Hooters, America’s original wing joint, is answering the eternal question for families staying home tonight – “what’s for dinner?” – with multiple food favorites to meet everybody’s specialized tastes.
The company announced a partnership with Olo (NYSE: OLO), a leading open SaaS platform for restaurants, which will enable online customers to order from a new “virtual food court.” This one-stop shopping experience will allow the variety of meal options everyone in a household may seek but have previously been unable to obtain in one basket, one transaction at checkout through a single delivery service. The new on-demand technology solution also allows cost and efficiency controls that the restaurant concepts can pass along to customers.
Mimicking a food court or a food hall but online, the virtual destination can be reached at https://hoabrands.olo.com/, now live for customers in 196 markets nationwide.
At launch, the first three virtual concepts being offered via the online store include Chase Elliott’s Chicken Tenders, which debuted to fanfare last year with its popular racecar driver curator and signature dippable delicacies, plus Hootie’s Burger Bar with a full line of cheeseburgers and hamburgers with all the toppings and Hootie’s Bait & Tackle, a seafood eatery featuring items such as buffalo or steamed shrimp, snow crab legs, fish and chips and more.
In the coming months, the portal will expand with the launch of a mobile app and additional concepts with an array of new meal options.
Hooters is continually providing enhancements to optimize the customer experience and hospitality for which it has been a trendsetter, and this extends to delivery. Offering a one-stop virtual restaurant menu is a major step in the company’s continuing digital transformation, enabling Hooters to provide “improved hospitality for the digital age” with simple one-stop, mix-and-match ordering from multiple flagship eateries.
“Partnering with Olo means we can offer our customers a quicker, easier and cost-saving virtual experience – plus it’s something for everyone in a family or friend group,” said Marc Butler, senior vice president of strategic planning / off premise, Hooters of America. “Building a digital marketplace is essential in today's restaurant world. This new platform allows us to give our virtual concepts life beyond the delivery apps. Customers can directly place online orders for carryout, or if they want the convenience of delivery, we can provide that without the hassle and added cost of going through the delivery apps.”
Through this virtual platform, Hooters is giving customers the ability to combine orders. For example, if one friend or family member wants to order a burger from Hootie’s Burger Bar and another wants chicken tenders from Chase Elliott’s Chicken Tenders, those orders can be combined and delivered to a household via one delivery, by one delivery person.
"We admire how Hooters is prioritizing next-level digital experiences for their guests with the early adoption of this multi-concept ordering functionality," said Diego Panama, Chief Revenue Officer at Olo. "Leading enterprise restaurant brands like Hooters are investing in digital transformation on their owned channels, creating a win-win with more convenience and better features for guests while staying in control of their guests' experience and data."