Quickly growing fast casual salad restaurant franchise Sweetgreen will launch a new smartphone app on Wednesday. The news follow less than a month after the Georgetown-based company announced that it would be relocating its headquarters to Los Angeles, Calif.
"Online ordering revenue is up 80 percent year-over-year, and 21 percent of in-store payments at sweetgreen are processed through the app ," the company said in a statement.
With the new Sweetgreen app, which will arrive as an update on the previous version, a new feature called Sweetgreen Rewards has been added. Sweetgreen rewards will look to bank on loyal customers and a growing, west coast-centric clientele. Reward program users earn a $9 credit for every $99 they spend and will be eligible for rewards like sweetlife festival tickets and exclusive dinners.
This fresh app will combine online ordering, payments and rewards all in one, while simultaneously cutting down the line and increasing order capacity. Lines will be cut because of new, dedicated storefront areas just for online order pickup. And the order capacity will also increase because sweetgreen is "integrating payment, online ordering and the POS system." This translate into a revamping of "back-of-house" capabilities and a replacement of current POS (point of sale) systems to accommodate greater demand.
Predominant fast casual food franchises with similar smartphone app offerings include Chipotle, &Pizza and Taylor Gourmet. Sweetgreen, however, claims they are the first to produce an app of "this kind in the healthy fast-casual space.""Online ordering revenue is up 80 percent year-over-year"[/pullquote]"We believe that great technology enhances real life experiences, it does not replace true human connections," said Jonathan Neman, Sweetgreen co-founder, in a statement. "We wanted to create a digital platform that mirrors the in-store experience, builds a foundation for future innovation and allows us to serve more people better food."
The new version of the Sweetgreen app will also upgrade several previous tools related to payment options and ordering.
To date, Sweetgreen has raised $95 million from private investor, including investments made by D.C.-area VC firms Revolution Growth and Swan & Legend Venture Partners.
The company boasts 20 locations in the D.C.-area, today.
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