restaurants

Dunkin' App Refresh Expands Mobile Ordering, Helps Personalize Offers


Dunkin’ is expanding its On-The-Go Mobile Ordering beyond the more than 12 million members of its DD Perks rewards program to anyone who downloads its newly refreshed app. Next month, DD Perks members will have additional choices of payment options beyond gift cards while earning points redeemable at Dunkin’s 9,400 U.S. locations.

Until the app updates announced today, only DD Perks members could use Dunkin’s app-based On-The-Go Mobile Ordering. Now anyone can use Guest Order in the Dunkin’ app to place and pay for an order and pick it up in a special area of a store or at a drive-through window.

“We heard feedback from our customer base that some of them wanted to use On-The-Go without making an immediate commitment to joining the program. So this opens up our digital ecosystem to as many customers as possible,” Stephanie Meltzer-Paul, vice president of digital and loyalty marketing for Dunkin' U.S., she tells Marketing Daily. “It’s all about convenience and flexibility.”

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As of now, DD Perks members must load funds to their account via a gift card, a process that has inhibited the enrollment process. Beginning in October, they also will be able to pay with cash or credit/debit cards.

“It’s just providing a lot more flexibility to our member base to be able to earn rewards regardless of how you pay,” says Meltzer-Paul. “Not everyone wanted to load funds right away to their account when they were getting used to the program and trying it out for the first time.”

About one third of DD Perks members use On-The-Go Mobile Ordering on any given day, according to Meltzer-Paul.

On-The-Go Mobile Ordering comprised 4% of total transactions in the second quarter of fiscal 2019 ended June 30, according to an Aug. 1 investor presentation by parent Dunkin’ Brands Group. DD Perks added more than one million new members in the quarter.

“I think the power of having a rewards program is our ability to offer up targeted one-to-one marketing, so we use the data that we generate from the Perks program to offer our member base offers that really appeal to them on a personalized basis.”

Ideally, Dunkin’ would like to be able to digest member behavioral data and turn around the most relevant offers within 24 hours of a store visit. “That is ultimately what we’re working towards.”

All of Dunkin’s restaurants are owned and operated by franchisees. In the second quarter, systemwide sales grew by 4.7% while same-store sales rose 1.7%.

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