Tech Innovations Changing the Pizza Industry
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The pizza industry’s market size is getting bigger. It witnessed a 4.84% year-on-year growth due to increasing pizza consumption, the demand for more exotic flavors, and customized pizza experiences for customers.
Pizza restaurants do their best to keep up with these demands, which customers support and receive with open arms.
While this proves that the market is more than just stable, restaurants and chains can further improve their products and services with the latest technologies in the pizza industry.
If you’re interested in doing so, here are some of the biggest tech innovations to look out for.
Cloud Technologies
Cloud technology allows authorized people to store and access digital resources in a virtual space. An example of this is disseminating a new recipe to branches across states. The recipe can be stored in the cloud and accessed by a representative to implement it in their respective locations.
This is why major pizza chain Papa John’s—which has thousands of stores in the US—has committed to digital transformation through cloud technologies.
In 2021, they partnered with Google Cloud to migrate their data centers onto the platforms. This makes it easier for the brand to streamline its operations and ensure they deliver the same quality products and services in all its stores.
Predictive Analytics
As previously discussed, customer preferences drive the growth of the pizza industry. Restaurants and chains must always be ready to meet these needs to satisfy their customers.
Fortunately, a feature by Maryville University notes that technology is changing businesses through predictive analytics. This tech innovation helps anticipate customer demands by analyzing large pools of data containing customer purchasing behavior—such as the daily order quantities and the daily sales of each flavor.
Then, it provides a list of suggested items that pizza restaurants can expect to be ordered in the future.
Consequently, they can prepare themselves by ordering the necessary ingredients and pre-making dough to meet customer needs. Business Wire reports that Pizza Hut is already utilizing predictive analytics to create a customized sales forecasting model. They use this information to accurately predict, and stock, the top pizzas customers order.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) allows computers to perform human-like tasks, including answering questions and conversing with customers.
This benefits pizza restaurant operations because human employees can leave these tasks to computers and productively use their time elsewhere, such as serving tables or making pizzas.
AI paves the way for more efficient processes, allowing restaurants to serve more customers and increase sales.
The Marco’s Pizza chain uses AI in the form of phone-answering robots. AI receives orders through the phone, transforms them into text, and relays it to the restaurant’s point-of-sale system for a seamless workflow. This saves time and reduces the number of abandoned calls.
Driverless Deliveries
Pizza deliveries are part of what makes the industry thrive. Customers appreciate the convenience of food being delivered to their doorstep within minutes. As such, pizza restaurants must make their delivery system efficient for customer satisfaction.
Driverless deliveries come to the rescue as an emerging tech innovation. The University of Chicago-Illinois was the first to experience automated deliveries with a piloted program. Sidewalk robots successfully delivered food to students, making major food chains eye this technology for themselves.
In fact, the multinational pizza restaurant chain Domino’s partnered with Ford to launch driverless deliveries in Houston, Texas. The Nuro R2 car drives itself to designated delivery zones within the city. Customers input a code on the car’s exterior screen, allowing them to claim their pizza.
Tech innovations enable the pizza industry to create more efficient and seamless workflows for their benefit and customers.
Implement these technologies in your restaurants to improve customer experience and increase sales.
Written by Gianna Isaac for mypizzalist.com
