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Company: Popmenu
Company Description: Popmenu specializes in transformative online and on-premise technologies that help restaurants increase brand visibility, guest engagement, revenue and profitability. The company is a leading innovator in digital marketing and ordering technology that works with over 6,000 independent restaurants and hospitality groups. For more information about Popmenu, visit get.popmenu.com.
Nomination Category: Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Achievement in Product Innovation
 Nomination Title: Popmenu Max Helps Restaurants Grow Guest Volume and Sales
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated organization's customer satisfaction achievements since the beginning of 2020, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video:
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Briefly describe the nominated organization's history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 179 words used.
Founded five years ago, Popmenu quickly made a name for itself in hospitality by helping more than 6,000 restaurants grow their brand visibility, customer base and sales. Its suite of online and on-premise tech solutions tackle restaurants’ biggest challenges and deliver a next-gen hospitality experience.
Popmenu started by transforming static online menus to dynamic, interactive menus that feature all the decision-making criteria that consumers have come to expect when making any purchase: photos, reviews, ratings, social validation, etc. Each dish is a unique and indexed page for search engines like Google, so any updates automatically signal to them that there is new information to read. This increases traffic to the restaurant’s website and the interactive experience translates into higher customer conversions. This SEO-based approach helped Winking Lizard Tavern to nearly double its home page traffic to over 200,000, add 400+ reviews and capture contact information for 1,800+ guests within three months.
Popmenu quickly added new technologies and created the first-of-its-kind, all-in-one digital platform for restaurants. The company secured $65 million in Series C funding in 2021.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Outline the organization's achievements since the beginning of 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 242 words used.
Restaurants have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and have struggled to reach economies of scale with existing technologies. On top of this, they are facing changing consumer behaviors and a widening labor shortage. According to a nationwide Popmenu survey, 71% of restaurant owners/operators say they lose $5,000+ per month due to the labor shortage; 37% lose $10,000+ per month.
When COVID arrived, the demand for online ordering exploded overnight. Many restaurants didn’t have that capability on their own website and had to rely on third-party apps, often with high commissions. Within three weeks, Popmenu developed an easy, cost-effective online ordering solution to keep diners engaged and spending on the restaurant’s own website. As of today, Popmenu has enabled 1,100+ clients with online ordering and helped them earn around $74 million in commission-free online ordering revenue.
Understanding that the average restaurant uses several different tech tools to run their business — which is expensive and very inefficient — Popmenu created a comprehensive platform built specifically for restaurants known as Popmenu Max. Popmenu Max consolidates guest-facing technology into an all-in-one platform to grow customer volume and boost sales and improve the guest experience.
Popmenu Max houses all the core features of Popmenu – including a mobile-friendly website, interactive menus, automated remarketing, and online ordering – and adds digital waitlisting, third-party order aggregation and AI-powered phone answering, empowering restaurateurs to streamline their operations while saving money on individual point solutions.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
“Whether used by a fledgling mom-and-pop restaurant or a multi-location chain, Popmenu has proved its digital techniques are resuscitating an industry that has been plagued with shutdowns, closures and operations challenges since early 2020.” This quote from QSR Magazine speaks to the transformative impact Popmenu’s ongoing innovation has had on an industry operating in a relentlessly challenging environment.
Popmenu Max offers a holistic solution with useful, usable tech that is designed to solve the biggest problems understaffed restaurants face. In addition to online ordering, Popmenu launched the following solutions/benefits since 2020:
- Popmenu’s AI-powered phone answering can field all the most common questions restaurants receive and can send the caller a link if they want to place an order or make a reservation. The technology helped a restaurant/brewery in California to field more than 2,700 calls in 30 days.
- Guests can use a QR code or restaurant website to add themselves to a waitlist and, after the meal, are invited to submit a review and follow the restaurant for remarketing. This accomplishes what typically took three to five team members at a single location to manage.
- Instead of juggling several tablets -- which often leads to order errors and delays -- restaurants can manage all online orders from their website and third-party delivery sites on one device and consolidate reporting for the back office.
By providing consolidating under one platform, restaurants can benefit from the tools communicating with each other, something that point solutions are not able to offer.
- Optional: Reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and explain how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
Popmenu’s mission is to help restaurants prosper, and the results clients have experienced through solutions found within Max speak for themselves:
- B&B Butchers & Restaurant runs online ordering events around holidays. They sold $43,000 in online orders for prime rib, Yorkshire pudding and pecan pie in just two days.
- The Hampton Social saw a 63% increase in average monthly website sessions within three months (reaching over 285,000) and more than doubled the value of its organic traffic keywords to over $520,000 in 2021.
- In less than two months, Terra Terroir generated over 60,000 in online ordering and 30,000 online views of their restaurant and they quickly built a base of over 2,700 followers.
- Within six months, Ocean Deli Pizza’s average weekly income from online orders increased 150 percent to over $10,000.
What Popmenu’s clients are saying:
- "Year-over-year, we were always a $1.6-$1.7 million-dollar business. Now, after just six months with Popmenu, we are trending to an over $2 million-dollar business in sales. Popmenu has helped our operations tremendously with more online orders coming in, keeping us more efficient…Not only has it helped more sales come in, but Popmenu has also helped us cut costs in a big way." – Andy Tifikidis, Ocean Deli Pizza
- "Popmenu creating such a simple and easy platform for us to use has been a lifesaver. Zero commission. Zero fees. I cannot thank them enough." -- Marchet Sparks, Owner of Le Petite Marche
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