Toast, an all-in-one technology platform built for restaurants, has combined its digital storefront and marketing tools, allowing restaurants to gather guest data from online and point-of-sale transactions, said Steve Fredette, president and co-founder of Toast.
« Through innovations including our Toast Go 2 handheld devices and Toast Mobile Order & Pay, Toast technology has streamlined and transformed the on-site guest experience for restaurants of all sizes and types, » he said in a company press release. « Our Digital Storefront and Marketing Suites extend that enhanced guest experience online using tools like Toast’s new AI-powered writing assistant, search engine-optimized websites and online menus, promotional offers, loyalty programs, and automated marketing campaigns that work together to draw guests in and keep them coming back. »
Suite enhancements include the ability to:
- Leverage artificial intelligence to create engaging email marketing campaigns aligned with a restaurant’s brand and marketing goals. According to a recent Toast survey, 72% of guests surveyed were interested in hearing from their favorite restaurants via email.
- Create one-click, automated marketing campaigns powered by guest data.
- Use a recommendation engine that serves timely insights to operators, such as reminders about upcoming holidays and suggestions to use pre-designed campaigns to save time.
- Create targeted promotional offers tailored to users’ business needs, like promoting seasonal specials or discounting excess inventory. O
Toast’s website builder joins a lineup of digital ordering tools designed to help a restaurant stand out online. With drag-and-drop functionality and Toast products embedded on-site, restaurants may enhance their online presence and drive traffic via SEO. Digital Storefront features include:
- Search Engine Optimization for digital view-only menus, online ordering and websites, designed to make it easy for restaurants — and the best menu items — to get discovered faster.
- Automatic POS integration that enables updates to digital and online ordering menus when menu item availability or descriptions are updated on the POS.
- Customization allows any restaurant to take its in-person dining experience to the web with a customizable online presence with fonts, colors, and imagery.
- Templates and drag-and-drop tools to simplify creating and updating a website.
- Integrated and embedded Toast products including Online Ordering, Toast Tables, Loyalty and more in websites built with Toast websites.
« It would take many steps to create, change, and update my website and online ordering, » said John Mason IV, owner of IV Hospitality, which operates FRESKO Greek Kitchen in North Carolina. « With Toast, it’s easy to set it and forget it — I make an update in one place and see changes across my whole tech stack. »
