Papa John’s Becomes Friends With Facebook

Papa John’s has joined a handful of restaurant chain giants in a race to make it easier for customers to order and pay for food through Facebook and Amazon. In a cutthroat restaurant industry, Papa John’s is gaining an edge with a growing generation who live on their phones, who rather order their food from the comforts of their homes than wait in queue’s. After delivering strong results via Facebook, Papa John’s International Inc. recently declared itself an ‘e-commerce company’.

Papa John’s chief marketing officer, Brandon Rhoten recently said in an interview: “We’re much more close, I would argue, to Amazon than we are to a brick-and-mortar restaurant.” “An online ad, for instance, can be turned into an order with a few clicks. Most other restaurant chains are still figuring out how to get customers to do that. It’s a fundamental shift that most in the category haven’t taken advantage of.”

Papa John began taking orders on Facebook in June and became an instant hit. In the first few hours, hundreds of orders poured in and now digital orders make up over 60% of their sales. Vice President at Technomic, Joe Pawlak, describes the shift to technology as a ‘no-brainer’ particularly for digital payments. “It enables a quick transaction,” he adds. “Consumers are moving that way in terms of letting technology do the paying for them.”

Papa John’s chief information and digital officer, Mike Nettles, explains: “You’ve got to be able to meet the customer on originally whatever device they happen to have in front of them,” he adds. “We want to meet the customers where they are when they’re thinking about food.”