Parakeet Cafe

Cafe10+ locations

How the unPLUG online ordering and growth platform turned app guests into regulars with a cafe loyalty app, branded web and app ordering, and Toast.

+21%

First-Party Digital Sales Growth

50%

App Share of First-Party Orders

About The Partnership

Parakeet Cafe is a healthy coffee, food, and pastry concept with locations across Southern California. Guests come back often, sometimes several times a week. That makes repeat visits the heart of the business.

Parakeet went live on unPLUG in March 2026, with branded web and app ordering connected to its loyalty program, running alongside Toast. The stack behind that multi-location cafe digital ordering is Toast POS with unPLUG branded web and app ordering, loyalty integration, and catering. Cafe orders and catering live in one Parakeet app and website. This restaurant loyalty program case study looks at the first five full months on the platform, April to August 2026, measured against the same months a year earlier.

Integrations: Toast

""I have already recommended unPLUG to peers in the industry.""
Jonathan Goldwasser
Owner & CEO

The Challenge

Parakeet was clear about what digital had to do from the start. As a healthy coffee, food and pastry concept, repeat customers are the heart of the business.

"We are the type of concept where someone might visit several times a week if the experience is right. Digital has to support habit, not just transactions," said Jonathan Goldwasser, Owner & CEO.

So the scorecard for the platform was never just topline sales. Parakeet's business was already growing before launch, and that growth is the team's work. The fair way to read the platform is on channel mix and guest behavior: who orders direct, how often they come back, and how many guests the brand knows by name.

How We Solved It

The strategic approach and key implementations that drove success

First-Party Digital Led the Brand in Growth

The app quickly became the default way to order direct. About half of first-party orders now come through the app, up from about one in five in August 2025, a year earlier.

First-party digital sales grew nearly 21% year on year in August, faster than Parakeet's business as a whole. The year-on-year comparison is like for like, measured on the same Toast dining options before and after the switch.

The momentum built through the summer. First-party growth went from mid single digits in April and May to around 18% in June and nearly 21% in August.

Nearly 21% first-party digital sales growth in August
Like for like on the same Toast dining options
First-party ordering growth from mid single digits to nearly 21%
About half of first-party orders, up from one in five

First Party Started Gaining on the Marketplaces

Since Parakeet launched on unPLUG, marketplace share of revenue has come down from its spring peak, off 1.6 points between April and August 2026, four times last summer's dip, while first-party digital gained share. Parakeet has the best conversion on the platform: once guests start an order, they finish it, with 64.2% of app sessions and 37.7% of web sessions that open the ordering flow ending in a placed order.

"Qualitatively, the app is cleaner and easier. Menu changes are simpler. That alone saves me time every week," said Jonathan.

Marketplace share softens every summer, 0.4 then 1.6
First-party digital gained share it had lost a year earlier
64.2% app and 37.7% web conversion, against ~40% and ~15%
88.1% app and 83.4% web completion once an item is in the cart

Cafe Loyalty App: One in Five Orders Carries a Loyalty Account

In August 2026, about one in five orders across the whole business carried a Parakeet loyalty account, and about 70% of those orders were captured at the counter, not in the app. New guests come back within a month: about 37% of newly identified digital guests place a second order within 30 days. Guests who have visited more than once account for about 80% of all spend, so getting a first-time guest to come back once more is the biggest lever in the business.