Order your morning coffee from the Waze app and pick it up on the drive to work

Crowdsourced traffic and navigation app Waze is adding a new feature. Starting today, Waze users can order coffee, donuts and other items from Dunkin' Donuts. This would allow users to pick up the order along the way into the office. After all, caffeine withdrawal is a serious matter. And Dunkin' Donuts could be just the beginning for Google-owmed Waze and its users. If this test is successful, Waze users eventually will be able to reserve parking spots, order subs, buy groceries and more. And all of this would be accomplished without the user having to open another app.

So how much in commissions or royalties will Waze earn from every donut sold on its app? A big fat donut hole is the answer. In other words, Waze won't get any commission checks from Dunkin' Donuts for selling its food. Instead, the nationwide chain has agreed to increase its advertising on Waze.

Now, you might be wondering why commuters in the morning just don't open the Dunkin' Donut app and order from there. The answer, according to Scott Hudler, chief digital officer for Dunkin’ Brands, is that both Waze and Dunkin' Donuts are involved in ritualistic behavior. "Waze involves the ritualistic behavior of driving to work on your daily commute, and we are a brand built on a ritual, too," Hudler noted. As a result, there is some synergy between them.

Waze users planning on ordering Dunkin's food and beverages for pick up along their daily commute will have to download the Dunkin' app on their device. It won't have to be open when placing the order. Since Waze does have the deep pockets of Google behind it, we would bet that this service becomes quite successful.

The Waze up is available for both Android and iOS. To install the app, click on the appropriate link. (Android|iOS).

source: AP