Subway customers can now use Facebook Messenger to order and pay for meals, the company said Tuesday.
The Milford, Conn.-based quick-service chain said the Messenger bot can be used at all 26,500 Subway restaurants in the United States, both online and through mobile devices.
Subway and its digital partner, Agilitee, made the announcement at the F8 Facebook Developer Conference in San Jose, Calif.
“This is a new initiative in the ongoing quest to enhance the guest experience,” Carman Wenkoff, Subway’s chief information and digital officer, said in a statement.
Subway said customers could use the Messenger bot to order a sandwich or salad, customize it and pay with any device that supported the Facebook Messenger platform.
“To use the bot: launch the Messenger app, visit Messenger.com or visit Facebook.com/subway and tap ‘Order Now.’ The bot will ask for the user’s location to find the closest Subway restaurant,” the company said.
Payment can be made through Facebook’s payment system, which requires the registration of a credit card, or through Masterpass, an online payment service by Mastercard.
Facebook said various Messenger bots are available for business. For instance, the ride-share services Uber and Lyft are among those using the capability.
Individual communications between businesses and customers on the platform reached 2 billion in the past year, and the number of business bots tripled from 11,000 in July 2016 to 30,000 by September 2016. There are currently 100,000 business bots on Messenger.
Stan Chudnovsky, Facebook Messenger’s vice president of product, said in a statement: “It’s a simple way to order food, and available to anyone who already has Messenger.”
In research for Nation’s Restaurant News’ Top 200, Subway reported $11.3 billion in U.S. systemwide sales for the December-ended 2016 fiscal year, down 1.7 percent from $11.5 billion reported in fiscal 2015.
Subway, a division of Doctor’s Associates Inc., has more than 44,600 franchised locations in 112 countries.
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