Pizza Hut is chalking up the growth in online and mobile orders this year primarily to the increase in sales made via the mobile Web versus through applications.

Similar to other pizza chains, mobile continues to play an important role for Pizza Hut in driving sales. Earlier this year, the pizza chain hit $1 billion in revenue from mobile and online orders, representing one-third of orders.

“[The growth in mobile can be attributed] to the convenience of ordering via a mobile device and the broader adoption of this experience among consumers, along with the launch of the new site and apps,” said Doug Terfehr, director of public relations at Pizza Hut, Plano, TX. “We’ve seen a significant increase in orders since then.”

Mobile pie?
Mobile now represents 50 percent of Pizza Hut’s digital orders.

In October, Pizza Hut overhauled its mobile site and iPhone, Android and Windows Phone apps for faster ordering. The update also rolled out location-based offers (see story).

Pizza Hut also attributes the $1 billion in digital revenue milestone to the launch of an Xbox 360 app.

With Domino’s and Papa John’s also beefing up on mobile ordering by focusing on apps, what is unique about Pizza Hut’s efforts is that the company credits the mobile Web as growing faster than apps.

As mobile Web experiences increasingly become better and more sophisticated, Pizza Hut’s news points to the greater need for marketers to develop mobile sites that are intuitive and easy to use.

Pizza chains have been some of the first in the mobile space to nail down the ordering process, and therefore the next big push for many will be building up mobile loyalty (see story).

Pizza Hut’s new app launched this year

Getting a slice of mobile?
Ordering has been one of the biggest priorities for food and beverage marketers in mobile this year.

In the quick service restaurant sector, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King have all significantly leveraged mobile ordering in 2013.

Going into 2014, Pizza Hut plans to roll out a new Web experience for desktop users.

Additionally, a continued focus on mobile is a priority.

“[Mobile] will be a primary focus for our brand in 2014,” Mr. Terfehr said. “We are pioneers in the digital ordering space, and plan to aggressively push that forward next year.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York