Dunkin’ Donuts Running A “Private Test” Of Mobile Ordering With A Delivery Future In Mind

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If the distance between your mouth to the nearest doughnut is just too great for you to achieve on your own, buck up. There could be a reality where Dunkin’ Donuts brings the doughnuts to your door in the very near future, as the company says it could soon be dipping its toes in the delivery realm, as it’s already started a “private test” of mobile ordering.

Dunkin’ Brands Chairman and CEO Nigel Travis announced the plans for testing mobile ordering during an interview with CNBC’s On The Money (warning: link has video that autoplays).

“We’re now developing mobile ordering. We’re doing a private test. We’ll move to a more public test later this year,” he said. “We’ll probably launch mobile ordering sometime next year.”

At this point it seems likely that the system would still require customers to head to their closest Dunkin’ location to pick up their pre-ordered menu items. But delivery is somewhere in the future, somewhere Travis says.

“The trend in this country is convenience. So I think delivery plays very strongly,” he told CNBC. “I think the next few years you’re going to see us get more and more into delivery.”

Before that happens, the company has some work to do first, with Travis noting that he slowed the development of mobile ordering to “make sure it’s operationally simple at the store level.”

Echoing that statement was Scott Hudler, vice president of Global Consumer Engagement for Dunkin’ Donuts who told CNNMoney (warning: link has video that autoplays) in a statement that “delivery is something that we will be evaluating in the future.”

We’ve made the donuts. Now it’s time to deliver them: Dunkin [CNBC]
Knock, knock. Dunkin’ Donuts delivery [CNNMoney]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist