Delivering A $9 Billion Empire

Turns Out People Buy More Domino’s Pizza When Served With an Extra Topping of Tech.

- Susan Berfield

You may not be surprised to learn that pizza production at Domino’s hasn’t changed much in the 57 years since the company was founded. It’s still essentially hands on the dough and in the cheese. There’s been only one important advance: the spoodle, a ladle with a flat bottom that allows workers to spread the sauce evenly and quickly. A franchisee came up with the idea in 1985, and it’s become a restaurant industry essential.

But whereas pizzamaking remains high-touch and traditional, pizza marketing is anything but. There, Domino’s Pizza Inc. has decided that modern works better than authentic, and fun is best of all. For the past five years, the company has been emphasizing all the ways you can order pizza with minimal human and maximal digital contact. It’s introduced more ordering methods—Facebook, Twitter, Twitter with emojis, Apple Watch, voice-activated, “zero click,” wedding registry—than new items on its menu. Customers can track their pizzas online, starting as they’re being made, and in San Diego (for now; likely nationwide soon) they can track their drivers. If an Australian wants to pick up her order, a GPS system can monitor her approach so the pizza is hot on arrival.

Domino’s has spent millions to trick out a fleet featuring “the ultimate pizza delivery vehicle”—the DXP, a Chevrolet Spark subcompact with special side doors and warming ovens. An independent franchisee in New Zealand is testing delivery by drone and robot. In 2015, for the first time, more than half of Domino’s orders were placed online, and half of those came via mobile.