Thrive Scan and Pay — Making Marketplaces Anywhere

For the Restaurant Associates team at a mass media company in New York City, a cafe that was still under construction proved to be an excellent opportunity to provide a great hospitality experience. With the office’s first cohort of guests expected to arrive prior to the cafe’s completion, the operators wanted to ensure there was an option to provide convenient and delicious meals.

Under regular circumstances, it would not be easy to make easily accessible and enjoyable meals in a yet-to-be-finished space. Thankfully, the RA team had the perfect solution—Thrive Scan & Pay—in their toolkit.

Thinking Beyond the Cafe

The RA team needed a quick and nimble solution to implement, as the POS systems would not be in place by the time the first cohort of patrons arrived. As well, being able to offer an appetizing variety of lunch items to their guests was an absolute must.

The operators set out to achieve their goal in a few key steps:

  • Set up pop-up markets: On each of the finished floors, the team had prepackaged meals delivered to refrigerators that guests would be able to easily access on their own time.
  • Direct guests towards Thrive: Incoming guests were encouraged to download and sign up for the user-friendly app, allowing them to access all the available features without any disruption, right on their mobile phones. 
  • Launch Thrive Scan & Pay: Enable guests to browse the unmanned markets when it suits their schedules, choose their wanted items, and simply return to their workstations once satisfied with their purchase.

Results

The program has been very successful so far, with guests really embracing the new mobile check-out experience, finding Thrive Scan & Pay to be a welcome change and beneficial for their day-to-day. Guests are appreciating the speed of service, as well as the added safety of a contactless checkout that also eliminates the need for lines.

Overall, the RA team was able to achieve:

380%
increase in sales from Aug to Sept
244%
increase in app user base from Aug to Sept
43%
increase in app participation rate from Aug to Sept

Thrive Scan & Pay is a flexible solution that is able to offer multiple services and experiences, along with supporting changing organizational needs. Still in place at the new cafe, Thrive has proven itself to be agile on many different types of business models. Several months after opening, the RA team is receiving plenty of demand for more Scan & Pay options, as well as pre-ordering.

With Scan & Pay, operators have the opportunity to set up any store, anywhere, for self-checkout. Compared to a traditional cafe setup,  a mobile solution opens up plenty of opportunities to offer different services and experiences to guests—in a way that’s easy, quick, and time-saving.

Thrive Scan & Pay makes selling food safe, convenient, and easily accessible to our guests. Thrive was an integral part of our opening and our client was impressed with how well it worked. So much so that they are looking to expand the program to other locations throughout the US.

The Thrive app is a vital piece of technology in an evolving marketplace and I look forward to its continued success.

Michael | General Manager