Starbucks invests in more frictionless customer experiences: More fast-food brands are building up their drive-thru and on-the-go ordering capabilities, meeting changing consumer behavior in the process.

Quick-service restaurants (QSRs) continue to make up the overwhelming majority of digital orders. Eighty-four percent of all digital orders (both third-party and direct) were placed at QSRs between March 2020 and March 2021, while the remaining 16% were from full-service restaurants, according to data collected by The NPD Group. A Look Ahead.

At quick-service restaurants (QSRs), a 24% share of dollars spent went to delivery. Those figures were substantially up from April 2019, when delivery accounted for 9% and 7% of sales, respectively. Pre-pandemic, delivery’s growth outpaced all other food service channels, fueled largely by the delivery apps.

Some quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and retailers, for instance, now offer discounts to sandwiches or products that are redeemable on their websites, which is a notable shift in the past year, according to Jonathan Harrop, senior director of global marketing and communications at app marketing and monetization platform AdColony. “There's no App Store middleman,” he said.

At quick-service restaurants (QSRs), a 24% share of dollars spent went to delivery. Those figures were substantially up from April 2019, when delivery accounted for 9% and 7% of sales, respectively.

“Generally, we plan and create for mobile,” said Youri Hollier, director of digital and social media at quick-service restaurant Tim Hortons. “It’s also about planning for placement in mobile-first experiences like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram.

“We’ve also seen increased spending from Grubhub and Uber Eats to bolster quick-service restaurants [QSRs] and casual dining transactions. Traditional movie spending weakened, but there was an uptake in streaming services.” This TV spend was accompanied by messaging that emphasized the availability and ease of different ways of getting products or services to consumers.

There are early glimpses of what rethinking the store experience might mean in the US: The click-and-collect trend is already impacting the development of quick service restaurants, including Chipotle’s Digital Kitchen concept, which offers pickup and delivery only. Why It’s Important. The growth of click and collect may benefit a number of product categories, but it may prove a challenge for others.

Although retailers, auto manufacturers and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) have started to advertise within games, they still represent a minority of in-game advertising, and that demand dried up in March.

Other service sector categories to be affected by dropped spending include fitness and wellness (67%), pet care (51%) and quick-service restaurants (55%). Quick-service drive-thrus were being used more frequently by 19% of the McKinsey respondents.

Cashierless checkout has also entered quick-service establishments, though without the flashy technology of Amazon Go stores. Starbucks’ pioneering of mobile order-ahead technology and reconfigured store operations allowed millions of customers to walk in, grab their morning coffee and breakfast sandwich, and walk out without ever interacting at the register.

As access expands, it’s likely consumer interest will follow, especially since the pandemic could heighten the appeal of in-car purchasing in sectors like quick-service dining, parking, and tolls by limiting potential virus exposure points.

“Even quick-service restaurants [QSRs] that are appealing to teens steer clear of the conversation of targeting teens. The conversation is almost exclusively driven by the slightly older age group, even for some of the youngest-skewing QSR brands.”. In Canada, the focus on legislation protecting children is preventing unhealthy food and beverage advertising.