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Sponsored content from our partner Apex Order Pickup Solutions on Nov. 09, 2023
Apex Order Pickup Solutions
Curbside pickup has become a favorite choice of busy off-premise customers. They like the convenience of being able to order in advance, then simply drive up, get their order and go. It’s fast, and it has the added bonus of no delivery fees. Operators like curbside pickup, too, because it’s often profitable. It can boost sales without affecting dine-in capacity, and ticket sizes are often larger than dine-in averages. Also, curbside pickup customers don’t add to crowding issues inside while they wait to pick up. Still, curbside pickup has drawbacks that make it less convenient for customers and less profitable for operators:
Customers often have to wait for their order after they arrive, and they’re not happy about it. In fact, 50% of customers say they’re frustrated when their order isn’t ready when they arrive. Curbside service pulls employees away from serving dine-in guests—the very customers who want the pleasure of a sit-down meal with an attentive server. Delivering orders to customers’ cars is an inherently inefficient process, since employees often need to make several trips back and forth, in all kinds of weather, to find the right order and get it to the right customer
These problems are just a few of the reasons leading restaurant brands have started using smart food lockers such as those from Apex Order Pickup Solutions . They make pickup a reliable, guest-centric experience for the growing portion of customers who prefer digital engagement. They also let restaurants offer an end-to-end digital experience, with a complete data picture of every step in the digital order journey. Attract more customers with a no-wait pickup experience
Customers appreciate reliable wait times. With smart food lockers, they know that once they receive the order-ready notification, their order is in the locker. They won’t have to spend time waiting in their car for an employee to bring their order. They can just slide into a parking spot, step up to the locker and scan their QR code, take their order and go. They can be on their way in less than a minute. This efficient, predictable experience is a magnet for busy customers, and can be a powerful incentive to help restaurants grow this off-premises channel. Make order handoff more efficient for employees
Ironically, operators usually rely on their front-of-house servers or hosts to handle the additional demands of curbside service—spending their time helping customers who have chosen a minimal-contact option. In an era of labor shortages and shrinking margins, operators would do better to keep employees primarily focused on serving dine-in customers who have chosen to come inside for the “full” customer experience. Using smart food lockers helps restaurants optimize employee labor and make it easier to get the right order to the right customer. Employees simply make one quick trip to the locker, place the order inside and they’re done. They can go back to serving customers inside, where their effort has the most impact on improving the dining experience. Perhaps the best part of using lockers is the ability to gain data for the order handoff, completing the digital chain of custody that helps make curbside pickup as smart and efficient as other digitized areas of the operation. Make curbside pickup faster and smarter
Curbside pickup is here to stay, and not just because customers love the convenience. They also love having control of their time, control of when and how they order and control of when they pick up their food. According to a recent survey by the National Restaurant Association , 66% of all adults say they’re more likely to order takeout food now than they were before the pandemic. That’s why It’s well worth it to improve their order pickup experience with faster, more efficient options such as Smart Food Locker Solutions from Apex.

Grow Curbside Sales By Making It Faster And More Efficient

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Sponsored content from our partner Apex Order Pickup Solutions on Oct. 03, 2023
Apex Order Pickup Solutions
In the past year, several major retail brands have been surprisingly frank with investors about the big financial hits they’ve taken due to theft and fraud . Yet the restaurant industry has been mostly silent about its similar problem: off-premise orders that are lost due to customer pickup mistakes, delivery driver errors and the restaurant version of shoplifting. Restaurants that are only using a countertop or a pickup shelf to manage off-premise orders give shoplifters easy pickings with customer orders. Since this final step of the order journey usually has no technology to organize or verify what occurs, operators have no data to inform them about what takes place. Ultimately, when an order goes missing, a team member usually has to remake it, increasing the restaurant’s food and labor costs and quite often damaging its relationship with the customer. Ironically, most restaurants have invested in a slew of software and tech to complete orders to their high standards of quality, as quickly as possible. But when it comes to safeguarding orders and ensuring they go to the right customer at the right time, they simply leave it up to luck. Why order security matters
With restaurant margins so thin, a pattern of lost or stolen orders should be dealt with immediately. Here are some of the most obvious reasons why:
Lost orders increase labor costs, trapping employees in an endless cycle of interruptions and lost productivity. Lost orders increase food costs, since they require a complete remake in most cases. Lost orders damage the customer experience and can lead to losing customers for good. Without a way to secure those orders and data to show what’s happening, the problem will continue. Why keeping off-premise orders behind the counter kills profits
To fight the problem, restaurants have started keeping off-premise orders behind the counter and using employee time to hand them off to customers and delivery drivers. This is not only inconvenient for the customer and disruptive for employees, but it’s also expensive for the operator. For each takeout or delivery customer, an employee must stop what they’re doing, find their order and hand it over, stealing precious minutes from service to dine-in customers or order production. That effect is then multiplied over the course of several hours during multiple peak day parts. So how can restaurants keep off-premise orders secure and organized while making it easy for the right person to pick up? And how do they make sure the right order goes to the right customer without using an employee’s valuable time? Dozens of brands and foodservice operators have found their answer in smart food lockers like those from Apex Order Pickup Solutions . With smart food lockers, an employee can simply load the finished order in the locker and never have to touch it again. They don’t have to worry about anyone taking an order that isn’t theirs, so food remake costs drop quickly. The software gives operators new insights and understanding of the order pickup process, with data to show who picked up the order and when, as well as the time elapsed from the moment it was loaded. That provides important metrics that highlight areas for process improvement or providing additional training for an employee. Customers love pickup lockers, too, because they don’t have to wait for an employee to help them, or search through lots of bags on a pickup shelf. They simply scan their order code and take their food in about 10 seconds. It’s fast, secure and predictable. Making delivery pickup foolproof and fast
When drivers pick up delivery orders, their main thought is often, “I hope this is fast.” They don’t want to wait for an employee to help them or search through dozens of bags for the order they need. They just want a simple, reliable process that gets them in and out quickly. Smart pickup lockers make the entire process secure and verifiable. Drivers are assured they’ve got the entire order every time, and they’re in and out in seconds. Operators get data to confirm that the steps in the process were completed. It’s a seamless, foolproof process for all parties and helps delivery drivers make the best use of their time, while ensuring the customer gets the fastest service possible. Off-premise sales continue to account for a growing percentage of restaurants’ sales and ordering for pickup is making a strong comeback due to “delivery fee fatigue.” That makes it more important for restaurants to get control of those orders. Talk to  Apex Order Pickup Solutions  and discover how easy it is to start offering a better customer experience based on secure, reliable order pickup.

Off-Premise Order “Shoplifting”: Why It Matters, And How To End It

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Apex Order Pickup Solutions introduces its new NextUp Series of indoor/outdoor smart lockers designed to provide efficient, frictionless ecommerce and digital order fulfillment. See the OrderHQ Exterior Smart Food Lockers and NextUp Smart Pickup Lockers at  National Restaurant Association Show Booth 5839. NextUp Smart Pickup Lockers ensure secure order pickup with minimal employee labor while providing customers with quick, convenient, and secure access inside or outside of the store 24 hours a day. This solves many of the inefficiencies encountered by businesses that rely on digital ordering for on-site pickup. This new series uses proprietary ApexIQ software, which offers easy integrations with popular enterprise resource planning systems, POS software, mobile apps and more. ApexIQ software also offers a visual loading guide for employees, directional pickup guides for customers, and an easy-to-use portal that lets authorized users manage locker features and view data from one location or across their enterprise. NextUp lockers help reduce errors for both employee order loading and customer pickup. They virtually eliminate mistaken pickups and stolen orders, ensuring that the right order goes to the right customer, at the right time. They also offer a helpful feature that automatically pops open the door if a customer leaves part of an order in the compartment. The lockers are IP54 rated, so they can be placed outside or in a store vestibule to give customers flexible, 24/7 access to their orders, without the need for an employee to be there. Image
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and the International Food and Beverage Technology Association (IFBTA) today announced a new strategic partnership that will more closely align the two associations to benefit their respective members and advance technology within the hospitality and foodservice industries. The partnership will enhance AHLA’s connectivity to food and beverage technology content and key industry suppliers while expanding IFBTA’s organizational reach by aligning it with America’s largest hotel association. The new agreement includes the following areas of collaboration:
IFBTA and AHLA will become association partners, wherein IFBTA becomes an AHLA Association Member and AHLA becomes an IFBTA Association Member
A representative from AHLA’s technology committee, HTNG, will serve as a member of the IFBTA Board of Directors
An IFBTA representative will serve as a member of AHLA’s Food & Beverage Committee and will also support and promote AHLA’s HTNG initiatives
IFBTA and AHLA will support relationships with key food and beverage thought leaders, innovators, and industry suppliers
IFBTA membership will be provided as an included benefit of AHLA membership, to include access to IFBTA resources, chapters, education, and events
“Lodging and food and beverage are the cornerstones of hospitality, and this partnership brings together two of the most important associations in these areas,” said AHLA Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer Kevin Carey. “The technology education capabilities and global F&B reach IFBTA brings to AHLA will be valuable assets to our association and its members.”
“Although food and beverage technology has long been at the intersection of the hospitality and foodservice industries, they have often been split between those operating hotels and those operating foodservice establishments,” said Rob Grimes, CEO of the IFBTA. “The partnership between the IFBTA and AHLA further solidifies the crossover and allows those from each industry to gather and share information with their professional counterparts. We are excited to support AHLA by providing additional networking, resources and educational opportunities to their membership.”
The agreement announced today is one in a series of recent AHLA partnerships that are enabling the organization to better serve its members and the hotel industry. Other examples include:
AHLA’s  partnership  with the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Americas
AHLA’s  partnership  with Questex to produce the industry-leading technology and operations trade show, The Hospitality Show
AHLA’s 10-year  agreement  with HFTP to produce the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI)
AHLA’s  partnership  with the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (ICHRIE) to grow the hotel and hospitality industry workforce
Launched earlier this year, PreciTaste's Prep Assistant is providing real results to combat today's rising labor and food cost challenges. It takes task management from clipboards to digital automation, accurately guiding each crew member on precisely how much to prep per daypart based on AI-generated demand predictions. Customers report that the solution saves managers and crew members over an hour per day from the first day of installation and reduces food waste by up to 20% - leading to up to a 5% food cost saving overall, both of which increase profitability. "DIG's main priorities are creating the freshest dishes and best experiences for our guests and our kitchen teams. With the Prep Assistant, our managers can focus more on cooking delicious food and training our chefs, and less on how much to prep as tasks are organized more efficiently and accurately," says Tracy Kim, CEO of DIG, a restaurant group that serves scratch-cooked American fare. Chef Bill Kim, Urbanbelly Founder and Chef-Partner at Cornerstone Restaurant Group, is seeing similar results. He says, "We are thrilled to partner with PreciTaste to integrate the Prep Assistant into the daily operations at Urbanbelly. Prep Assistant AI technology provides the tools to empower our staff and operators to optimize resources and run our business most effectively. Utilizing AI is a massive benefit to the restaurant industry to create efficient workflows and allow increased managerial bandwidth to focus on growth and development." As PreciTaste continues expanding their offerings to more midsize restaurants, its team of 80+ engineers just released a first-of-its-kind proprietary ChatGPT-like customer extension - the Chat Assistant. This software-based restaurant management solution provides a wealth of operations data from all connected stores in real time. With generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM), all operations data becomes accessible to provide instant intelligent insights and calculations around operational KPIs. With nearly 2,500 food AI systems deployed in the past two years, PreciTaste is a market-proven platform that now offers AI accessibility for restaurants of many sizes and offerings. Now that they've seen the impact on their bottom line, Urbanbelly and DIG plan to expand their AI capabilities to continue to increase labor efficiency and their level of customer service in the coming months. Image
Nala Robotics, an AI technology company revolutionizing the culinary industry,  unveiled two fully autonomous, self-cleaning robots that can prepare an unlimited assortment of customized food bowls and sandwiches anytime, anywhere and without human intervention. Ideal for quick-service chain restaurants and commercial kitchens, these latest additions to the company’s growing lineup of robot chefs. Within a 10’x10’ footprint, Bowl Bot can prepare an infinite number of salad bowls, vegan bowls and burrito bowls. Consumers can select from 28 ingredients of bases, proteins and toppings, including chopped and sliced assorted vegetables, meats and cheeses. Bowl Bot also can grip and control sauce bottles while administering food portions with 95% accuracy, ensuring quality and consistency, while eliminating food waste. Sandwich Bot can prepare nearly any type of sandwich from 48 choices of meats, vegetables and cheeses – all within a 16’ x 12’ space. Consumers can also select bread choice options and various spreads and sauces to  customize their favorite subs. The Wingman can pick up and load frying baskets with chicken wings, French fries and other food items, dip them in oil and shake off any excess. The multi-fryer configuration allows different cooked foods to simultaneously be sent to individual seasoning bins where spices or sauces are added and properly mixed to ensure every wing or food item is evenly coated. Spotless by Nala provides a complete dishwashing solution, from scrubbing to storage. This highly intelligent robot will remove leftovers, rinse and clean cookware, cutlery, dishware and glassware, as well as dry, stack and store hundreds of varieties of utensils and kitchenware. Orders and Fulfillment
Each Nala Robotics chef is equipped with natural language processing features to respond to voice menu orders at the point-of-sale or operational commands in the kitchen. In addition to on-premises ordering via multi-modal kiosk for in-dining or takeout, restaurants can create virtual storefronts for remote transactions through a website or online food ordering and delivery platform. Advanced AI and machine learning, along with high-performance cameras and sensors are used to perform all autonomous functions. More than 1,200 parameters are checked every microsecond, ranging from robot field of vision and food quality to point-of-sales, ensuring safety and enhanced productivity. Designed to be easily integrated into new or existing kitchens, all robots are equipped with a self-cleaning system and meet UL and NSF standards for safety. Nala Robotics will be demonstrating several of its technologies at the at the National Restaurant Association Show May 20-23 (Booth: Lakeside Center — 9409) held at McCormick Place in Chicago. Email [email protected] for more information on pricing and customized solutions. Image
As part of a national effort to raise awareness and offer expert insights, Denny's is kicking off a series of summits focused on how companies and individuals can better manage and improve their mental health and wellness. The first summit is taking place on April 22 at the HPAC Theater in Spartanburg, S.C. The summit will be free to the public and attendees can participate in-person or virtually. "Denny's has always been committed to feeding people's bodies, minds, and souls, and this summit series perfectly aligns with our holistic approach to wellness," said Kelli Valade, CEO of Denny's. "The COVID-19 pandemic has placed the topics of mental health and personal well-being front and center. Now is the time to think about how we can bring our whole selves to all facets of our lives, including the workplace." The summit keynote speaker is Dr. Daniel E. Dawes, Senior Vice President for Global Health and Executive Director of the Institute of Global Health Equity at Meharry Medical College. Dawes will discuss the importance of addressing mental health equity and the path forward to achieving a healthier society. Other nationally recognized panelists include:
Dr. Shaneeta Johnson, a surgeon, clinician, educator, and researcher at Morehouse School of Medicine and Senior Fellow in Global Health Equity at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute
Dr. Monique May, a board-certified and licensed family physician best known as the "Physician in the Kitchen"
Dr. Bennie L. Harris, Chancellor of the University of South Carolina Upstate
Sharon Lykins, Denny's Vice President of Product Innovation
"Mental health and wellness significantly impact the quality of life of individuals, families, and communities across the Upstate region and beyond," said USC Upstate Chancellor, Bennie L. Harris, Ph.D. "We are thrilled to join forces with a global leader like Denny's to address one of the most critical public health issues of our time." Journalist Roland S. Martin will moderate two panels, "Mindful Eating," which will address the connection between food and wellness, and "Wellness at the Workplace," which focuses on mental health at work. A second mental health summit will be offered on October 10 in Nashville, Tennessee. Image
Amperity , an enterprise customer data platform (CDP) for consumer brands,  announces a major company milestone of delivering over 10 billion unified customer profiles per day to ad platforms representing more than $300 billion in digital ad spend annually. Through its  industry leading ad connectors  and patented unified customer profiles, brands such as Alaska Airlines, Brooks Running, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, have achieved match rates as high as 85% on key channels, improve return on ad spend (ROAS) by up to 5X, and experience up to 90% faster activation time for new campaigns. With the elimination of third-party cookies and constantly evolving data privacy laws, marketers can no longer rely on the traditional methods of identifying, retaining and acquiring customers. To ensure they are delivering ROI on every paid campaign, brands should tap into their own first-party customer data. According to a survey from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), brands that link all of their first-party data sources can generate double the incremental revenue from a single ad placement. “Marketing is experiencing a generational shift in how they acquire and retain their best customers especially with the deprecation of third-party identifiers and ever-evolving data privacy policies,” said Barry Padgett, CEO of Amperity. “With Amperity, brands and agencies can build first-party audiences and activate their data in hours - when it traditionally takes days or weeks to reach their high value customers. This enables them to be hyper-responsive to changing consumer dynamics to grow revenue and increase profitability.”
Why Amperity’s Approach is Unique
Traditional digital marketing has historically revolved around brands “renting” customer data from third-party data sources and then relying on external digital identity graphs to match their data with ad platforms. This method is no longer preferred as data privacy laws and customer preferences evolve. With Amperity, brands can take advantage of AI and machine learning to ingest and stitch together online and offline customer data to build comprehensive, live unified profiles. Now, brands can gain further knowledge about their best customers with deep audience insights. This foundation allows digital teams to quickly build targeted segments, directly activate with leading ad platforms and effectively measure the impact of digital ads across online and in-store purchases. Unlike other approaches that use fixed and brittle matching rules, Amperity's patented AI-powered identity resolution and unified customer profiles build a complete view of the customer that increases match rates, drives suppression and retargeting, and generates high value audience segments. “Amperity has been at the forefront of helping its customers deliver on the promise of building a unified customer data foundation,” said Matthew Hogg, senior vice president, partnerships at Criteo. "With Amperity, our clients are seeing higher match rates and decreased customer acquisition costs, while delivering personalized advertising that drives real commerce outcomes in a privacy safe manner.”
How Brands Are Benefitting
Customers using Amperity for paid media campaigns have reported incredible results that are significantly impacting the bottom line. Major brands such as Alaska Airlines, Reckitt, SPARC Group and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts are experiencing increased return on investment (ROI). SPARC Group , a long time Amperity customer, experienced a 5X ROAS using predicted CLV (customer lifetime value) for segmentation. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts  saw double digit growth in ROAS in activated targeted audiences, while  Alaska Airlines  experienced a 21% cost savings in paid channels with Amperity. From early market implementations, Reckitt,  a global Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company, has seen a 30% improvement in match rates and significant uplift of seed audience size leveraging its customer data in Amperity. "Having direct-to-publisher activation at our fingertips is key,” said Michael Shiwdin, Vice President, Guest Intelligence & Engagement, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. “With Amperity for Paid Media, we can take our high-impact guest audiences directly to the paid media ecosystem for retargeting and look-alike modeling. In doing so, we are seeing an uplift in conversions for targeted audiences, all while realizing new cost efficiencies and greater privacy.”
To learn more about how brands and digital agencies can take advantage of Amperity,  visit here .

NRA Show News: APEX Introduces Smart Pickup Lockers

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Apex Order Pickup Solutions introduces its new NextUp Series of indoor/outdoor smart lockers designed to provide efficient, frictionless ecommerce and digital order fulfillment. See the OrderHQ Exterior Smart Food Lockers and NextUp Smart Pickup Lockers at  National Restaurant Association Show Booth 5839. NextUp Smart Pickup Lockers ensure secure order pickup with minimal employee labor while providing customers with quick, convenient, and secure access inside or outside of the store 24 hours a day. This solves many of the inefficiencies encountered by businesses that rely on digital ordering for on-site pickup. This new series uses proprietary ApexIQ software, which offers easy integrations with popular enterprise resource planning systems, POS software, mobile apps and more. ApexIQ software also offers a visual loading guide for employees, directional pickup guides for customers, and an easy-to-use portal that lets authorized users manage locker features and view data from one location or across their enterprise. NextUp lockers help reduce errors for both employee order loading and customer pickup. They virtually eliminate mistaken pickups and stolen orders, ensuring that the right order goes to the right customer, at the right time. They also offer a helpful feature that automatically pops open the door if a customer leaves part of an order in the compartment. The lockers are IP54 rated, so they can be placed outside or in a store vestibule to give customers flexible, 24/7 access to their orders, without the need for an employee to be there. Image
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and the International Food and Beverage Technology Association (IFBTA) today announced a new strategic partnership that will more closely align the two associations to benefit their respective members and advance technology within the hospitality and foodservice industries. The partnership will enhance AHLA’s connectivity to food and beverage technology content and key industry suppliers while expanding IFBTA’s organizational reach by aligning it with America’s largest hotel association. The new agreement includes the following areas of collaboration:
IFBTA and AHLA will become association partners, wherein IFBTA becomes an AHLA Association Member and AHLA becomes an IFBTA Association Member
A representative from AHLA’s technology committee, HTNG, will serve as a member of the IFBTA Board of Directors
An IFBTA representative will serve as a member of AHLA’s Food & Beverage Committee and will also support and promote AHLA’s HTNG initiatives
IFBTA and AHLA will support relationships with key food and beverage thought leaders, innovators, and industry suppliers
IFBTA membership will be provided as an included benefit of AHLA membership, to include access to IFBTA resources, chapters, education, and events
“Lodging and food and beverage are the cornerstones of hospitality, and this partnership brings together two of the most important associations in these areas,” said AHLA Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer Kevin Carey. “The technology education capabilities and global F&B reach IFBTA brings to AHLA will be valuable assets to our association and its members.”
“Although food and beverage technology has long been at the intersection of the hospitality and foodservice industries, they have often been split between those operating hotels and those operating foodservice establishments,” said Rob Grimes, CEO of the IFBTA. “The partnership between the IFBTA and AHLA further solidifies the crossover and allows those from each industry to gather and share information with their professional counterparts. We are excited to support AHLA by providing additional networking, resources and educational opportunities to their membership.”
The agreement announced today is one in a series of recent AHLA partnerships that are enabling the organization to better serve its members and the hotel industry. Other examples include:
AHLA’s  partnership  with the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Americas
AHLA’s  partnership  with Questex to produce the industry-leading technology and operations trade show, The Hospitality Show
AHLA’s 10-year  agreement  with HFTP to produce the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI)
AHLA’s  partnership  with the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (ICHRIE) to grow the hotel and hospitality industry workforce
Launched earlier this year, PreciTaste's Prep Assistant is providing real results to combat today's rising labor and food cost challenges. It takes task management from clipboards to digital automation, accurately guiding each crew member on precisely how much to prep per daypart based on AI-generated demand predictions. Customers report that the solution saves managers and crew members over an hour per day from the first day of installation and reduces food waste by up to 20% - leading to up to a 5% food cost saving overall, both of which increase profitability. PreciTaste shared real-world examples in the Tech Disruptor series at MURTEC. "DIG's main priorities are creating the freshest dishes and best experiences for our guests and our kitchen teams. With the Prep Assistant, our managers can focus more on cooking delicious food and training our chefs, and less on how much to prep as tasks are organized more efficiently and accurately," says Tracy Kim, CEO of DIG, a restaurant group that serves scratch-cooked American fare. Chef Bill Kim, Urbanbelly Founder and Chef-Partner at Cornerstone Restaurant Group, is seeing similar results. He says, "We are thrilled to partner with PreciTaste to integrate the Prep Assistant into the daily operations at Urbanbelly. Prep Assistant AI technology provides the tools to empower our staff and operators to optimize resources and run our business most effectively. Utilizing AI is a massive benefit to the restaurant industry to create efficient workflows and allow increased managerial bandwidth to focus on growth and development." As PreciTaste continues expanding their offerings to more midsize restaurants, its team of 80+ engineers just released a first-of-its-kind proprietary ChatGPT-like customer extension - the Chat Assistant. This software-based restaurant management solution provides a wealth of operations data from all connected stores in real time. With generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM), all operations data becomes accessible to provide instant intelligent insights and calculations around operational KPIs. With nearly 2,500 food AI systems deployed in the past two years, PreciTaste is a market-proven platform that now offers AI accessibility for restaurants of many sizes and offerings. Now that they've seen the impact on their bottom line, Urbanbelly and DIG plan to expand their AI capabilities to continue to increase labor efficiency and their level of customer service in the coming months. Image
Nala Robotics, an AI technology company revolutionizing the culinary industry,  unveiled two fully autonomous, self-cleaning robots that can prepare an unlimited assortment of customized food bowls and sandwiches anytime, anywhere and without human intervention. Ideal for quick-service chain restaurants and commercial kitchens, these latest additions to the company’s growing lineup of robot chefs. Within a 10’x10’ footprint, Bowl Bot can prepare an infinite number of salad bowls, vegan bowls and burrito bowls. Consumers can select from 28 ingredients of bases, proteins and toppings, including chopped and sliced assorted vegetables, meats and cheeses. Bowl Bot also can grip and control sauce bottles while administering food portions with 95% accuracy, ensuring quality and consistency, while eliminating food waste. Sandwich Bot can prepare nearly any type of sandwich from 48 choices of meats, vegetables and cheeses – all within a 16’ x 12’ space. Consumers can also select bread choice options and various spreads and sauces to  customize their favorite subs. The Wingman can pick up and load frying baskets with chicken wings, French fries and other food items, dip them in oil and shake off any excess. The multi-fryer configuration allows different cooked foods to simultaneously be sent to individual seasoning bins where spices or sauces are added and properly mixed to ensure every wing or food item is evenly coated. Spotless by Nala provides a complete dishwashing solution, from scrubbing to storage. This highly intelligent robot will remove leftovers, rinse and clean cookware, cutlery, dishware and glassware, as well as dry, stack and store hundreds of varieties of utensils and kitchenware. Orders and Fulfillment
Each Nala Robotics chef is equipped with natural language processing features to respond to voice menu orders at the point-of-sale or operational commands in the kitchen. In addition to on-premises ordering via multi-modal kiosk for in-dining or takeout, restaurants can create virtual storefronts for remote transactions through a website or online food ordering and delivery platform. Advanced AI and machine learning, along with high-performance cameras and sensors are used to perform all autonomous functions. More than 1,200 parameters are checked every microsecond, ranging from robot field of vision and food quality to point-of-sales, ensuring safety and enhanced productivity. Designed to be easily integrated into new or existing kitchens, all robots are equipped with a self-cleaning system and meet UL and NSF standards for safety. Nala Robotics will be demonstrating several of its technologies at the at the National Restaurant Association Show May 20-23 (Booth: Lakeside Center — 9409) held at McCormick Place in Chicago. Email [email protected] for more information on pricing and customized solutions. Image
As part of a national effort to raise awareness and offer expert insights, Denny's is kicking off a series of summits focused on how companies and individuals can better manage and improve their mental health and wellness. The first summit is taking place on April 22 at the HPAC Theater in Spartanburg, S.C. The summit will be free to the public and attendees can participate in-person or virtually. "Denny's has always been committed to feeding people's bodies, minds, and souls, and this summit series perfectly aligns with our holistic approach to wellness," said Kelli Valade, CEO of Denny's. "The COVID-19 pandemic has placed the topics of mental health and personal well-being front and center. Now is the time to think about how we can bring our whole selves to all facets of our lives, including the workplace." The summit keynote speaker is Dr. Daniel E. Dawes, Senior Vice President for Global Health and Executive Director of the Institute of Global Health Equity at Meharry Medical College. Dawes will discuss the importance of addressing mental health equity and the path forward to achieving a healthier society. Other nationally recognized panelists include:
Dr. Shaneeta Johnson, a surgeon, clinician, educator, and researcher at Morehouse School of Medicine and Senior Fellow in Global Health Equity at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute
Dr. Monique May, a board-certified and licensed family physician best known as the "Physician in the Kitchen"
Dr. Bennie L. Harris, Chancellor of the University of South Carolina Upstate
Sharon Lykins, Denny's Vice President of Product Innovation
"Mental health and wellness significantly impact the quality of life of individuals, families, and communities across the Upstate region and beyond," said USC Upstate Chancellor, Bennie L. Harris, Ph.D. "We are thrilled to join forces with a global leader like Denny's to address one of the most critical public health issues of our time." Journalist Roland S. Martin will moderate two panels, "Mindful Eating," which will address the connection between food and wellness, and "Wellness at the Workplace," which focuses on mental health at work. A second mental health summit will be offered on October 10 in Nashville, Tennessee. Image
Amperity , an enterprise customer data platform (CDP) for consumer brands, announces a major company milestone of delivering over 10 billion unified customer profiles per day to ad platforms, representing more than $300 billion in digital ad spend annually. Through its  industry-leading ad connectors  and patented unified customer profiles, brands such as Alaska Airlines, Brooks Running, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, have achieved match rates as high as 85% on key channels, improve return on ad spend (ROAS) by up to 5X, and experience up to 90% faster activation time for new campaigns. With the elimination of third-party cookies and constantly evolving data privacy laws, marketers can no longer rely on the traditional methods of identifying, retaining and acquiring customers. To ensure they are delivering ROI on every paid campaign, brands should tap into their own first-party customer data. According to a survey from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), brands that link all of their first-party data sources can generate double the incremental revenue from a single ad placement. “Marketing is experiencing a generational shift in how they acquire and retain their best customers especially with the deprecation of third-party identifiers and ever-evolving data privacy policies,” said Barry Padgett, CEO of Amperity. “With Amperity, brands and agencies can build first-party audiences and activate their data in hours - when it traditionally takes days or weeks to reach their high value customers. This enables them to be hyper-responsive to changing consumer dynamics to grow revenue and increase profitability.”
Why Amperity’s Approach is Unique
Traditional digital marketing has historically revolved around brands “renting” customer data from third-party data sources and then relying on external digital identity graphs to match their data with ad platforms. This method is no longer preferred as data privacy laws and customer preferences evolve. With Amperity, brands can take advantage of AI and machine learning to ingest and stitch together online and offline customer data to build comprehensive, live unified profiles. Unlike other approaches that use fixed and brittle matching rules, Amperity's patented, AI-powered identity resolution and unified customer profiles build a complete view of customers that increase match rates, drive suppression and retargeting, and generate high-value audience segments. This foundation allows digital teams to quickly build targeted segments, directly activate with leading ad platforms and effectively measure the impact of digital ads across online and in-store purchases. “Amperity has been at the forefront of helping its customers deliver on the promise of building a unified customer data foundation,” said Matthew Hogg, senior vice president, partnerships at Criteo. "With Amperity, our clients are seeing higher match rates and decreased customer acquisition costs, while delivering personalized advertising that drives real commerce outcomes in a privacy safe manner.”
How Brands Are Benefitting
Customers using Amperity for paid media campaigns have reported incredible results that are significantly impacting the bottom line. Major brands such as Alaska Airlines, Reckitt, SPARC Group and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts are experiencing increased return on investment (ROI). SPARC Group , a long time Amperity customer, experienced a 5X ROAS using predicted CLV (customer lifetime value) for segmentation. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts  saw double digit growth in ROAS in activated targeted audiences, while  Alaska Airlines  experienced a 21% cost savings in paid channels with Amperity. From early market implementations,  Reckitt , a global Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company, has seen a 30% improvement in match rates and significant uplift of seed audience size leveraging its customer data in Amperity. "Having direct-to-publisher activation at our fingertips is key,” said Michael Shiwdin, vice president, guest intelligence & engagement at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. “With Amperity for Paid Media, we can take our high-impact guest audiences directly to the paid media ecosystem for retargeting and look-alike modeling. In doing so, we are seeing an uplift in conversions for targeted audiences, all while realizing new cost efficiencies and greater privacy.”

Here's how restaurants are improving the way they manage pickup orders for increased efficiency and customer satisfaction. As takeout and delivery orders continue to grow, many restaurants are facing challenges, especially regarding the pickup process. The fact is, restaurants simply weren’t designed to deal with this influx, and many problems are surfacing at the pickup shelf, where there is no technology or automation to manage the order expo process. Operators have attempted to create ad hoc workarounds, like adding a pickup shelf, with mixed success. “It's a short-term solution and is rife with issues,” says Mike Rizzo, chief growth officer of Apex Order Pickup Solutions. “Wrong orders are taken, intentionally or unintentionally. There are a lot of remakes, and customers and third-party delivery drivers have to rifle through shelves to find their order. It's chaotic, inefficient, and suboptimal.”
As brands struggle with manual order fulfillment from a shelf, they are increasingly turning to smart food lockers for efficiency and an improved customer experience. Smart food lockers offer customers and delivery drivers a more secure way to pick up their orders—and help operators drive costs out of off-premises order fulfillment. “In an ideal world, you would want off-premises orders to be your most profitable,” Rizzo says. “Often orders come in from a third party, so there are some incremental fees and commissions that the operator has to pay. With thin margins, operators must ensure they do not have to deal with remakes and lost or mistaken orders. They want to be able to flex labor so that employees are not spending a lot of time tending to drivers coming in or handling off-premise orders multiple times. Once that off-premise order has been made and completed, any additional time or energy put into it dilutes profit margins.”
For consumers, smart food lockers provide a convenient and frictionless experience. As consumers grow to appreciate the ease of digital ordering, they expect a similarly efficient pickup process. In fact, one of the driving factors behind the shift to automated pickup solutions is the rise of digitally native or digital-only restaurants. These locations, in keeping with the shift in consumer expectations toward fully digital experiences, incorporate technology into both front and back-of-house operations. The solution enables an order pickup process that can keep pace with more efficient operations designed to increase throughput. With 70 percent of consumers using takeout at least once a week, according to Revenue Management Solutions, it's clear that demand is here to stay—and it’s up to restaurants to meet customers where they are. “Mobile ordering for off-premise orders is the highest growing segment, and restaurants are still struggling with ways to manage it better,” Rizzo says. Apex Order Pickup Solutions offers a self-serve, automated locker pickup system that brings security and efficiency to the pickup process. The system eliminates the dependency on human interaction and provides a secure and touch-free pickup option. Customers or drivers receive a pickup code or QR code when their order is ready and can use it to open a secure compartment with their order inside. The software provides data for key points in the fulfillment process, from order generation to pickup, which completes the operator’s digital order chain of custody. According to Rizzo, automated order pickup systems like smart food lockers improve the customer experience and boost restaurant efficiency. By eliminating the chaos and issues created by a pickup shelf, restaurants can use smart food lockers to offer a smoother, safer, faster pickup process. To find out more about Apex Order Pickup Solutions, visit the company's website . By Olivia Schuster

Why Operators Are Ditching Shelves for a New Pickup Mode

Moblico is a mobile relationship management company that provides marketing and engagement solutions for businesses to engage instantly with audiences.  It is based in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.

Moblico Solutions

The integration between Moblico and Apex Order Pickup Solutions allows distributors to send automated triggered notifications when an order is available for pickup via smart locker .

Moblico and Apex Order Pickup Solutions Announce Strategic Partnership - Apex Order Pickup Solutions

Prokeep is a company that focuses on customer experience management in the wholesale distribution industry. Its main services include centralized communication, customer data collection, and systems automation, which aim to increase sales, improve customer engagement, and enhance workforce productivity. The company primarily serves sectors such as automotive, electrical, equipment, HVAC, industrial, lumber, paint, plumbing, and roofing. It was founded in 2016 and is based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Prokeep

Kitchen United provides restaurant hub technology, streamlined logistics, and commercial kitchen space to empower food service operators. It also offers a value-driven, low-risk way for emerging and established restaurant brands to enter into new markets, grow revenue through off-premises dining, and expand delivery areas. It was founded in 2017 and is based in Pasadena, California.

Kitchen United

Welbilt provides the world's top chefs, premier chain operators, and growing independents with industry-leading equipment and solutions. Its solutions are powered by deep knowledge, operator insights, and culinary expertise. It offers fully integrated kitchen systems and its products are backed by KitchenCare® aftermarket parts and service. The company was founded in 1929 and is based in New Port Richey, Florida. On July 29th, 2022, Welbilt was acquired by Ali Group at a valuation of $3.5B.

Welbilt

Apex Industrial Technologies

Zebra Technologies

Motorola Solutions

Vocollect

Honeywell

Avery Dennison

Apex Order Pickup Solutions provides an automated order pickup solution. The company offers kits solutions for restaurants, campus dining, ghost kitchen, retail, and more. It was founded in 2021 and is based in Mason, Ohio.

Name	Mike Wills
Work History	Apex Industrial Technologies, Zebra Technologies, Motorola Solutions, Vocollect, Honeywell, and Avery Dennison
Title	Chief Executive Officer
Status	Former

Wells Fargo Success Story

Professional Services

Platform Overview

Apex Order Pickup Solutions

Executives

Apex Order Pickup Solutions Management Team

1 Team Member