Restaurant chains continue to make significant investments in digital ordering enhancements to keep pace with diner demand for online or kiosk ordering. Digital channels now represent over one-third of sales mixes at companies like Restaurant Brands International, Chipotle, Yum Brands and Wendy’s after leadership poured millions into customer-facing, digital capabilities. 

A growing contingent of customers are comfortable ordering via digital off-premise channels or through QR codes and self-order kiosks in restaurants, according to William Blair’s The Dining Download report, which was released in January. This trend poses a lucrative opportunity for brands that can deliver a frictionless digital experience.

“We believe that increasing digital engagement between consumers and restaurants will require more restaurants/concepts to invest more in their technology stacks to optimize around the digital opportunity,” the William Blair report said. 

Check out how RBI, Chipotle, Yum and Wendy’s are seeing digital sales growth from enhancements to the digital guest experience. 

Restaurant Brands International

2023 digital sales: Over $14 billion

2022 digital sales: $13 billion

Digital sales represented over one-third of RBI’s consolidated systemwide sales last year, and continue to make up a significant percentage of sales across its geographical segments. 

International digital sales rose 20% year over year and made up 50% of international systemwide sales, CEO Joshua Kobza said during the company’s February earnings call. Kiosks have been key to growing this proportion of sales.

The digital channel grew 40% last year at Burger King U.S. and comprised 15% of the sales mix, Kobza said. The chain’s kiosk pilot led to positive results within Burger King’s company restaurants, with digital sales accounting for 27% of total sales at those units. Burger King will now expand the test to over 100 franchised restaurants. Burger King continues to promote its loyalty program, as well, most recently rolling out its Million Dollar Whopper contest in which loyalty members can design their own Whoppers online. 

Popeyes U.S. reported a record digital sales mix of 25% last year, compared to less than 20% in 2022, Kobza said. The chain’s expansion of its wings offering with multiple flavors helped drive traffic across its digital channels, including delivery and mobile order and pay, he said.

Firehouse Subs’ digital sales mix reached a record 40% of systemwide sales, and roughly one-fifth of all transactions are completed through its first-party, mobile-order-and-pay platform, Kobza said.

Yum Brands

2023 digital sales: Nearly $30 billion

2022 digital sales: $24 billion

Yum’s digital sales grew 22% year over year and made up about 45% of total sales, CEO David Gibbs said during a February earnings call. Last year, Yum accelerated its deployment of several proprietary technologies, including back-of-house technology, customer-facing kiosks and AI-driven management platforms across its brands. 

CFO Chris Turner said digital sales played a big part of Yum’s 10% global system sales growth in 2023, with a particularly strong impact on same-store sales.

“Even though we’re at $30 billion of [digital] sales and growing fast, we're still in the early innings of what this can do to the business and the way it can transform us,” Gibbs said. “So we could not be more excited about digital. And we will continue to report on the various metrics, loyalty, and things like that as we go forward and keep you guys informed on the journey.”

Taco Bell achieved a record digital sales mix of 31%, which was up seven points compared to 2022. The biggest driver of this growth was kiosks, with in-store kiosk sales increasing 15 points in Q4, Gibbs said. The optimization of its digital channels also led to growth of Taco Bell’s loyalty program, with active users up 17% in the last year. Taco Bell plans to enhance its loyalty program in the second half of 2024 to “capitalize on digital engagement and provide an easier experience for customers to earn and redeem points,” Gibbs said.

Wendy’s

2023 digital sales: Nearly $2 billion

2022 digital sales: About $1.3 billion

Wendy’s digital sales jumped 30% in 2023, well ahead of its original expectations. Its global digital sales mix was 14.5%, exceeding its stated goal of achieving a digital sales mix of 10% by 2024, CEO Kirk Tanner said during the company’s year-end earnings call. Digital growth was supported by additional personalization for loyalty members and better in-restaurant experiences. Digital sales grew from less than $250 million in 2019 to nearly $2 billion last year. The company plans to exceed $2 billion in digital sales in 2024, one year earlier than planned. 

“We are clearly seeing the benefits of the higher frequency and checks that digital drives,” Tanner said. “There’s a massive opportunity to further unlock digital sales growth and benefit even more from the margin expansion these channels can generate.”

To continue this momentum, the chain will invest about $15 million, mainly in 2024, to enhance its app and tweak its loyalty capabilities, he said. The mobile changes will create a more seamless experience for diners, Tanner said. Additionally, it added a customer data platform last quarter and is adapting its loyalty program alongside third-party partners. 

“These initiatives will unlock our ability to act on customer data through segmentation and machine learning, driving a meaningful increase in personalization for our loyalty members,” Tanner said.

Chipotle

2023 digital sales: $3.7 billion 

2022 digital sales: $3.4 billion 

Although Chipotle’s digital sales mix fell  to 37.4% last year compared to 39.4% in 2022, Chipotle’s total digital sales grew over 8% in 2023. Chipotle continues to focus on enhancing its digital experiences, such as improving the cadence of orders on its digital make line to improve throughput, CEO Brian Niccol said during the company’s February earnings call. It has also added more stores, with mobile pickup lanes. The number of Chipotlanes will likely exceed 1,000 this year, after reaching 811 in 2023. 

In 2023, the company enhanced its app with features including order-ready messages, wrong location detection, reminders to scan loyalty codes for points during check out and order history. 

The chain’s Freepotle campaign for rewards members helped drive engagement and draw new members by offering free rewards like guacamole, a beverage, extra meat or other items. This campaign taught management more about its rewards members and how to improve experiences in the future.The chain recently added suggestive upselling to its app at checkout, based on rewards member data. 

“Going forward, I believe we are on a multiyear path to commercializing our customer data and insights into more targeted marketing campaigns and improving the overall digital experience that will drive increased frequency and spend,” Niccol said.