Sixty-eight percent of consumers place orders from a restaurant — not through an aggregator — at least once a month, according to Digital Divide: Minding The Loyalty Gap, a PYMNTS and Paytronix collaboration that surveyed 2,414 U.S. adults who regularly purchase food from restaurants.


PYMNTS found that 54% of consumers order from table-service restaurants at least once a month and 44% order from quick-service restaurants (QSRs) with that frequency.

Among those who place orders from QSRs, younger adults, the college-educated and individuals who earn more than $100,000 annually are the demographic groups most engaged with QSRs’ loyalty programs.

Sixty percent of the members of the youngest generation included in the survey — Generation Z — use loyalty programs at QSRs. The older the generation, the less likely the consumers are to engage with QSRs’ loyalty programs.

There are also differences by the consumers’ level of education. Fifty percent of those with a college degree use loyalty programs at QSRs, while 37% of those without a college degree do so.

The results differ by income too. Fifty percent of consumers who earn more than $100,000 use loyalty programs at QSRs, compared with 44% of those with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 and 31% of those with incomes of less than $50,000.

Consumers who order from QSRs go about earning loyalty rewards in several ways. The three most common methods QSR customers use to earn loyalty rewards are based on the amount they spend (cited by 64% of these consumers), the number of visits (47%) and the number of products they purchase (43%).

Smaller shares of the consumers who engage with QSRs earn loyalty rewards by providing contact information (29%) and by giving social media support (18%).