A new Seattle startup is using technology to help retailers and restaurants offer their own drive-thru service.
Founded last year, FlyBuy is picking up momentum with its service that lets users order food and other products online and pick them up at a brick-and-mortar location without leaving their car.
The model is fairly simple. After ordering something via FlyBuy’s app, you’ll be notified when the order is ready. The app asks you to tell the retailer when you are headed over so they can be ready outside when you arrive. Payment is done through the app.
FlyBuy expects to have 100 merchants on its platform by the end of the year, ranging from restaurants, dry cleaners, flower shops, clothing stores, and more.
Will Rademaker, Chapin Henry, and Bryan Terrell founded the company last year after thinking that consumers should be able to buy something from a store without having to park their vehicle and pay for parking. FlyBuy raised a seed round of $300,000 and signed up its first customers earlier in 2015, and is seeing traction from both customers and retailers.
The company, which takes a percentage of each transaction completed on its platform, is focusing on a handful of Seattle neighborhoods for now, including downtown, Madison Park, Capitol Hill, and University Village. It plans to expand to other locations and retailers soon.
FlyBuy President Ric Merrifield said that merchants like using FlyBuy as an “additive” to delivery services like GrubHub, Caviar, Eat24, and others. He also noted that there are several types of customers who may find FlyBuy appealing, from a parent that doesn’t have time to park and take their child out to people who simply don’t want to pay for parking.
“On the customer side, there are many personas we talk about who benefit from not having to park to get what you want,” he noted.
FlyBuy is among a throng of startups and corporations alike that are utilizing technology to help get food, grocery items, and other products in the hands of consumers in the most efficient way possible. However, the startup is unique in that it is somewhat of a hybrid between actually going inside a physical store and ordering goods to be delivered. Check out the video below to see how FlyBuy works.
