On-line order system boosts sales for Port of Subs stores

Lines are getting longer and lunch hours are getting shorter, says Kristin Kronhardt, vice president of marketing for Port of Subs Inc., a Reno-based sandwich chain.

"People are looking for quicker options," she says, so the company set up an online ordering system.

Now customers who go to www.portofsubsonline.com can order a sandwich pretty much the same way they order a book from Amazon. Some restaurants even take credit card payment on-line.

The customer fills in fields, and software on an Ohio-based computer server transfers the online order into a fax that's routed to the right store and prints it as a paper cue next to the cashier.

The service was introduced at the company's Arizona stores. The Las Vegas stores were wired over a year ago and now 90 percent of the 29 restaurants in Reno are on the program.

Las Vegas-area customers have placed more than 8,500 e-orders since Port of Subs started electronic ordering in January 2005.

"We are seeing an average of about 3 percent of sales coming thru the online ordering system for participating stores," says Kronhardt.

Some stores have seen as much as 5 percent.

"Implementing the online ordering system was pretty seamless," she says,

because of the Web service, Genesis Webmasters.

The Ohio-based company was recommended by a franchisee whose family operates it.

Port of Subs began in Reno and now operates 146 company-owned and franchised stores in six Western states.