Panda Express today announced the testing of Order Panda (www.orderpanda.com), a new mobile and online ordering service in 100 stores in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Diego, California, in partnership with GoMobo, the service recently dubbed “Fandango for Food” by New York Magazine. The service allows Panda Express customers to order and pay ahead from their computer or mobile phone and schedule a time for express pickup at the Panda Express location of their choice.
“We are excited to work with GoMobo to test Order Panda,” says Calvin Lee, director of operations improvement and innovation at Panda Restaurant Group. “This will give Panda Express another opportunity to provide our guests with even faster and more convenient service.”
Order Panda is also the first major chain launch of the new OLO order receiver device, developed by GoMobo and Peek, creators of the Time Magazine Gadget of the Year in 2008.
“OLO is a revolution in off-premise ordering technology,” says Noah Glass, CEO of GoMobo. “We created a device that gives restaurants the capability to receive prepaid, off-premise orders, without adding an extra phone line or Internet connection. OLO will pave the way for all restaurants and local merchants to establish an e-commerce presence and enable location-based transactions.”
GoMobo envisions that OLO will become for takeout-oriented restaurants what OpenTable’s ERB (Electronic Reservation Book) is for reservation-oriented restaurants: an essential restaurant tool that helps to increase same-store sales.
“Together with Panda Express, we are helping to realize two important goals: first, the ability for customers to have an on-demand experience at Panda Express, and second, for restaurants to have a simple, affordable, and POS-independent tool for receiving off-premise orders,” Glass says.
