22. Chipotle’s Pioneering Approach to Digital – Nicole West of Chipotle Mexican Grill

How does a quick service restaurant transform itself into a lifestyle brand? For Chipotle Mexican Grill, its all about being real and staying ahead of digital trends to create the ultimate customer experience. Nicole West, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Product for Chipotle, joins host Grayson Brulte this week to discuss the digital experience that Chipotle has pioneered within the industry. Nicole shares her experience building Chipotle’s digital commerce business and how consumer adoption of digital ordering and experiences has led to digital making up 61% of company sales in Q2 2020. She discusses what trends the company saw when it developed the industry’s first ordering app and how they continue to experiment with new ways to engage with customers and drive sales. As the conversation continues, Nicole explains the ways that Chipotle has innovated and disrupted the industry when appropriate, including its ordering app, Chipotlanes, Digital Kitchen, packaging, walk-up contactless pickups, and voice ordering with “Pepper,” all of which uniquely positioned the company to handle consumer shifts to digital when COVID-19 hit. The conversation concludes with some forward-looking observations, how delivery drivers are essential to their business, and a pie in the sky look at delivery methods using autonomous vehicles and drones.   Learn more about Chipotle Mexican Grill at www.chipotle.com.   Subscribe to SAE Tomorrow Today or visit www.sae.org/podcasts to stay up to date on all the latest information from SAE. If you like what you’re hearing, please review and comment on your podcast app. Follow SAE on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.