Keeping Pace With Payment, Ordering Trends

Consumers' choices of which restaurants to patronize are based not only on their food cravings but on whether they can meet the diners' desires for safety and convenience. The pandemic has led many customers to replace indoor dining experiences with takeout and delivery purchases instead, and many have been turning to digital tools like websites, mobile apps and scannable QR codes posted in restaurants' windows to help them easily place these orders. Eateries are looking to cater to this shifting consumer demand and to spare their staff from close customer contact that could increase employees' risk of catching the virus. These two motivations are driving restaurants to adopt various technologies to facilitate swift, remote customer interactions. Millennial and Generation Z diners appear particularly swayed by such tools, with 61 percent saying that the ability to pay digitally is a key factor in influencing their restaurant choice.