News

Little Caesars masters pizza without the people interface

September 24, 2018

Little Caesars has installed a proprietary Pizza Portal pickup, which offers a heated, self-service mobile order pickup station for customers, in nearly all of its U.S. stores, according to a news release. Likewise, the brand also combined mobile ordering and pre-payment with the technology, resulting in something akin to being able to order, pay for and retrieve a pizza without ever interacting with a person, something especially preferred by younger diners.

"We are constantly striving to enhance the guest experience for all customers no matter how they choose to access Little Caesars," President and CEO David Scrivano, said in the release. "We remain deeply committed to our core pillars of value, convenience, and quality, and are continually researching to understand what customers want, both now and in the future. We're using our Pizza Portal pickup and mobile app to expand our offerings, as well as evolve our business model in an increasingly diverse and digital marketplace."

The brand bills the system as a way to help ultra-busy customers get their orders quickly and efficiently, with an app that allows re-orders, as well as custom pizza construction. The app also notifies customers when orders are ready. 

At the store, they can then bypass the counter and go directly to the Pizza Portal pickup and input a 3-digit pin or scan a QR code to open the door and take the order with them. Most recently, the brand said Touch ID/fingerprint and Face ID login functionality have been added, as well as:

• Mobile payment.
• Store locating.
• Drag-and-drop custom pizza construction.
• Order scheduling up to six days in advance.
• Favorites saver for reorders.

The Pizza Portal pickup's proprietary technology has been co-developed with Apex Supply Chain Technologies, which you might have previously learned about on this site through a video developed with that company and one of their first clients, the Cincinnati Reds. The ball team has the Apex lockers in its Cincinnati stadium, allowing fans to order from their seats and go to lockers to pick them up when they get a notification from the Cincinnati Reds app.