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Wingstop calls itself the wing experts. But Michael Skipworth, CEO of the 2,800-location fast casual chicken chain, likes to highlight a different distinction hes proud of, having nothing to do with food. People dont think about a chicken wing restaurant being a digital powerhouse, Skipworth tells me. Today, after spending years taking cues from outside the restaurant industryairlines, beauty brandshe has built exactly that: a thriving e-commerce business that just happens to sell Americas favorite protein. In the second quarter of 2025, diners spent more than $1 billion at the 31-year-old chain, ordering wingsboneless and bone-inand chicken tenders in custom combinations of 12 flavors ranging from Original Hot to Spicy Korean Q to Mango Habanero. (Popeyes, for comparison, reported $1.5 billion in sales in Q2.) They placed nearly three-quarters of those orders through digital channels including Wingstops app, MyWingstop. Over the past several years, Skipworth, who has been CEO since 2022, has invested $50 million in rebuilding the companys tech stack from scratch. The decision to rely on proprietary technology helped the company assemble a database of nearly 60 million customers it can target (and retarget) with timely, personalized ads and promotions that encourage repeat visits and larger orders. Thats exactly what happened when Wingstop reintroduced its crispy chicken tenders earlier this year. A record number of new customers showed up to try them, while others found a reason to come back. During Wingstops July earnings call, Skipworth said that the revamped menu item drove reactivation of lapsed customers at a level we haven’t seen from any menu innovation in the past two years. Although the company saw a rare drop in same-store sales last quarter, its first in three years (Skipworth attributed the 1.9% drop to temporary consumer anxiety), overall sales are up 14% and revenue is up 12%. Already this year, Wingstop has opened as many stores as it did in all of 2023; its on pace to surpass 2024s net new openings, too. Recently, Skipworth talked to Fast Company about Wingstops tech wins, including AI-enhanced kitchen revamps that cut order wait times in half, and its first-ever loyalty program, launching next year. Years ago, Wingstop decided to stop using third-party companies for online orders, opting to build its own system, MyWingstop, from scratch. Hows it going? We went live a little over a year ago, and since then weve seen our digital customer database grow by 30% to almost 60 million strong and growing. Today, digital sales are over 70% of our sales mix. Youve publicly credited this customer database with boosting the successful relaunch of chicken tenders earlier this year. How did that happen? During the relaunch of tenders, we leveraged MyWingstop to target specific consumers who we thought, based on experience or look-alike profiles, would be chicken tender users. We acquired a record amount of new guests during this relaunch; those new guests, as you might expect, over-index younger, most [ordering for one]. We also reactivated lapsed users at a record pace. These lapsed users looked very different from the new guests; theyre a little bit older and placing larger orders, likely for a family. This all speaks to the long-term opportunity we have for tenders. There are 1.6 billion chicken tenders served annually in the U.S., and we feel like were just scratching the surface. How many of the 1.6 billion are yours? Not enough! Not nearly enough. As a parent of young children, I can confirm that my household consumes its fair share of chicken tenders. How do you find these lapsed and potential diners, like me? Our customer database is more than email, phone number, name, and order history. We invest and enrich that data to have over 300 data points on every single guest. It has a lot to do with what else our guests are interested in, what other brands they engage with, what platforms theyre on. We can get really targeted on social and in paid search. Some Wingstop locations are using AI in the kitchen now, to help cooks and other back-of-house employees. What do these smart kitchens do? Were roughly a 30-year-old brand and really havent invested much of anything, up until this point, in back-of-house technology. We built an AI-enabled machine learning model customized to every restaurant, telling employees what to anticipate in 15-minute increments so they can get in front of demand. We built a kitchen display system that uses imagery and gamification and swiping, all things our young workforce is used to doing with their phones. It also includes a consumer-facing order-ready screen that shows where their order is in the process of being made and when its ready. In a traditional Wingstop kitchen, theyre running paper kitchen tickets and relying on voice commands across the kitchen. Its pretty remarkable to think with that level ofIll call it an unsophisticated back-of-houseto be delivering an average unit volume of $2.1 million. But in this traditional model, our standard quote time is 20 minutes. When restaurants get busy, like on a Friday night, it can get up to 45 minutes. With this new kitchen operating platform, weve been able to cut that time down significantly, delivering an average speed of service of 10 minutes. During your last earnings report, you referenced general consumer uncertainty and anxiety. How is that affecting the way you are leading the company into 2026? Were in a unique position. We dont play in those $3, $5 value wars. Thats just not our model, and its not how consumers engage with our brand. We lean into qualityevery order at Wingstop is cooked to order, hand-sauced, and tossed. Our ranch and blue cheese are made from scratch in the restaurant every day. So we lean into ways to showcase quality and abundance, and consumers see value there. Were also building a loyalty program right now, the first for Wingstop. What should Wingstop fans expect from your loyalty program? Its not going to look like others in the restaurant space. Most brands that launch loyalty are doing it to acquire data about their customer. We already have that data, so its about more than driving sign-ups and having to discount and give away. Were going to lean into making customers feel special, making them feel unique, all through personalization. Our program is going to be about status and what that unlocks for you: early access to flavors, for example. Were taking most of our inspiration from outside of restaurants, like the airline industry and brands like Sephora and Ulta and the programs theyve designed that drive personalized engagement. In the spirit of personalization, whats your Wingstop order? Im an all-flats, bone-in lemon pepper, and then tenders with original hot. And ranch, no question.
Category:
E-Commerce
Imagine climbing a five-story ladder, putting you 54 feet off the ground. How careful would you be at the tippy top? How aware of your hands and feet and surroundings would you be? If you fell off at that height, youd hit the ground at 40 MPH. Now think about how many times youve driven 40 MPH in a residential or commercial district. People who are walking across the street and get hit at 40 MPH are almost guaranteed to die, but hit at 20 MPH, theyre almost guaranteed to survive. Were super careful on normal household ladders that only put us five or six feet off the ground, let alone the 54-foot ladder (i.e. the 40 MPH ladder). But driving 40 MPH on a city street? Meh, no big deal. Last month, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles installed a bright yellow, giant ladder in front of Richmonds minor league baseball stadium. They used visual markers that equated 10, 20, 30, and 40 MPH with corresponding fall heights, making the physics of speed brutally tangible. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}} Think about that the next time youre driving along a street that has sidewalks and crosswalks. People who tell cops and reporters the pedestrian came out of nowhere are people who were driving too fast. Speed is deadly, but nobody seems to be slowing down. Speed kills Every day in America, more than a hundred people are killed in traffic crashes. Thousands more suffer life-changing injuries. Every day, for decades. Speed is a fundamental factor in those brutal crashes. We all know fast driving is the norm, so let it sink in that the vast majority of traffic fatalities and severe injuries are preventable. In a radical departure from traditional punishments, Virginia judges can now mandate speed-limiting devices on the cars of habitual speeders as early as July 2026. These units, known as Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), physically prevent a vehicle from exceeding posted speed limits by using GPS or sign recognition to control acceleration. In Washington State, a horrifying crash killed a mother and three children when someone barreled down the street at 112 MPH. That tragedy led to ISA legislation called the BEAM Act, named after the first initials of the four victims. Judges can offer ISA as an alternative to suspending a license, delivering a tangible, always-on safety measure rather than relying on human choice alone. This type of consequence for dangerous, antisocial behavior isnt new. For decades, vehicle-mounted breathalyzers have been installed to prevent intoxicated offenders from starting their cars. Some include cameras, GPS, Wi-Fi reporting, and driver-recognition tech, offering real-time logs of attempts and noncompliance. An attack on freedom According to Centers for Disease Control reports, breathalyzers slash repeat drunk-driving incidents by roughly 70%. Mothers Against Drunk Driving credits these devices with stopping millions of drunk-driving attempts. Dealing with drunk drivers is hardly controversial, but capping speed is seen in America as a direct attack on freedom. Still, weve reached a point where grieving family members have become effective safety advocates, helping their elected officials realize that tens of thousands of traffic fatalities and life-altering injuries could be prevented. New York lawmakers are proposing provisions forcing repeat traffic offenders to install ISA systems that cap speed to just 5 MPH over the limit. The New York City Department of Transportation tested ISA on 500 fleet vehicles, and recorded an 82% reduction in speeding on high-speed roads and a 64% overall drop. Thats reason to celebrate, because its a reminder that fleet managers can opt-in to these safety features without waiting for a court-mandated, behavioral-override technology. Just as seatbelts and airbags have become nonnegotiable safety layers, ISAand eventually impairment-aware ISAcould become layers of a systems approach to safety. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
Up until very recently, employees often had to endure costly and lengthy commutes to faraway cities to work from a single headquarters office on a daily basis. Today, accelerated by the pandemic and driven by the rapid digitization of the workplace, the widespread adoption of hybrid and platform working has revolutionized howand wherepeople work. Todays more flexible ways of working have become the default model for a significant proportion of white-collar workers. We see daily headlines about companies calling their employees back to the office, but the nuance of where employees are returning to is often missing. Today, companies are increasingly empowering their employees to work across multiple locations, splitting their time between some combination of local workspaces, a central office, and home. The map of where work gets done has been completely redrawnand often doesnt center around one headquarters. This new way of working is also a rebalancing of where economic value is created. Work goes local Over the past few years, leading academics, industry commentators, and business leaders alike have begun to recognize the significant benefits of this new way of working for both companies and their employees. At International Workplace Group, we recently partnered with global consultancy Arup to gain a deeper understanding of the productivity benefits of hybrid and more localized working arrangements for businesses of all sizes, as well as the economic implications for companies and local communities. Our collective findings confirm that working from local offices and workspaces closer to where people live not only improves the quality of life for employees, but also delivers significant productivity benefits for businesses, cities, and entire economies. Our study forecasts that by 2030, flexible working arrangements could boost productivity 11%, contributing a staggering $219 billion to the U.S. economy annually. By 2045, that impact could rise to $566 billion annually, the equivalent of adding entire cities the size of Austin, Texas, to the map. Why? Because local workspaces offer the kind of environment that supports real productivity: fewer distractions than at home, less time spent commuting to a faraway office, and more freedom to work in a way that suits them. In fact, employees using flexible spaces are 67% more likely to rate their productivity as excellent compared to those working from home. Transforming the commute Commutingone of the great inefficiencies of the 20th-century workplaceis finally being reconsidered. By working locally, employees can reclaim a significant portion of their day. In the U.S., workers spend an average of 55 minutes a day commuting, with many supercommuters spending much more time in transit. However, when people work closer to home, up to 40% of this recovered time is directly allocated to additional work, while the rest is reinvested in family life, personal well-being, and local communities. Beyond boosting local economies, this also has real financial benefits for employees. Separate research concludes U.S. workers who ditch the daily city commute can save up to $30,332 a year, a particularly notable figure for Gen Z workers embarking on their careers who can look forward to significant lifetime savings. Flexibility rules Its no surprise, then, that our research shows that employees are three times more likely to stay in roles that allow them to work flexibly. This dramatically reduces costly turnover and can lead to a stronger, more engaged company culture. Businesses that embrace this model dont just save money on overheadthey also become more attractive employers, drawing the best talent in an increasingly competitive market. Additionally, with more locations to expand their search for talent, employers can focus on finding the right employees, rather than just the nearest ones. The new office So what does this look like? Were increasingly seeing workspaces pop up in small towns, such as Franklin, Texas, and Berwyn, Pa., which each boast fewer than 10,000 residents. This growing trend is no coincidenceit reflects rising demand for professional, flexible workspace options closer to where people live. Larger organizations are scaling back traditional city-center headquarters to invest in local workspaces or suburban hubs. Businesses are also utilizing flexible spaces to expand rapidly and explore new markets without the burden of long-term, expensive leases. Our recent research shows that this ongoing shift could reduce real estate costs for businesses by up to $122 billion in the U.S. The future of work is not about a single skyscraper in the city; its about a network of locations that enable people to work just minutes from home. Its in towns where people want to live, not just work. And this approach scales, whether youre a startup growing quickly, a multinational diversifying its footprint, or any size business wanting to empower your people to work from wherever is most productive and convenient. Driven by its unmatched ability to drive measurable increases in long-term productivity and employee satisfaction, the workplace of tomorrow is flexibleits also within walking distance of your home.
Category:
E-Commerce
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