What makes
Shake Shack's cashless store so potentially powerful — even if it's only one location in Manhattan — is what the burger chain can do when every customer is known to it.
Suppressing cash is simply the first step. Through the Astor Place location's use of kiosks and a text messaging system that replaces the pagers it uses at other locations to let patrons know an order is ready, Shake Shack can greatly deepen its relationship with each customer while also slashing its own operational costs.
The typical Shake Shack ordering process involves standing in one of two lines to order (one for food and drink, and a faster line for only drinks), paying a cashier, then waiting again for the pager to buzz when the order is ready. The system results in such long lines that Shake Shack provides a "
Shack Cam" on its website to allow customers to judge whether they can bother with the wait at its store in New York's Madison Square Park.
Almost all of this process is removed in the company's new model, which relies on kiosks or a mobile device and — crucially — collects the customer's phone number as part of the ordering process so that it can send a text alert when the food is ready.
"Beyond eliminating cash it's about eliminating the point of sale. That's a game changer," said Richard Crone, a payments consultant and researcher.
It's clear that this purely digital system opens new possibilities that might have been just out of reach in a system that still allows cash.
Shake Shack already has an order-ahead app, which should of course be compatible with the new location. The app lets users select a location and pickup time, and remembers customers by either creating a Shake Shack account or asking them to link a Facebook or Google account. In this model, the app handles the payment and also doubles as the buzzer — but one look at the Shack Cam is enough to show that many customers still pay the old fashioned way.
So what can be done about the customers who won't pay through the app, but who Shake Shack still wants to remember? Though the Payment Card Industry data security standards limit what companies can do with the card data they collect, there are some examples already of how much can be done when customers pay by card.
Square is a prime example. The company can identify consumers by their card, regardless of which merchant they shop at, sends a digital receipt to the email address it already has on file. In 2014, Square introduced interactive receipts under a service called Square Feedback, which allows merchants to request feedback on the sale and thus develop a relationship with the customer.
Whether Shake Shack is planning something similar is unclear. The company has shared
limited details of its long-term goals for the cashless model beyond cutting costs enough to justify higher wages for its employees.
"Cashless" also isn’t the best way to describe this experiment, said Rick Oglesby, president of AZ Payments Group. "Cashless implies the removal of cash as a payment option, and nothing more. This concept is a very different shopping experience from start to finish, one that makes cash irrelevant. We’ll see a lot more of these concept stores being tested to evaluate consumer preferences, find the right models, and then work out the kinks."