City of Toronto issued the following announcement on May 30.

The King Street Transit Pilot project’s two-week Food is King promotional campaign in Toronto achieved significant sales increases and new customers for participating restaurants and food establishments in the area.

The campaign, a partnership between the City of Toronto, the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) and the Toronto headquartered food ordering app Ritual, ran from February 20 through to March 4 and involved 52 participating restaurants along and around King Street West from Bathurst Street to Jarvis Street.

The campaign provided a $15 credit for food purchases by new Ritual users and existing Ritual users who had not placed an order at a participating King Street restaurant in 2018.

“The King Street Transit Pilot project has introduced improved transit service on one of our busiest routes with minimum impact on drivers,” said Mayor John Tory. “With the Food is King Ritual partnership, we have also made sure that the King Street pilot is driving business and new customers to our local establishments.”

Data from the two-week campaign provided by Ritual shows that the partnership produced significant results.

● Participating restaurants saw a 707-per-cent increase in first-time Ritual customer visits in the first week of the campaign and a 1,062-per-cent increase in week two.

● In total, 19,863 customers made their first purchase at a King Street restaurant which resulted in 6,995 new customers overall on the Ritual platform.

● A total of 27,288 additional orders were placed at participating restaurants compared with the weekly average three weeks before the promotion.

● There was a $426,005 increase in sales for participating restaurants compared with the weekly average three weeks before the promotion.

● Seven new King Street restaurants signed on to the Ritual platform.

● Participating merchants saw a sustained sales increase through April.

“The City of Toronto is always looking for new tools to support local businesses,” said Councillor Michael Thompson (Ward 37 Scarborough Centre), Chair of the City's Economic Development Committee. “This partnership with TABIA and Ritual demonstrated an innovative new approach to promoting King Street businesses as we make sure this pilot achieves all our goals, including maintaining the street’s economic vibrancy.”

The City's total investment of $164,470 was complemented by an additional $100,000 investment by Ritual to fund the credit for new Ritual users. It also included significant in-kind contribution from Ritual in terms of campaign promotion, merchant outreach and customer support, and program administration.

“Ritual is proud to be a King Street business and welcomed the opportunity to work with the City of Toronto and TABIA to help introduce thousands of new customers to our incredible restaurant partners,” said Elynn Tucker, General Manager of Ritual for Toronto.

About the King Street Transit Pilot

The King Street Transit Pilot between Bathurst Street and Jarvis Street, introduced in November 2017, is changing how King Street works by not allowing private vehicles through intersections and instead giving priority to streetcars. The King Street Transit Pilot will explore ideas for how to redesign King Street in order to achieve objectives to move people more efficiently, support economic prosperity and improve place-making. More information is available at toronto.ca/kingstreetpilot.

About Ritual

With more than 1,600 restaurants in the U.S. and Toronto, Ritual is a social ordering app that taps networks of coworkers and colleagues for fast and easy pick up and pay at a wide variety of local restaurants and coffee shops. With Ritual, users can mobile order and pay at all their favorite local eateries and coffee shops and have it ready to pick up when they arrive. More information is available at toronto.ritual.co.

About TABIA

The Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) is a non-profit umbrella organization working with the Toronto's 83 Business Improvement Areas within the City of Toronto who in turn represent more than 40,000 business & property owners. More information is available at toronto-bia.com.

Originsl source: https://www.toronto.ca/home/media-room/news-releases-media-advisories/?nrkey=030EE66CF3796A928525829D0052396D