Case study: Churchill’s sees average order value 83% higher via Preoday, than in-store

The challenge

Churchill’s Fish and Chips has been using Preoday since 2016 and is the fastest growing chain of fish and chip shops in the United Kingdom. It prides itself on challenging the status quo in the industry by changing people’s perceptions of what a typical fish and chip shop experience is, ensuring that any of its stores can rival the market leading fast casual dining brands.

Like many popular fish and chip stores, Churchill’s found that the queueing and subsequent cooking time in the busy dinner period could mean customers waiting up to twenty minutes for their takeaway. Churchill’s knew this was at odds with modern consumers’ expectations surrounding speed of service and could lead to low customer satisfaction and missed sales. The challenge then, was how to minimise queues at busy times.

The solution

Churchill’s chose Preoday’s mobile and online ordering system to help improve its customers’ experiences and to provide it with a competitive edge in the marketplace. Adopting the company’s white label app and online system, it began offering customers the opportunity to order ahead. Customers could then arrive at the requested time, skipping the queue entirely and picking up their freshly prepared food. This had the knock-on effect that queue times for drop-in customers also shortened.

Churchill’s additionally uses Preoday’s analytics to identify its most valuable customers, understand loyalty and create bespoke targeted promotions and marketing.

The result

Churchill’s has found that its multichannel customers are worth twice as much as those using a single channel. Now, whenever it is opening a new store, it uses targeted launch promotions to drive people to use its click and collect service.

The results have been excellent. Across the brand, mobile and online ordering now account for 19% of sales, and the average order value via Preoday is 83% higher than in-store takeaway purchases. Churchill’s believes that the ease of exploring the digital menu has led to customers placing additional products in their online basket and has encouraged them to break their normal ordering habits.

In their own words

“We needed an app and online ordering system that could accommodate multiple locations and that we could integrate seamlessly into our existing EPOS system, ICR, and Preoday’s API dovetailed perfectly. We have found the system easy to use and to roll out to new locations. In the next phase we plan to include a new ‘order at table’ feature for our assisted service restaurants; this will play as a crucial role in our future growth plans.”

Amy Lipscombe, Head of Brand and Marketing at Churchill’s Fish and Chips