Executive Summary

With the pandemic tanking US restaurant revenues, eateries have have had to digitize their businesses for in-person and off-premises dining. Payments players are well-positioned to lead the charge, but to do so, they’ll need to focus on safety, cost-cutting, and efficiency.

Three Key Questions

• How has the pandemic changed digital ordering?
• What do providers stand to gain in enabling digital ordering?
• Why are payments providers best positioned to move in on the space?

WHAT'S IN THIS REPORT? In this report, Insider Intelligence will unpack the opportunity for payments providers—such as point-of-sale (POS) hardware and software firms—working to help restaurants adapt to the changing environment. It's important to note that in the context of this report, "digital" and "mobile" are used interchangeably, since the vast majority of digital orders come in through smartphone apps and browsers. Knowing that, we'll size the opportunity in mobile restaurant ordering, discuss key areas for innovation, and examine why restaurants struggle to digitize. We'll then identify the ways restaurants can digitize—through in-house development, first-party payments providers, or third-party competitors like Grubhub—and determine which players are best suited to help in this endeavor. Finally, we'll highlight key priorities these players can focus on to win restaurant clients and capture volume, and evaluate providers operating most effectively in the space.