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Domino's Latest Tech Leap: Tracking Pizza Via Apple Watch

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Domino's Pizza today launched the industry's first order-tracking app for Apple Watch, marking yet another milestone in its busy transformation into a tech-first company.

The last major move Domino's made with its menu was introducing its new-style pan pizza nearly three years ago. But the company has taken one big step after another in the digital arena during that time, from introducing an app to work with Ford's Sync infotainment system, to birthing "Dom" the Siri-like voice of pizza ordering, to enabling emoji-based ordering-by-tweet last spring.

Now, Domino's customers can track their order from the time it is taken to when it is placed in the oven and ready for carryout or delivery, all with the Apple Watch. Apple Watch users will be able to swipe up from the watch face to access quickly the Domino's Glance, which will feature a brief status update of the customer's current order.

"This is part of our whole tech play," Dennis Maloney, Domino's chief digital officer, told me. "Apple Watch is a major player in the smart watch space, and notification is one of its most important capabilities. Plus a lot of Domino's customers order their pizzas with the iOS" from other Apple devices.

And in a way, said Maloney, Domino's leap to the forefront of pizza ordering with Apple Watch is a bigger accomplishment than even its other trailblazing digital forays, such as its recent launch of the tweet-to-order system.

"The smart watch category is just getting started," Maloney said. "This is us getting ahead of the curve on that. It's introducing a huge convenience in an important area that is just getting started."

But is it really a game-changer? "For capabilities like this," Maloney explained, "the benefits really span a spectrum for the brand. Are there a huge number of consumers who wouldn't have ordered Domino's" without an Apple Watch tracker app? "No. But it shows again that they can track their orders from anywhere.

"And it's great from a PR standpoint for the brand. It tells the younger generation that we're not the Domino's of 50 years ago but that we're fast and innovative and are experimenting and doing what it takes to give them the best pizza experience. It's important for the brand halo."