How Domino’s is using tech to beat Pizza Hut
Despite skepticism, company’s bet is paying off
Domino’s Pizza spent a good part of the past decade chasing what seemed like every digital doodad to deliver pizza — sometimes to the scorn of observers who pointed out that the business was, after all, popping topping-covered dough in an oven and delivering it.
But Domino’s pressed on, piling on digital features like toppings on a pizza. There’s now an app that tracks the exact location of your pizza on the way to your door, a Siri-like voice named Dom and a feature that allows customers to order via Twitter.
When ordering, don’t forget to use the pizza emoji.
It’s ideas such as these that are helping Domino’s cement its claim to being the largest pizza chain by global revenue, edging out its longtime rival Pizza Hut.
“We used to be a pizza company that sells online, and we needed to become an e-commerce company that sells pizza,” said Dennis Maloney, Domino’s chief digital officer for the 14,400-store chain based in Ann Arbor, Mich. “That was one of the big aha moments that caused a lot of conversation within the company.”
Not only has Domino’s managed to bring in more than 60% of its business through digital channels, it convinced a generation of pizza lovers — many of them so-called digital natives — that the company really does get them.
“Oh, totally!” said Laura Khalil, 37, of Detroit,
who has used the iPhone app. “They understand people’s desire to have things when they want it, how they want it — and get it through the channels they use. It’s genius.”
Khalil, who said she loves Domino’s pizza but is now trying to eat healthier, added the company caters to a quick fix.
“If I can just send a pizza emoji, I don’t have to think a lot,” she said. “And their pizza is really good. I don’t think any of this would work if their product was disgusting. What I love most about their app is it answered the No. 1 question I always had: ‘Where is my pizza?’ ”
A decade ago, Domino’s started its digital transformation with its Pizza Tracker, a system to track pizzas on their way to their destination. Over the years, it rolled out all sorts of innovations.
At first, there was skepticism — and even some ridicule. Some of it was even within the company.
“There was a lot of push back across the board from a lot of folks,” Maloney said.
In 2013, Domino’s put a camera in a kitchen and live-streamed it. It called the feature Domino’s Live. It was not quite reality TV. There was just video, no audio, and it was only in one store in Salt Lake City. Domino’s officials said they hoped the behind-thescenes show would be entertaining to watch. To many, it really wasn’t.
But, the video made headlines and gave the company a chance to tout its commitment to technology.
Then, the next year, Domino’s created an app that let you order — and pay — from your Ford vehicle.
At the time, Domino’s CEO said it was “one of the coolest in a long list of recent technology innovations for Domino’s” and added that about 40% of its sales were generated by online orders.
He may have been exaggerating about it being the coolest.
But, again, it was an innovation that made headlines. By the end of the year, Domino’s offered yet another technological advance: Dom, the company’s Siri-like order-taking voice aimed at making online ordering a more conversational experience and putting the company in the company of tech innovators such as Apple.
“What’ll ya have?” Dom could ask.
Doubling down on digital
Domino’s kept investing in new ways to order pizzas online — and to appeal to customers who were eager to use digital technology. It also went a step further by trying to innovate delivery.
In 2015, Domino’s unveiled a retrofitted subcompact named DXP after a code for its delivery driving experts.
It was designed to keep up to 80 pizzas warm from store to door and cost between $20,000 and $25,000 each for a franchise.
That led, in 2016, to the AnyWare campaign: Order from your phone by calling, texting, tweeting; using Facebook messenger; from your smartwatch; from your computer and tablet using the company website; from online group message service Slack; from your car; from a button on your Samsung TV remote; and by using clicks, characters or voice commands to Dom, Alexa, Echo and Google Home.
But the technology didn’t always work. Executives said the company was learning, improving and using the innovation to not just sell pizzas, but also market the company to customers — and its investors — hungry for that kind of technology.
By 2017, the company had enhanced its technology. It also began offering a pizza wedding registry. It even tried drone delivery in New Zealand and driverless car deliveries in Ann Arbor, Mich., with future tests set in Florida’s Miami-Dade County.
So what’s next?
Automated delivery seems inevitable.
“We are well past the conversation now if autonomous vehicles are coming. Now, it’s a question of when and how,” Maloney said.