LY Communications

Available for both eating in and take out

LINE Fukuoka Corporation (“LINE Fukuoka”; Location: Hakata Ward, Fukuoka; Representative Director, President, and Chief Executive Officer: Noritaka Ochiai) and Fukuoka-based Group Corporation FJ Entertainment Works Ltd. (Location: Hakata Ward, Fukuoka; Representative Director: Yasunori Tomiyama) have been conducting a verification test of a dedicated LINE official account that lets people order from restaurant menus, make cashless payment through LINE Pay, and notifies them when their food is ready, all in one convenient service. Testing began on August 1, 2019 for employees of the “Konoha Mall Hashimoto” shopping center located in Fukuoka City’s Nishi Ward.

We are pleased to announce that testing for this account is complete, and it is ready for full-scale use by customers at the mall’s food court under the new name “Konoha * LINE Order.”

The account lets you order comfortably from your seat and chat with your family until your order is ready. Since you can order and pay on LINE, there is no need to line up, which makes getting take out on your way home when you have a lot of bags a snap.

Ordering at the food court is now even easier with Konoha * LINE Order.

You can order and pay on LINE without going to the register, and because the account eliminates the need to order and pay in cash at the counter, you can expect shorter lines at the food court.

Additionally, take out is smoother because you can wait to go to the restaurant until you get the notification that your order is ready. This is also a useful tool for both customers and employees in preventing the spread of infectious diseases.

This is the first time a Fukuoka-based commercial facility has introduced a LINE official account for ordering and payment, and moving forward, we are aiming to progressively introduce such accounts into group facilities.

Visualization of Konoha * LINE Order

Step 1 – Add the official Konoha * LINE Order LINE account and select “Use food court payment service” (フードコート決済サービスを利用する) from the menu at the bottom of the screen.
Step 2 – Select a restaurant, what you want to order, the quantity, and whether you want to eat in or take out.
Step 3 – Pay with LINE Pay.
Step 4 – When you get the notification that your order is ready along with your receipt number, pick up your food from the restaurant!

Note: LINE Pay registration is required to complete payment in Step 3.

Two unique aspects of Konoha * LINE Order

1. Order from any menu in the food court at your own pace, without lining up.
• There is no need to line up even when restaurants are crowded, because ordering and payment are done on LINE.
• The account lets you order at your own pace and spend the time you’re waiting for your order to be filled freely, even if you have a lot of bags or brought children with you.
• You can order from any restaurant in the food court with just LINE¹ without having to download an app for each restaurant.
• The account allows you to order and get your food efficiently, because there is no need to line up at each restaurant.

2. Through cashless payments, contact with other people is minimized, helping to prevent the spread of infectious disease.
• Employees no longer need to directly take orders, handle cash, or operate a cash register.
• Since customers can complete the process from order to payment on their devices, there is no need to handle cash, leading to the prevention of infectious diseases.
• The account reduces the amount of time customers spend at the counter, because they only need to go to the restaurant to pick up their order when it is ready. The account is also convenient for take out.
• LINE Fukuoka offered and tested a similar feature at a one-day event, calculating how much time customers needed to find a seat, order, pay, get their food, and return to their seat. The feature reduced the amount of time it took to complete the entire process by half compared to normal.

LINE Fukuoka will continue to utilize the LINE platform and its technology in order to make Fukuoka a richer, more convenient and future-oriented “Smart City.”

¹ Restaurants that support Konoha * LINE Order
• You can currently use the account to order at nine of the ten restaurants in the food court.
• Please note that some menu items may be different or unavailable on the account.

<Verification test details and results>
Each year, 6.1 million people visit Konoha Mall Hashimoto, and lines form especially easily in the food court on holidays, so we conducted the “Sit, Order & Pay” (currently “Konoha * LINE Order”) verification test with the goals of reducing wait times for ordering, drawing in people who avoided the food court due to crowds, and creating demand for take out. In addition to improving user friendliness and convenience during the testing period, restaurants also made changes to their customer service flow and staff assignments to fully utilize the feature.

• Testing period: August 1, 2019 – May 17, 2020
• Participants: Roughly 1,500 employees
• Verification test feedback
– “I was surprised at how fast I got my food after ordering.”
– “It’s very convenient, and helped me use my break time productively.”
– “We served twice as many customers by using the system.”
– “I thought it might be difficult, but ordering was smooth.” – “If the system takes root with customers and allows us to make more money, then I’m grateful for it.”

<LINE initiatives promoting going cashless in Fukuoka City>
In Fukuoka City, people can use LINE Pay to pay for certificate of residence or family register certificate issuing fees, bicycle parking fees, and admission fees for museums and zoos.

We are also simultaneously undertaking initiatives to build services that promote cashlessness and solve the issues people face in their daily lives by utilizing the LINE platform and LINE Pay. These include the creation of the “Fukuoka City Oversized Garbage Reservations” (福岡市粗大ごみ受付) LINE account (LINE ID: @fukuokacity_sdg) for oversized garbage pickup requests and payment, LINE Chat Order, and our collaboration with “i-Kasa.”
https://lycomm.co.jphttps://smartcity.lycomm.co.jp/casestudy/public-facility/