Domino’s 10-year hot streak is over, but its digital strategy is extra crispy

Goodbye, my couch pizza... A loyal pandemic friend. Domino's, the Earth's largest pizza company, just broke its 10-year hot streak: Its US same-store sales fell for the first time in over a decade, ending 41 straight quarters of cheesy growth.

• Supply is chained: Supply and labor shortages forced Dom's to reduce hours as it hunted for more drivers. FYI: Fast-food prices are up nearly 7% from last year.
• Date night's back: And it doesn't involve a box of BBQ cheesy bread. With IRL eateries back open, the pizza-delivery surge has cooled.
• Americans = unstimulated: Dom’s partly blamed its US sales slump on reductions in stimulus payments, which boosted spending last year.

Not as stale as it sounds... Compared to last year's pandemic pizza boom, Dom's US store sales were down 2%. But compared to the same quarter in 2019, US sales were up nearly 16%. Meanwhile, international sales growth boomed 20% — Dom's 111th straight quarter of non-US growth. Here's how Dom's is keeping its strategy crispy:

• Tech focus: Dom's intro'd online ordering for carryout and a delivery app with real-time order tracking.
• Speed central: It launched designated lanes to cut carryout wait times, and a two-minute guarantee for car-side delivery.
• Surprise "frees," not fees: Instead of surprise fees, Dom's launched a $50M campaign to give one in every 14 digital delivery orders a surprise free item, like lava cake.