OnlineOrdering
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Walmart tests automated system to help fill online grocery orders
Walmart is testing out a new system that will help put together grocery orders placed by customers online. The service lets users order groceries, choose a pickup time and have their order delivered to their car, and the new automated system, called Alphabot, will take over some of the legwork that goes into collecting order items. It will automatically gather certain items from a location's storage area and transport them to employees who will then package the order.
'Ta.co' Bell now offers online ordering
Got a hankering for Taco Bell but just can't bring yourself to wait the 3.5 minutes it takes to slop your order together? Well, you're in luck. The fast food franchise chain recently debuted a new, faster way to order your Chalupas: no, not your mobile phone, the internet!
Ikea to trial smaller UK stores for picking up online orders
Most Ikea stores are massive, bustling places located far from the high street and built-up urban areas. Visiting one isn't a problem if you have a large car and a few hours to spare -- but for many people, at least one of those can be difficult to come by. To help out, the king of flat pack furniture is opening a new, smaller store in Norwich. Here customers will be able to speak with home furnishing experts, see a selection of furniture and, most importantly, pick up orders they've made online or in-store. The new "Order and Collection Point" concept is similar to Amazon's pickup lockers and Argos' click-and-collect stores. The hope is that these smaller, local establishments will be more convenient than trekking to an out-of-town warehouse or waiting for home delivery. Of course, if you're buying a bed or anything else that's a substantial size, you'll still need to find a way to take it home...
Tweet a pizza emoji and Domino's will send you a real one
Ordering your go-to Domino's pizza just got a little easier -- yes, even more so than using your XBox One or Pebble smartwatch. The restaurant chain announced Tuesday that its customers will soon be able to order their preferred pie with nary more than a tweet and an emoji. No, seriously. First you'll need to have an online Domino's Pizza Profile and designate an "Easy Order" pizza. Next, add your Twitter handle to your account and simply tweet #EasyOrder to @Dominos. Or, if that's too many keystrokes for you liking, simply insert the pizza emoji into your tweet instead. Either way, you'll soon get a direct message confirming the order and a piping-hot pizza shortly thereafter. You can give #EasyOrder a whirl today, though unfortunately the emoji method won't to be available until next Wednesday, May 20th.
Google finds a way to make ordering delivery food even lazier
You know the delivery drill. When you're feeling peckish, the first thing you do is search for open restaurants in your area, but then you have to close search, open a separate food delivery app, find the restaurant again there, and finally place your order. That's a lot of work just to order a pizza (but clearly still not enough to make you pick up the phone). Google, however, has announced an easier, more integrated means of ordering your next meal. According to the official Google Blog, the search engine now recognizes when you're looking for something to eat and will offer a "Place an order" option within the search results. Click on that and Google Search will prompt you to select one of six applicable delivery apps -- Seamless, Grubhub, Eat24, Delivery.com, BeyondMenu and MyPizza.com -- which immediately launches and loads the restaurant's menu for your perusal. Sure, you'll still have to wait 45 minutes for your food to actually get there, but at least this new system saves a couple of clicks.
This is the Modem World: Four ways to fix e-commerce and shipping companies
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I'm going out of my head right now. I came home hoping to find my cool new Santa Cruz mountain biking jersey all wrapped in plastic thanks to UPS via Chainlove.com, my crazy-discounted gear site of choice. We're not talking anything expensive -- I think the thing cost me $20, but I was psyched to have a team jersey from my favorite bike company. I'm a bike dork, what can I say? I should have been skeptical when I tracked my package from the office to learn that it had been left at my "front door" at exactly 2:00 PM. While it's possible the driver hit the 2 PM mark on the head, it's unlikely that he or she left anything at my "front door" given that it's three stories or 76 stairs -- my mom counts and complains every time she visits -- above the street. In fact, every single delivery I've ever received here was tossed over my little wooden fence. But in my head, everything was fine. The jersey was waiting for me, my future as a Santa Cruz team member assured. Victory was mine.
Walmart's website lets you Pay With Cash, strips away the 'convenience' of shopping online
Here's an idea: order products online, and then pay using regular 'ol dollar bills. Intrigued? That's exactly what Walmart has begun offering on its website today with its new Pay With Cash service. It's no different from initiating a normal web order, save for being another -- and potentially convoluted -- option to hand over your funds and checkout. After selecting PWC, you'll receive an order confirmation, which then allots you 48 hours to print it out and present it at your local Wally World. From there, you can choose to pick up the item in store or have it shipped to your house -- in effect, stripping away some of the key conveniences of shopping online in the first place. Of course, one could likely just give their local store a call to place items on hold for a similar result, but hey, more options are always nice, right? At the very least, many without the likes of credit cards and Google Wallets might find some appreciation for this method of retail purchasing. Hit up the links below for all the details.
White Castle offers online ordering but makes you leave couch for pick-up
Do you crave hamburgers but also want to minimize your interaction with fellow human beings? Then your unicorn-riding white knight has arrived, in the form of White Castle's new online ordering service. Thought not quite as handy as Domino's UK-only SMS ordering, the feature is rolling out to all 400 US locations. The website lets you "customize your sack" however you please; it also has a pretty high (or non-existent?) limit on quantities, meaning 1,000,000 Bacon and Cheddar Sliders will set you back $1,190,000. That could be a bug or a feature, depending on how hungry you are. Sadly, no matter how large your order you'll still have to go to the burger joint to pick it up -- delivery is still just a beautiful, beautiful dream. Maybe they can partner with MIT for a print-on-demand service.
Palm Pre sales go live at Amazon
If you love the Pre, but hate Best Buy or Sprint, now you've got the option of nabbing one through an online reseller you can live with: Amazon. The device has just popped up on the super-retailer's site, and like the aforementioned blue and yellow reseller, you don't have to worry about any pesky mail-in rebates -- the phone is $199.99 out the virtual door. Also of note, you can nab the non-contract version for $499.99, which is a $50 savings over the Sprint pricing, and certainly a value compared to Best Buy's $749.99 price tag. Only bummer note? Amazon says these babies won't ship for 4 to 6 weeks... which basically sucks. [Via PhoneNews]
