The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Domino’s gets last laugh with digital-natives focus
Mocked for using tech to get orders, now it’s an e-commerce titan.
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.
Why, the skeptics asked, do you need a digital voice-recognition app on your phone to order a pizza, when you can just call and speak to an actual person?
But now, as Domino’s claims the title of largest pizza chain by global revenue — edging out longtime rival Pizza Hut — the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company’s relentless pursuit of digital technology appears to be quite prescient.
And it’s working on automated pizza delivery with drones and driverless cars.
“We used to be a pizza company that sells online and we needed to become an e-commerce company that sells pizza,” Dennis Maloney, Domino’s chief digital officer, said last recently in an interview. “That was one of the big a-ha moments that caused a lot of conversation within the company.”
One question that retail analysts are asking, though, is whether this is part of an effort to eliminate jobs.
Among the company’s innovations:
■ An app to track a pizza is while en route to you.
■ A Siri-like voice recognition system, nicknamed Dom.
■ The ability to order on just about any digital device and platform.
Not only has Domino’s managed to bring in more than 60 percent 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?”
More online ordering
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.
“There was a lot of pushback across the board from a lot of folks,” Maloney said.
In 2013, Domino’s put a cam-
era in a kitchen and livestreamed 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-the-scenes 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 technology.
Then, the next year, Domino’s created an app that let you order — and pay — from your Ford vehicle.
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 like Apple.
Doubling down
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.
It also added a feature that let customers order via Twitter using a pizza emoji:
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, 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.
By 2017, the company had enhanced its technology. It also began offering a pizza wedding registry — and even tried drone delivery in New Zealand, and driverless car deliveries in Ann Arbor, with future tests set in Florida.
Domino’s said it believes driverless-car delivery is “where the industry is going.”