From online ordering and mobile payments, to digital tabletop menus and reservation apps, many restaurants are implementing technological innovations to enhance customer experience and set their eatery apart from the rest.
One trend that has been rising in popularity among restaurants is augmented reality (AR). This technology integrates a computer-generated overlay of an image into an individual’s actual view of the real world. By contrast, virtual reality (VR) fully immerses a user in an alternate world, usually through a wearable headset. According to a report from Statista, the economic impact of AR and VR is forecast to amount to $29.5 billion in 2020, with the market for AR predicted to increase from $3.5 billion in 2017 to $198 billion in 2025.
What Are Restaurants Doing?
AR provides restaurants with several ways to promote their menu items. For example, in 2018, fast casual chain Bareburger partnered with QReal (previously Kabaq), an AR tech startup, to create an engaging experience for diners to interact with a virtual menu.
In order to grant customers access to the menu items, QReal optimizes high-resolution photos of Bareburger food, which can then be used on Snapchat, Facebook, as well as other websites and apps. Diners can scan Snapchat QR codes that are printed on Bareburger's physical menus and are then given the capability to rotate and view the burgers and side dishes from various angles. This is intended to help customers obtain a comprehensive look at the food’s appearance.
Similarly, Panera recently partnered with QReal to supply customers with the nutrition facts for the the chain's Mediterranean Egg White Breakfast Wrap via the mobile ad platform Composite. Using Panera’s AR technology, customers tap their phone to place a Panera wrap in front of them and are greeted “with interactive buttons that animate the menu-item name, nutritional information, and all the ingredients,” according to reporting by Delish.
Additionally, restaurants are using AR technology to educate diners on how their food is made. Specifically, more than 50 restaurants around the world have installed Skullmapping’s project Le Petit Chef, which displays 3D projections on a customer’s table, allowing them to watch a small digital chef cook their food while the actual meals are made in the restaurant’s kitchen.
What Does The Rise In This Technology Mean?
AR can now be used on both iOS and Android, which means this technology could outgrow its VR counterpart, especially because "no special headset is needed and the world is enhanced, not replaced,” according to an article by Martech Today.
However, a question that remains is how the integration of AR will impact mealtime, with technology often associated with interrupting socialization, the haulting of conversation to take photos of food being a major example of this.
It’s evident that AR is transforming the restaurant industry, with boosted engagement enabling customers to visualize products in the restaurant setting. Many food establishments aren't simply serving products anymore. They're striving for encourage interaction with the food, so that customers can truly "eat with their eyes first."
Here's a question to ponder: Will augmented reality improve or diminish the restaurant experience?
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