Sometimes during peak hours, the phones are silent in Andy Freitas’ pizza restaurants, yet the cooks are busy keeping pace with hungry customers.
That’s because orders are rolling in through the Internet.
“It’s pretty amazing not to hear a phone ring on a busy night,” said Freitas, an operating partner with the largest Papa John’s franchisee in the Washington, D.C., market.
In the past seven years, Louisville-based Papa John’s International Inc. has made a lot of dough from online ordering—more than $1 billion to be exact.
The United States’ third-largest pizza delivery chain trumpeted the $1 billion milestone Wednesday, noting that its U.S. online sales have been growing at an average clip of more than 50% per year. In 2001, the chain’s online sales totaled $20.4 million. Last year, its online sales approached $400 million.
“It took us seven years to reach our first billion in online sales, and at our current pace and growth rate, it will take us less than three years to hit our next billion,” said Jim Ensign, vice-president of marketing communications at Papa John’s.
Other chains in the fiercely competitive pizza industry are tapping into the technology as well.
Dominos Pizza Inc. put its own twist on online ordering early this year by introducing a “Pizza Tracker,” which lets customers keep tabs on the progress of their orders. Consumers can find out when their pies are in the oven, when they’re on the way, and even the first name of their delivery person.
Domino’s also lets customers place orders from web-enabled mobile devices.
Pizza Hut said its online orders have grown sixfold in the last three years and also allows customers to order via text messaging and mobile web. The unit of Yum Brands Inc. soon will unveil a new method for ordering pizzas, dubbed “Pizza Hut Shortcut,” that it says will be the fastest in the industry. Customers will be able to download a “widget” onto their computers that will let them place their favorite pizza orders with just one click.
