Just how important is mobile to businesses these days? Does your company need an iPhone app or a mobile website? According to Pizza Hut, mobile accounts for half of all its orders, with users ordering pizza by way of SMS, mobile website and even an iPhone app.
Alongside Pizza Hut’s claims, a recent study from comScore and Yellow Pages shows that local business search on the mobile Web can open a business to “younger, wealthier, on-the-go consumers”.
In an article for Mobile Commerce Daily,. Pizza Hut CMO Brian Niccol is quoted as saying that “mobile accounts for almost 50 percent of our orders” and that mobile orders have actually surpassed orders via the Web from home.
Update: The original article we quoted on Mobile Commerce Daily changed its direct quote of Pizza Hut CMO, which we had copied directly when we first wrote this article. Now, the article says that half of its orders will come from mobile in the future. The headline on the original article also said that Pizza Hut claimed 50% came from mobile.
We got in touch with Pizza Hut and a spokesperson told us the company doesn’t discuss the exact number publicly for “competitive reasons” and that “the Mobile Commerce story misquoted Brian in the first round of their story.
See a reblog of the original post we quoted from earlier today below:
Pizza Hut has been offering mobile orders by way of SMS, its mobile website and an iPhone app since 2009, and is planning on releasing apps for both the iPad and the Android platform soon.
A study released by Yellow Pages and comScore confirms – as we’ve been saying more and more lately – that “individuals in search of local businesses are now, more than ever, turning to the mobile Web”. The data shows that 58% of those searching for local businesses on the go are 34-years-old or younger, with more than earning more than $75,000 per year. In the past year alone, the number of people accessing businesses on the mobile Web increased by more than 16%.
Now, maybe the local pizza shop doesn’t need to go investing in an iPhone app, but it certainly may spend a little time on a mobile website as, when given the choice, many users will go with the service they can more easily order from while on the move.