Domino's & Ford Partner to Drive In-Car Pizza Orders
Consumers with the Domino’s mobile app and the Ford Sync in-car connectivity system will soon be able to order pizza with voice commands from within their cars.
Ford drivers with pizza cravings are in luck. Dubbed as “the latest in innovation and convenience when it comes to ordering Domino’s,” the pizza chain says that beginning in mid-2014, consumers with Pizza Profiles on their Domino’s mobile apps who also drive Fords with the Ford Sync in-car connectivity system will be able to place a saved “Easy Order” in “just a few simple, voice-activated steps.”
According to a video from Domino’s, these voice commands include, “Apps,” “Domino’s,” and “Easy Order.”
Information saved in an Easy Order includes a pizza and menu item combination, as well as address and payment details.
According to a press release, the AppLink feature in Ford Sync enables drivers to control selected apps on connected smartphones and tablets using the Sync voice button on the steering wheel or the audio system buttons of equipped Ford vehicles.
Sync AppLink is available on more than 1 million Ford vehicles including its Fiesta, Mustang, Edge, Explorer, Expedition, Fusion, Taurus, F-150 and Focus models, the release says.
“We just launched Pizza Profiles a few months ago, so it’s still relatively recent,” says Domino’s rep Chris Brandon. “Part of establishing a profile is the ability to establish a saved Easy Order and the Ford Sync system allows you to order with your voice.”
He did not have a figure for the number of customers who have created Pizza Profiles to date. However, per Google Play at least, the Android version of Domino’s Pizza USA app has one to five million downloads to date.
“The Ford partnership is a technology innovation that is something we had yet to explore,” Brandon says. “Our goal is to make it so people can order pizza any time, any place. We have our apps…but now that you can order pretty easily through Ford Sync, it’s a technology innovation we’re excited about and we think our customers will be, too.”
Brandon says he hopes the functionality will appeal to pizza eaters and mobile app users.
“To use this particular technology, you kind of have to be a little more savvy with apps and digital ordering,” he adds.
According to Brandon, just over 40 percent of Domino’s U.S. sales now come through digital ordering, and within digital ordering, mobile is the “fastest growing by far.”
“More and more customers are using mobile and apps, so we think there will be a decent segment of our customer base that will see this as a cool thing they want to try,” he says.
Domino’s says it has 10,500 stores in over 70 international markets and global retail sales of over $7.4 billion in 2012.
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