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Grotto Pizza increases off-peak dining with loyalty program

Grotto Pizza's loyalty platform has helped the beach chain drive traffic during the off-peak.

April 28, 2015

Grotto Pizza's loyalty platform has helped the beach chain drive traffic during the off-peak season. The Delaware-based pizza chain faced a challenge that impacts many restaurants — with many of its locations on the beach, business is seasonal, with the summer months drawing big crowds, while guest visits taper off in the winter, according to a company press release.

It set out to change that two years ago when it migrated its Swirl Rewards Club gift, loyalty and email marketing program to the Paytronix Rewards Platform in hopes of creating a better way to drive guest traffic during off-peak winter hours and to increase traffic on weekday evenings.

The move paid off, said Vinnie DiNatale, director of marketing at Grotto Pizza. More than 48 percent of all Grotto Pizza guests are now registered members of the loyalty program, and 86 percent of those guests have opted in for email communications. The Swirl Rewards Club has proven a model of success, with a high rate of engagement that is well above the 15 percent penetration needed to make an impact.

"We saw an opportunity to use our Paytronix-powered loyalty program as a way to discount our loyal guests without leaving dollars on the table from people who would stop in only once and who would buy a pizza regardless," DiNatale said. "We're grateful that our customers are loyal, choosing to dine with Grotto Pizza, so we show our loyalty in return by providing the best offers and experience possible, and Paytronix makes it easy to do just that."

Grotto was able to ramp up business with its "Winter Wednesdays" promotion that offered members 50 percent off premium items after 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, which are traditionally the chain's lightest traffic days in the winter, DiNatale said. The chain loaded the discounts directly onto guests' loyalty cards, then used Paytronix messaging to send them the offers. DiNatale said that in just one month, Grotto:

•  Increase traffic 84 percent on Winter Wednesdays with these one-day offers.
•  Drive a 65 percent increase in loyalty guest spending.
• And generate loyalty checks that even net of the discount were 10 percent larger on average

While Grotto Pizza’s Winter Wednesday campaign was clearly successful as an effort to boost traffic during slower times, it also had an unexpected impact as enrollment in Grotto’s loyalty program tripled after the first four weeks of the promotion, according to a company press release.