Diners’ Mobile Trends Revealed as Restaurant.com Surpasses 1 Million App Downloads

Arlington Heights, IL (PRWEB) January 21, 2014

Restaurant.com, the largest independent dining deals site, reached a milestone as the company’s mobile applications surpassed 1 million downloads. With an 87 percent increase in mobile orders in 2013 alone, Restaurant.com’s nationwide network of restaurants are transforming their businesses to attract restaurant patrons on the go. Launched in early 2012, the Restaurant.com iOS and Android mobile apps have taken hold with diners across the country, as consumers vote with their pocketbooks in favor of convenient and paperless digital deals.

With this milestone, Restaurant.com revealed six notable trends in diners’ mobile usage.

• Fun in the Sun: Use of mobile dining deals spikes during the sunny summer months, with June, July, and August seeing 16 percent increase in mobile deal buying vs. the spring and fall. Beach outings and summer vacations drive customers to their mobile device to stretch their entertainment budgets and find great restaurants while traveling.
• Savvy Savers: More often than not, diners who use mobile buy more deals than their desktop shopping counterparts making mobile shoppers savvy savers. Not to mention, these shopping experts scoop up a greater variety of dining deals to save on meals from a quick lunch, romantic dinner for two, or a family feast.
• Sunday Go-To-Eatin’: Weekends are the most popular times for mobile dining deals, with 21 percent of weekly mobile dining deal purchases on Sundays.
• Sayonara To My Desktop: Diners are most likely to fire up their smartphones when craving Sushi or Hibachi-style Japanese steakhouse fare.
• King of the Road: Prominent travel destinations Las Vegas, Orlando, and New York ranked among the most popular dining hotspots, where mobile deal buyers are 30 percent more likely to use their smartphone to locate a restaurant for their appetite and budget while traveling.
• Mobile Mid-Sized: Mid-size cities, Louisville, Sacramento, and Portland, top the list with diners most likely to use mobile to find dining deals on the go. Among big cities, the leaders include Charlotte, Dallas-Ft. Worth, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, respectively.

“With the capabilities and accessibility of today’s smartphones, finding a fulfilling meal at a great price has never been easier for consumers. In order to maintain their fair share of customer traffic, restaurant owners must deploy effective mobile marketing strategies or risk being left behind,” states Restaurant.com President and Chief Marketing Officer, Christopher Krohn, who also oversees the mobile development team at the company.

Krohn notes market research by independent firm Chadwick Martin Bailey found that 81 percent of smartphone-owning consumers search for restaurants through mobile apps. Even more telling, 75 percent of those consumers make dining decisions based on those search results.

Restaurant.com’s mobile solutions enable customers to purchase and redeem dining deals on their mobile device, eliminating the hassles of printing certificates from a computer or forgetting them at home. The Restaurant.com app offers consumers fast and easy discovery of local restaurants with its “Deals Near Me” feature. Diners can also search by ZIP code and can filter their results by menu price point, restaurants that are open right now, or cuisine preference. In addition, the user can get directions to the restaurant and a map straight from the mobile application.

"Consumers everywhere have adopted Restaurant.com's mobile apps for Android and iOS to quickly find great dining deals on the go," Krohn adds. "Using our mobile apps and mobile optimized Web site, diners can discover new favorite restaurants in their own neighborhood and also save on dining wherever they may travel.”

About Restaurant.com
Restaurant.com is the trusted and valued source connecting restaurants and diners nationwide. The company offers savings at thousands of restaurants nationwide with more than 50,000 gift certificate options. Restaurant.com brings people together to relax, converse and enjoy well-prepared and served meals at affordable prices. To date, Restaurant.com customers have saved more than $1 billion through the gift certificate program. Restaurant.com has operated since 1999 and is based in Arlington Heights, Ill.

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