If you're a fan of Domino's Pizza (DPZ 1.34%), then listen up. On Monday, the restaurant chain announced that all menu-priced pizzas will be 50% off for the next seven days in recognition of the NCAA college basketball championships.
It's the second time Domino's has offered the deal this year, and it's almost certain to drive additional traffic to the popular chain through the end of this week.
"We're looking forward to letting our customers enjoy any combination of pizza at half off as they cheer on their teams," said Chris Brandon, a spokesperson for Domino's Pizza. "With the convenience of our digital ordering channels, no one will have to miss a second of the games when they order online."
To be clear, this isn't an entirely gratuitous gesture. As Brandon intimated, the deal only applies to orders placed online or via the company's mobile apps for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 8, and Kindle Fire.
The business rationale for Domino's is simple. The more people who sign up and use its digital platforms, the more data Domino's can collect on its customers and the more efficiently its operations can run, as it reduces man hours spent answering the telephone.
In fact, the technological element is so important to Domino's that its CEO, Patrick Doyle, has identified it as one of four reasons behind the chain's resurgence since 2008. As he noted on a conference call with analysts:
Technology has been an incredibly big part of the story at Domino's over the course of the past five years, and we think it's been a big part of the driver of our top growth, both domestically and internationally, as customers are finding that it is a far better way to do business in the pizza category, using technology as the way to order as opposed to calling and ordering over the phone.
Presently, more than 40% of Domino's domestic business comes through its digital channels. That equates to an estimated $3 billion in sales a year. At least for the time being, in other words, the chain's latest deal appears to be a win-win-win proposition for customers, the business itself, and shareholders.
