Papa Murphy’s Holdings Inc., the Vancouver-headquartered take and bake pizza franchise, has partnered with an international digital consulting agency to improve its online ordering and marketing efforts.
On Monday, the company announced an agreement with Deloitte Digital to redesign the Papa Murphy’s website, including adding advanced online ordering capabilities to improve the customer experience. The company plans to launch the new platform in the first half of next year.
“Teaming with Deloitte Digital underscores our commitment to adopting the latest digital technology tools and methodologies to provide a more user friendly and reliable customer experience and enable the growth potential of precision marketing,” said Papa Murphy’s President and CEO, Ken Calwell. “At Papa Murphy’s, we are focused on delivering fresh, customizable, delicious pizza to help busy families solve the dinnertime dilemma and we look forward to launching a new ecommerce platform that will help further this mission.”
The new platform will be designed with features to increase customer engagement. Customers will now be able to visit the site and customize and purchase a meal that will then be ready for pickup at their desired location and time.
Plans for an improved online customer experience come on the heels of the company rolling out a new point-of-sale (POS) system – a first step to efficiently integrate online and mobile ordering, and a pathway to highly-targeted precision marketing. The companywide rollout of the POS system will be completed by mid-2016.
Papa Murphy also announced on Monday its second quarter 2015 earnings. Key financial highlights include:
- A net loss of $1.4 million, which included charges related to a write-down of the company’s interest in Project Pie LLC.
- A 33.3 percent increase in revenue compared to the second quarter of 2014.
- Domestic system comparable store sales increased 4.5 percent, including increases of 4.9 percent at company-owned stores and 4.5 percent at domestic franchisee-owned stores.
- Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 13.1 percent to $6.4 million, compared to the second quarter of 2014.
- Papa Murphy’s opened 20 stores system-wide, including 16 in the U.S.