Pizza Chains Break Online Ordering Records

Online and mobile sales of pizza got a big boost after Thanksgiving, as U.S. shoppers stayed planted in front of their computers on Cyber Monday, Nov. 28, to order food.

Domino's Pizza said Wednesday it processed more than one million U.S. orders in the week of Nov. 28 – Dec. 4, the pizza chain's best week ever in domestic digital sales, the company said.

"This was the first time in our history we surpassed one million digital orders in a single week," Patrick Doyle, Domino's Pizza president and chief executive, said in a statement. "It was extraordinary — and clearly a sign of the times. Consumers are not only craving quality food, but they're getting it via the convenience of ordering from their computers and other mobile devices."

A spokeswoman for Papa John's International Inc. said Cyber Monday made the post-Thanksgiving period a "big online sales week" for that Louisville, Ky.-based chain.

And a spokesman for Plano, Texas-based Pizza Hut said "it was the biggest week in company history for online sales." In the run-up to Thanksgiving, Pizza Hut promoted a new limited-time Big Dinner Box deal that included two medium-sized rectangular one-topping pizzas, eight chicken wings, and five breadsticks for $19.99, a savings from the regular $26 value.

Watch a promotion for the Big Dinner Box.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Domino's said it sold 1.08 million pizzas in the Cyber Monday week. It also offered a package deal of one large, one-topping pizza with eight chicken wings and eight pieces of stuffed cheese bread for $19.99.

Domino's said online ordering now comprises about 30 percent of all orders, nearly four years since the feature launched.

On Thursday, Domino's will host the first Global Domino's Day, a multinational promotion with 19 participating nations, on Facebook. The company is offering half off any menu-priced pizza ordered online through a special Facebook tab as the deal rolls through time zones, starting in Japan.

— Ron Ruggless, NRN.com