The restaurant industry has traditionally been slow about adapting to the digital age.
Starting with the impact of COVID in changing the way restaurants operate, the industry turned to Delivery and eCommerce, and a new focus on Delivering Digitally. This business shift, brought about the birth of the Digital Restaurant Association (“DRA”) who recently announced its partnership and alliance with the IFBTA.

Host Rob Grimes, founder, and CEO of the IFBTA is joined by Joe Reinstein, Executive Director of the DRA in having a conversation that covers why Digital plays such an important and expanding role in today’s restaurant operations and why the IFBTA and DRA have come together to help restaurants thrive in the digital world.

As the IFBTA connects the entire restaurant technology ecosystem and the operators within it, Joe highlights that in addition to providing digital education, products and services, one of the key objectives of the DRA is to give restaurants a voice in public policy - noting third parties are now controlling new customers in the digital space. “If you think about before the pandemic, the restaurants were doing 8% of their sales through online delivery - now they’re doing 20-50% of their revenue through online ordering.”

Both organizations will kickoff the new partnership by hosting a joint Virtual Chapter Meeting and Restaurant Marketing Summit on July 25th to 27th.
If you want to hear more about the opportunities and challenges to the restaurant industry brought about by the industry’s Digital Revolution, and the roles the IFBTA and DRA play in support of this - listen to this episode of Accelerate.