As reported on Nation’s Restaurant News<\/a>:<\/p>\n TGI Fridays<\/a> on Wednesday announced it was expanding its partnership with Amazon, adding Alexa voice ordering and Amazon Pay to its Internet-based offerings.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \u201cWe were one of the first brands to be on the Amazon Marketplace, which is basically their online mall,\u201d said Sherif Mityas, TGI Fridays chief information officer, in an interview ahead of the announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are now continuing our partnership by being not only one of the first brands with an Alexa skill to be on Echo and Dot devices, but we are on their Amazon Pay platform as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The new Amazon offerings were announced Wednesday at Amazon Web Services \u201cre:Invent 2017\u201d conference in Las Vegas, Nev.<\/p>\n Mityas said the Alexa voice ordering and Amazon payment options differentiate the casual-dining brand from competitors and also help the brand reach new audiences.<\/p>\n Mityas said anyone with an Amazon account and Amazon Prime members can order food without pulling out a credit card. \u201cThey will be able to use their Amazon account, going directly through that,\u201d he said. Consumers can make orders and reservations now through the Amazon Alexa skill at U.S. restaurants, and some participating locations will offer Amazon Pay. The pay capabilities will be phased in throughout 2018.<\/p>\n Alcohol delivery will come at a later date. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re just doing our core menu and some non-alcoholic beverages,\u201d Mityas said.<\/p>\n Since introducing online sales a year ago, off-premise sales have doubled Mityas said. \u201cIt has been incremental, and it\u2019s gaining younger guests,\u201d he said. In addition, about 70 percent of online orders come from new customers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are reaching a brand new guest,\u201d Mityas said, \u201cand this is in a way that\u2019s convenient and friction-less for them. This another step in that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n The new Alexa skill\/Amazon Pay integration will allow guests to place and pay for online orders.<\/p>\n Mityas said anyone with an Amazon account and Amazon Prime members can order food without pulling out a credit card. \u201cThey will be able to use their Amazon account, going directly through that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Alcohol deliver will come at a later date. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re just doing our core menu and some non-alcoholic beverages,\u201d Mityas said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe this really differentiates us in the casual-dining space by being able to reach customers in a whole new way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n TGI Fridays introduced online ordering a year ago, and now 70 percent of online orders are from new customers, he said. \u201cWe are reaching a brand new guest,\u201d Mityas said, \u201cand this is in a way that\u2019s convenient and friction-less for them. This another step in that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n The new battleground for restaurants and retail is not on street corners but on someone\u2019s phone, Mityas said. \u201cThis gives us access to the tens of millions of folks who interact with Amazon,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Customers can add the TGI Fridays skill to the Alexa app, which is connected to Amazon accounts, and they can use the service along with billing.<\/p>\n Mityas said experts expect that within the next five years as much as 50 percent of online commerce will be voice activated.<\/p>\n TGI Fridays said it had to create recommended options for menu items, such as the top three.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this will allow us to do is build artificial intelligence into the system so subsequent orders can be tailored to the individual,\u201d Mityas said, citing examples such as preferences for style of French fries. \u201cThat will be as early as the first or second quarter of next year.\u201d<\/p>\n TGI Fridays will continue to allow orders through its smartphone app, website, one-click ordering on Facebook, chat-bots on Twitter and pay at table through their phones in the store, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a focus on digital and technology to differentiate the brand,\u201d Mityas said.<\/p>\n The majority of TGI Fridays guests still pick up their orders, he said, and the order turnaround in the restaurant is usually 20 to 25 minutes. In areas where delivery is available, delivery timetables are dependent on the third-party partners.<\/p>\n TGI Fridays has 460 restaurants in the United States.<\/p>\n Sintel Systems<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Sintel Systems<\/a> is a leading point of sale provider to the restaurant<\/a> and fast food \/ QSR<\/a> industries. As a single-source and direct provider, business owners can source complete POS systems<\/a> without the need to piecemeal any component from separate vendors, for a superior POS solution that works seamlessly.<\/p>\n Offering powerful ordering modes such as dine\/eat-in, take-out, drive-thru<\/a>, online ordering<\/a> and delivery means that you can serve your customers, their way: which is absolutely essential in today’s market where high levels of customization are expected.<\/p>\n\n ![\"amazon-tgi-fridays-sintel-systems-pos-ordering-payment-point-of-sale\"](\"https:\/\/www.sintelsystems.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/amazon-tgi-fridays-sintel-systems-pos-ordering-payment-point-of-sale.png\")
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