Tag: mobile commerce restaurants

The company has also hired their first chief information officer, which was recently announced.

With the goal of enhancing the smartphone based presence, the Chipotle’s Mexican Grill fast-casual chain has announced that it is placing a focus on mobile ordering and payments and that it has hired its first chief information officer.

Curt Garner, formerly the CIO of Starbucks, is now the first person to take this position at Chipotle’s.

This decision to hire a CIO has come at the same time that the company intends to broaden its mobile ordering and payment offerings, two features that are becoming quite commonplace throughout the fast casual and fast food sectors. In this, Chipotle’s is far from alone, as Starbucks, Panera, Domino’s and Taco Bell – among many others – have already been major players in this space. In fact, until now, those companies have been notably more aggressive in their m-commerce efforts than Chipotle’s.

The company believes that strategic expansion of mobile ordering and payments will change the way people interact with fast food.

According to the founder, co-CEO, and chairperson of Chipotle’s, Steve Ells, “We are changing the way people think about and eat fast food.” He added that a central component of the vision of the company is their effort to offer customers the best possible restaurant experience. “As we look for ways to create efficiencies in our restaurants and improve the customer experience through the strategic use of technology, Curt’s experience and expertise make him an ideal and welcome addition to our management team.”

Before moving to Chipotle’s, Garner had held several different technology positions at Starbucks, spanning almost twenty years. That company has been crowned as the current ruler of the mobile payments segment and it has recently expanded its mobile app based ordering, as well, making it possible for customers to skip the line and simply pick up their orders.

This makes Garner a very strategic addition to Chipotle’s, which first announced that it would be rolling out mobile ordering on its Apple Watch app back in April. Not long afterward, officials from the company said they would be focusing on updating their mobile app for better efficiency.

OLO brings new mobile commerce service to restaurants

OLO, a relatively new mobile commerce engine designed for restaurants, has announced that it has received a sizeable investment from PayPal, one of the foremost advocates of mobile commerce. OLO has been experiencing rapid growth in recent months. The company, which has been receiving a great deal of attention from numerous investors, has been aggressively hiring and scaling up its operations to establish a firm presence in the mobile commerce market this year. The investment from PayPal is expected to help in this endeavor.

OLO service provides restaurants with consumer friendly services

The OLO service allows restaurants to accept payments and orders from consumers using a simple mobile application. These orders can be placed before a customer even arrives at the restaurant, removing the wait time that some popular restaurants are regularly associated with. Hundred of restaurants make use of the OLO engine and many of these establishments have reported receiving more than 50% of their digital orders through mobile devices.

PayPal may have a role to play in the future of OLO

OLO is designed to be flexible, accommodating the needs of a particular restaurant. To this end, the service allows restaurants to accept forms of payment they are most comfortable with. OLO itself is capable of facilitating payments from all major credit card providers, as well as stored-value cards and mobile wallet platforms. PayPal’s investment into the service is likely to ensure that the company has a place in OLO’s future operations.

PayPal continues looking for ambitious and innovative mobile commerce solutions

PayPal is one of the companies that has been heavily investing in mobile commerce, as well as one of the few looking for an alternative to NFC technology. NFC has become a very popular engine for mobile commerce, but PayPal has concerns regarding the safety and viability of the technology. As such, the company has been looking elsewhere to satisfy its interest in mobile commerce, and services like OLO are among those that have attracted the interest of PayPal in recent months.