Digital
The Challenge
Heading to Zippy’s when cravings set in for the locally owned restaurant chain’s much-loved and ‘ono (delicious) Hawai‘i-inspired comfort foods, plate lunches and bakery items is a longtime tradition of life in the Islands. Every Hawai‘i resident knows Zippy’s. Its restaurant locations statewide — most of them on O‘ahu, but also on Kaua‘i, Maui, the island of Hawai‘i and, beginning in 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada — have served and sated the appetites and cravings of generations of Hawai‘i residents since 1966. In 2019, Anthology was tasked with supporting a major rebranding effort for Zippy’s with a new website and — for the first time in the chain’s then 53-year history — a modern, efficient, and easy and desirable to use online ordering system.
Almost immediately after successfully introducing Zippy’s rebranding and its new website and online ordering system to Hawai‘i residents, however, Anthology and Zippy’s were faced with a major challenge to their progress. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 quickly and unexpectedly thrust Zippy’s new online ordering system into the forefront of its operations and business model, drawing enormous customer demand and traffic as residents reduced indoor dining at restaurants and increasingly opted for takeout. The system suddenly became Zippy’s primary ordering channel for customers as rapidly changing state and city government COVID-19 regulations and restrictions in the first months of the pandemic necessitated operational changes chainwide.
The Solution
Anthology immediately jumped in to offer the Zippy’s team rapid enhancements and support for its online operations. In addition, Anthology worked with the Zippy’s team to enhance, streamline and make comfortable for customers its online-order curbside pickup experience.
Anthology provided continuing support for changes elsewhere in Zippy’s operations as well, integrating an online waitlist supporting limited dine-in services and capacity at all restaurant locations. We also quickly planned and executed website enhancements allowing Zippy’s to always stay ahead of the curve in proactively ensuring compliance with then ever-evolving state and city government COVID-19 regulations and restrictions.
In the years since beginning our work with Zippy’s before and at the start of the pandemic, we took the lead on another redesign of the restaurant chain’s website, integrated a new platform for its online ordering system, and assisted with the introduction of its popular Zipster Rewards loyalty program. Anthology has also become an extension of Zippy’s IT staff as the chain expands its embrace of new technologies and incorporates new strategies encouraging increased customer visits and use of the Zipster Rewards loyalty program. Anthology’s advances and solutions for Zippy’s remain ongoing.
Zippy’s enthusiastic embrace of technology and sweeping customer adoption of its efficient, easy-to- use online ordering system has changed the chain’s business model for the positive and prepared it for future successes in the years ahead. Anthology is excited about its continuing partnership with the Zippy’s team as we discover and adopt ways to keep the pioneering and beloved brand ever relevant and ever current in its always evolving industry and customer marketplace.
