Lightspeed, the leading point-of-sale and omnichannel solutions provider for hospitality and retail, has today announced the launch of Lightspeed Ordering, a new innovative tech solution powered by Bopple and designed to help hospitality venue owners succeed while keeping their venues COVID-safe this summer.

Lightspeed Ordering includes digital ordering, order ahead, order-at-table, guest checkout and COVID check-in functions. The integrated hospitality solution removes the need for manual reconciliation of orders and payment, eliminates order errors and reduces staffing costs, empowering operators to ensure their venues run seamlessly and remain profitable, while remaining compliant and COVID-safe.

Online ordering has seen significant growth during COVID, and this trend isn’t expected to subside soon. A deep-dive analysis of more than 7,000 venues using Lightspeed reveals revenue from online orders has grown 221% year-on-year.

Such tech-driven integrations also positively impact a venue’s profitability, with Lightspeed data revealing a 22% increase in average transaction values for orders placed via Lightspeed Ordering since 1 April 2020, compared to traditional in-store orders.

“Australian hospitality operators are facing a challenging environment, resulting in many to look for ways to improve their customer experience”, commented Simon Le Grand, Director of Marketing and Product Management at Lightspeed. “This exciting new launch enables us to support the local hospitality community towards achieving a profitable summer by engineering much-needed and affordable solutions that keep their venues COVID-safe, compliant, profitable and running seamlessly.”

Diners at venues which will implement Lightspeed Ordering can expect a totally contactless, digital experience, including check-in, browsing the menu, ordering and payment. As a result, this partnership will allow venues to meet diner expectations, with an increased focus on hygiene and health that will be long standing post-COVID.

Lightspeed will waive the usual Lightspeed Ordering subscription fee of $50 per month for three months for all new customers and introduce a new ultra-competitive payment rate of 2.8% dependent on merchant volume. Lightspeed Ordering is compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay.