last three years, without giving dollar values.
The companies are fighting fiercely for the technological edge—and the early-adopter credit for any innovations. Pizza Hut’s widget announcement included a list of its earlier ordering advances, including being the first national chain to offer online ordering back in 1994.
Meanwhile Papa John’s trumpeted its achievement as the first national chain to offer “system wide” online ordering in 2001. It also highlighted the rollout of text-message ordering last year—only to have Pizza Hut claim to be the first to offer “total mobile access” to ordering via both SMs and a mobile Web site for WAP phones.
So far no widget words from Domino’s. But the chain is reported to be enjoying a sales increase from its introduction of an online “Pizza Tracker” just before February’s Super Bowl. In line with the chain’s “30 minutes or it’s free” offer, The Web-site feature lets customers keep tabs on the progress of the pizza they’ve ordered, from the moment the pie goes into the over through the baking, loading and delivery process—even providing the name of the delivery person.
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