POS Insights From Appetize: Location-Aware Mobile Ordering, Enhanced Menus, and Scan-and-Go

What advancements did Appetize make with POS software in 2020?

Mobile Ordering through Location Aware QR Codes. Appetize has fully integrated Location Aware QR codes in our Interact Web platform. While traditional QR codes allow customers to access menus, order and pay through their phones, we can utilize location-aware QR codes so the unique location information is provided with the scan. Location identifiers contained in the QR code can include — and are not limited to — a table number, parking space, or stadium seat number. This lets the wait staff know where to deliver a customer's order and allows operators to track where orders are placed to analyze traffic flow.

Enhanced Support for Complex Menus and Modifiers. Our recently enhanced support allows large operators with complex menus (that require multiple levels of modifiers) to easily build and manage these nested item structures and choices — and to easily control menus across their organization. By allowing for greater item complexity, Appetize makes it easier to manage combos, prefix meals, and conversational ordering.

Apple Vas. Apple Vas is Apple's automated, NFC-powered loyalty program. By supporting Apple Vas in addition to Apple Pay, contactless payment and loyalty information through Appetize products can be processed together, eliminating steps and making the checkout process quicker and more convenient for guests. 

Scan and Go. Allows customers to use their own phones to shop at a store, scan items, check out, and pay, without the need for a cashier or register.

What are the most innovative features and/or functionality of the POS software that Appetize offers?

In addition to our fully integrated Location Aware QR Codes and Complex Menu Support, one of our most unique and innovative features is the ability to switch devices between vendors and software modes. For instance, businesses can switch terminals from manned stations to self-service kiosks, switch tablets from table-service mode (used by waiters) to quick-service mode (used for line-busting at drive-thru), move a terminal from one store in a facility to another, or even switch menus on devices from one event to another. Ultimately, our cloud software makes it easy to adapt to changing business needs, and there’s no required support, so this feature provides operators maximum flexibility. 

Another feature we’re proud of is the ability for operators to monitor and report on all locations in real-time through our Connect Management Portal. Operators can see sales results by sales channel, by location, and even drill down to individual devices at a location or to employees. The portal provides advanced reporting and data visualization tools, and you can see where orders are coming from in a venue to determine if you need to make changes to layout or flow during the event or at future events. Sales are shown in real time, so operators can make executive decisions on the spot, like choosing to reduce staff during certain times of the day if sales are low, or they can introduce promotions to increase sales and move expiring inventory, or even raise prices if order volumes are too high. 

We also have an advanced Promotions Engine providing numerous options for setting up and managing many types of promotions, rewards, and offers across a large-scale organization. It includes advanced scheduling options, such as start and end dates and times, reoccurrence, hours and dayparts. We also include Promotion Reference IDs for easy promotions tracking. There are several advanced options including having promotions auto-apply when the proper cart conditions are met, setting prioritization when multiple promotions can apply, and more. 

Lastly, our full and automatic Offline Mode is a signature Appetize feature. Even if network connectivity is lost, orders can still be processed, payments can be taken, and your kitchen never loses a beat. Our platform can auto-sense network issues and failover without any user intervention — then return just as seamlessly. This is a unique offering among cloud platforms and gives Appetize the ability to provide industry-leading uptime and performance.

What innovations in POS software are Appetize making for 2021 that you can share with us?

Biometrics. We’ve been actively exploring biometric integration for a possible 2021 debut with our self-service kiosks. This integration can take many forms, from recognizing returning users in order to personalize to providing a secure, contactless means of payment. With biometric integration, security is increased through identity verification (such as fingerprints, eye scan, voice or facial recognition). Contactless mechanisms (ie: facial and voice recognition) are also priorities in the current climate. 

We also have gesture controls for contactless kiosk operation in development. This will allow a user to make selections and operate a kiosk without touching the screen through hand gestures. We are also working on voice-ordering and other contactless means of interacting with our software.

What do you see coming down the pike that will impact POS software trends?

We see many things impacting POS software trends in the near future. For one, we believe there will be increased emphasis on data and optimization, especially between sales channels, including automated rules to throttle orders from less profitable channels as kitchens reach capacity.

We also believe more mobile POS systems and mobile payments will be of interest to many industries. This technology is popular in restaurants today, but data and reports show it will be trending in retail. In retail, there will be more use of AI to make shopping recommendations.

Ultimately, if you look at these trends, they have one thing in common: they’re all improving customer experiences, giving them more control and offering better ease of use. 

What is Appetize doing to respond to the increasing demand for tight integrations?

Open APIs. Our platform is built on Open APIs, which are published and shared freely with 3rd party developers and partners via our Development Portal. Our APIs allow our platform to be seamlessly integrated with business systems and make POS data accessible to other applications. 

Appetize Key APIs include:

• Ordering - Used to connect to 3rd Party Ordering Aggregators including GrubHub, Postmates, Olo, OrderMark, etc.
• Reporting - Used to connect to Data Warehouses, Inventory, and Reporting System
• Payments - Used to connect to Stored and Loaded Value, Loyalty, Digital Wallet, and 3rd Party Payment Providers
• Configuration - Used by 3rd party systems of record to pull or push data to the Appetize platform.

Developer Portal. The Developer Portal is how we enable 3rd party integrations and partnerships to extend the Appetize platform. It provides centralized access to all API information and available endpoints. We provide clear documentation, example use cases and instructions as well as example requests and responses so 3rd party developers can easily build integrations to our platform. 

What is Appetize doing to respond to the increasing demand for digital ordering, off-premises and/or contactless transactions?

As mentioned, we have Interact Web with Location Aware QR codes for on-premise mobile ordering, and our virtual models, including virtual kiosk, drive-thru, hawker and waiter, help social distance policies during the current climate. 

We also integrate mobile apps with embedded ordering that offers operators greater knowledge of their customer base, since they can access data, customer preferences, sales, and more. This same integration can be done with a brand’s website to enable native online ordering.

We integrate with 3rd Party delivery providers and aggregators to help places enforce social distancing. For example, through our integration with Postmates, fans at Dodgers Stadium can order from concessions using the Postmates app from their seat.

We also support contactless payment through NFC on all of our POS devices including fixed and portable terminals, tablets, and handhelds. 

What is Appetize doing to enable mobility and new payment options? 

Appetize already supports most payment options, including digital wallets, tap-to-pay credit cards, stored and loaded value cards providers, RFID, but we are adding digital loyalty to simplify checkout and are continually looking at new payment options, including biometric integration.

What is Appetize doing in terms of R&D for beyond 2021?

Our focus beyond 2021 is on using data and intelligence to improve our customer’s bottom-line. We plan to introduce advanced features such as rules-based order throttling across sales channels, improved upsell and conversational ordering suggestions, intelligent promotions management, and more.

Can you share a great use case or customer example as it relates to the point of sale?

Live Nation. For Live Nation’s “Live From the Drive-In” social distance concert series. We delivered our Location Aware QR-code ordering system in a matter of days to multiple locations across the country, enabling thousands of concertgoers to order food while staying safe under the guidelines provided by public health experts and authorities.

Oregon Zoo. Oregon Zoo added our Interact Web over the summer, and has since thrived with orders in both point of sale and mobile ordering, exceeding their expectation in sales through the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, considering social distancing policies, mobile ordering was hugely popular, but the extent was larger than we anticipated with an average 125% higher basket size versus order placed via an order taker such as a cashier or waiter via POS.