Papa John’s International Inc. has a solution for customers who struggle to split a pizza bill with cash: A bill splitting tool.
The Louisville, Ky.-based operator said Thursday that it has introduced PayShare, which lets multiple customers split their pizza bill in an online or mobile order.
“In today’s ‘sharing economy,’ customers split fares for car services and share their homes or vacation rental sites, so why not share the pizza bill, too,” Papa John’s founder, president and CEO John Schnatter said in a statement.
The deal is another indicator of the race between major pizza chains to make it as easy as possible for customers to place and pay for orders.
Both Papa John’s and Domino’s Pizza Inc. have added functionality to their technology offerings and aggressively used their websites and mobile apps to enable customers to order pizzas.
“PayShare is yet another milestone for Papa John’s, which has a solid track record of digital ‘firsts,’ including the first commercial pizza chain to allow systemwide online ordering in our traditional restaurants 15 years ago, and the first pizza chain to account for 50 percent of all sales through digital and mobile channels,” Schnatter said.
The company also hopes that the new system gets people to rethink the cost of a pizza — while also ensuring that customers don’t have to spend time worrying about getting repaid for the pizza.
“PayShare will change the mindset of our customers as they begin to think less of a $20 order and see it more as a $5 meal,” Bob Kraut, Papa John’s chief marketing officer, said in a release. “The offering is a simple, digital solution that allows our customers to focus on enjoying their favorite pizza with their friends and family, not on how they’re going to get paid back. The group can even post its order on social media channels to let its community know what it ordered.”
Papa John’s is highlighting PayShare in commercials featuring NBA All Star basketball player Paul George.
PayShare is available nationally via online ordering and the company’s mobile app on both the Android and iOS platforms.
Contact Jonathan Maze at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @jonathanmaze
