It's currently covering just the Queens area of New York, but Burger King has started to trial a mobile commerce app for the iPhone, as a way of maximising orders.
Customers can use the app to order and pay for their meals and skip queues at their local Burger King. I've been pretending to be in Queens so I can try the app out....
The app detects your address via GPS, or you can enter a street address manually to find your nearest Burger King. It hasn't made full use of the iPhone here, missing the opportunity to direct users to the nearest outlet via Google Maps.
After this, you simply select product category from the menu, and start to add items to your order:
The app allows you to super-size your meal, or add special instructions, if you don't want onions for instance. It also seems that you can buy a triple whopper in the US:
New customers have to register before they can pay for their order, which is not only unnecessary, but can be fiddly on a mobile. This is one barrier to purchase that could potentially be removed, or at least made optional, though repeat users can save their card details to make future purchases easier.
The checkout process is pretty smooth though, and seems to have been trimmed down as much as is possible:
It's a very good idea, and according to a recent survey fast food is one of the things that mobile users want to buy on their phones.
It's also reasonably usable app, though the registration process is a bit of a pain, and the whole thing could be more visually appealing, the simplicity of the ordering and payment process is impressive.
According to Gomobo CEO Noah Glass (quoted in Mobile Marketer), which had a hand in the app's development, it has increased average order values by 25% over those placed in-store, which should have other restaurant chains thinking about launching similar mobile services.
Reader comments (5)
9:54AM on 16th June 2009
There is definitely room for mobile phones to be the only money you need in your pocket. Be it for more practical purposes as rail or bus travel tickets etc or for Fast Food - the use of mobile technology to open up new doors in ecommerce is something that can only get better.
11:12AM on 16th June 2009
This is an awesome initiative from Burger King.
12:30PM on 16th June 2009
Hmmm, and the other option is, walk in, ask for a big whopper meal and hand over $5. Case for mobile but it ain't burgers!
8:19PM on 17th June 2009
No doubt mobile commerce will grow exponentially over the next few years as more consumers use mobile devices with sophisticated Internet browser capabilities and download iPhone and other apps for similar purposes. That said, I agree with Liam that burgers are not the next mobile frontier.
9:18PM on 4th February 2013
Mobile encription is far better than the old bank cards, so for me it makes sence to use your phone.
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