On this week’s Cocktail Investing podcast, we talked about the accelerating deployment of mobile ordering that began with Starbucks and Panera Bread and is rippling through the restaurant industry. This phenomenon is starting to move past restaurants into convenience stores as evidenced by Wawa offering mobile ordering. Here at Tematica, we’re examining the creative destruction our Connected Society investing theme is having on commercial building demand, and our early thoughts are it’s not looking good for malls, banks, grocery stores and perhaps restaurants and convenience stores. Perhaps McDonald’s won’t be one of the biggest real estate owners in the next few decades?

With the delivery space worth billions of dollars and diners increasingly making decisions based on mobile ordering options, mobile and digital ordering as a whole have become a major revenue driver in the restaurant industry — so it comes as no surprise that some of the biggest names in the industry have invested in new mobile ordering technology.

Au Bon Pain, for instance, recently became the latest QSR franchise to debut mobile ordering options, with the launch of ABP Pickup — the company’s new line-busting, mobile order-ahead service. A

nd Burger King has been testing mobile payments in the Miami area, with sights on a larger scale rollout. According to reports, it’s likely there will be a national rollout of mobile ordering and payments in the coming months at BK.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s is racing to add mobile ordering services but is being slowed down by the massive scale of its business. Farhan Siddiqi, VP of digital experiences at McDonald’s, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that the company is currently building an initial ordering platform that will allow for continual updates with new technology and features.

Source: Simplicity For Smartphone Ordering Success | PYMNTS.com