Just in time for Super Bowl Sunday, today Domino’s Pizza opened its Facebook Messenger bot to allow people to make entire orders. Dom the pizza bot first made its debut last summer ahead of Pizza Hut.
Before today, you had to create a profile with Domino’s and configure preorder settings on Dominos.com. Now the full menu, including pizzas, wings, and other food, can be ordered without ever leaving Messenger.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":2165565,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"bots,business,commerce,","session":"A"}']The bot makes no use of a payments beta created for the Messenger platform last fall. Rather, all deliveries made today must be paid for in cash.
Domino’s has long been a fan of chat commerce. Well before the start of the bot craze or investment from major tech firms, in 2015 Domino’s asked customers to tweet pizza emojis to make orders. The company also has a Google Home conversation action.
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Super Bowl Sunday is one of the five busiest delivery days of the year for Domino’s in the United States. This year the company expects to sell 12 million pizzas, five times greater than a typical Sunday.
Ahead of the Super Bowl, it’s been a somewhat active week for food orders with conversational commerce. On Monday Starbucks launched an Alexa skill for customers to make preset orders. TGI Fridays launched a Twitter bot on Tuesday that takes orders and promises appetizers for a penny if you send the bot a football emoji.
Several chain stores have taken steps to make it possible for customers to order food with a bot or intelligent assistant.
Wingstop and Pizza Hut both have an Alexa skill and Facebook Messenger bot, while startups like Olo and Allset are using Messenger bots to compete in the fight for lunch.
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