April 29 2008

Do you want fries with that Pizza?

Pizza Hut extend the “last person who bought this” ecommerce functionality to the food sector with a “virtual waiter” who offers food choices based on other users.

Pizza Hut US has launched a new online ordering technology dubbed the "virtual waiter." Which while it’s not rocket-science, it is definitely quirky. The new web-enhancement is the latest addition to the company-wide Internet ordering availability launched in March 2007.

The "virtual waiter" technology gathers data from millions of online orders and suggests menu items that best match customers' orders. Whether it's pairing an order of WingStreet chicken wings with a pepperoni-topped Pizza Mia pizza – EUGH!!! - , or adding breadsticks to accompany a Stuffed Crust Veggie Lover's Pizza – aka would you like more bread with that bread -  pizzahut.com will now instantly analyse customer food selections with similar orders to suggest the most popular mealtime combinations.

Bernard Acoca, director of digital marketing for Pizza Hut said "We have a very savvy customer base when it comes to the Internet, so we want to make sure we're constantly innovating online," adding. "At the same time, we want to make sure we're not just creating a bunch of virtual bells and whistles for the sake of innovation; all the upgrades we make to pizzahut.com enhance the customer's ordering experience in a meaningful way."

Recent statistics show that online ordering is definitely heating up. Pizza Hut has become the most searched food/restaurant site on the Web, according to Hitwise, and the company has seen an average of four million visitors a month at pizzahut.com and over 50 million site visits in the past year.

Earlier this year, Pizza Hut introduced Total Mobile Access in the US allowing users to order pizza via both text message and mobile Web.

In addition return visitors to pizzahut.com also can load up their "Pizza Playlist" to make frequent orders a simple one-click process. The Pizza Playlist is a customized rundown of a customer's favourite orders, stored to an online profile for quick and easy use online or with Total Mobile Access.

Mmmm I feel peckish, anyone fancy a virtual pizza?

by Marcus Austin (Web Editor)