Delivering Customer Value Via Mobile

Did you hear? Papa John’s hit $1 million in pizza orders via its new mobile site. Their sales are up from $400 million last year, to over $1 billion this year and a full 20% of all orders placed with the company now come online or via SMS, widgets or their mobile web-site.

In this article I read, Papa John’s states that their average order value via their mobile web site is $20.00. That means they’ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 orders placed via their mobile web site alone. 50,000!

But the brilliance of what they are doing is not in the number of orders they receive, but that they are serving their customers better – wherever they are. Their customers no longer have to sit at a computer to place an order. They have the possibility to order from the device that goes everywhere with them – their mobile phone.

I’ve seen and heard it too many times, “We’re worried about putting our marketing dollars into Mobile . We’re afraid we won’t see a return on our investment.” Well, Papa John’s managed to get 50,000 orders to come from mobile site alone. That doesn’t even include the SMS and widget orders that come in. Clearly companies are seeing a return on their investments in Mobile.

Now, I’m not suggesting that all of our clients are going to see $1 million dollars worth of orders come through Mobile, but what I have seen, through the Mobile tactics we’ve employed with Souplantation, is an incredible interest in people using their mobile device to explore and learn more about the brand. This is what I mean when you hear me say mobile can’t just be quantified and rationalized based on simple, “I spend this much to get my customers to buy this much” mentality.

Done right, Mobile can make your brand, product, service… whatever, more relevant, more convenient, and more accessible. There’s actually a lot of value to you, and your customer, to be all of those things. Papa John’s understands that, and more and more, other brands are realizing this too.

Creating that opportunity for brand interactions, via mobile web site, mobile application, etc., may not return $1 million in sales, but it does provide more value for you and your customers than the alternative – no mobile presence at all.

Tags: Mobile, papa johns, sms, widget