Shake Shack: Curbside Pickup, Digital Ordering

The “Shack Track” rolled out in May made curbside pickup a full-time permanent feature, letting users utilize drive- and walk-up windows for picking up orders.

The restaurant’s sales took a hit from the pandemic, CNBC writes, with more people deciding to stay home. But the chain adapted by adding more suburban locations and boosting its plans for digital offerings, which will work on responding to the ways customers order and eat their burgers, CNBC writes.

“Now with all of these formats that we’ve been able to accelerate during this time, we think we have an even stronger opportunity to go into suburbs around the country,” CEO Randy Garutti said, according to CNBC.

CNBC reports that Shake Shack will add new things to its mobile app, including a feature where users can order digitally through the restaurant’s app itself rather than having to use a third-party one like DoorDash or Grubhub.

The new restaurant designs will debut in the U.S. and will then eventually make their ways overseas, with further modifications based on local behavior in those places. Shake Shack is planning to open 18 to 20 domestic restaurants this year, which comes out to half its pre-pandemic plans, and next year they plan to open 35 to 40 locations in the U.S., many including new designs or its drive-thru ideas.

With restaurants’ profits being among the hardest hit by the pandemic among any industries, companies have had to utilize new mobile-centric or contactless delivery options and outside, socially-distanced dine-in-person options, PYMNTS reports — all of it centered on customer safety.

Drive-thrus in particular have become key revenue streams for restaurants, with a 26 percent increase in visits to them in the second quarter this year.