After navigating away from Olo due to a management change, it soon became clear that the new tools were holding Yoshinoya back. Though it had switched to a large POS provider that touted a self-service platform, Yoshinoya found that tasks like adding customizable menu items took multiple days, where it had taken just minutes with Olo. Even adjusting store hours required going into three different tabs in the new provider. The additional work of navigating an unintuitive platform led to problematic inconsistencies for their franchisees and employees, ultimately affecting their bottom line and reputation.
The brand also wasn’t getting the insights it needed to make the right business decisions. There was no way to see order failure rate, for example, until angry guests complained. The brand was focusing on guest retention, and couldn’t see how many guests came back each month. Furthermore, fraud was way up. Restaurants were getting hundreds of chargebacks every month and did not have the manual bandwidth to fight those on their own. This resulted in unnecessary and avoidable losses to their bottom line.
After 17 months with the other provider, Yoshinoya returned to Olo in May 2025. When this decision to return to Olo was announced to franchisees, they literally burst into applause. During implementation, the brand had direct access to specialists across the Olo ecosystem who acted as proactive guides, even when unique implementation challenges arose.
The brand also added Olo Pay, encouraged by the promise of better fraud protection and automatic chargeback dispute management. In just four months, chargebacks dropped 88%. With Olo Pay, the brand was now blocking hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent transactions that might have been approved with another provider, while simultaneously maintaining a high authorization rate. Through Olo Pay, the brand was also able to provide digital wallet payments to their guests, which has contributed to fewer abandoned carts and improved overall conversion rates.
The Olo platform has saved Yoshinoya teams time in terms of managing menu updates, system maintenance, and support requests. The team can add even highly customizable items to the menu in about 20 minutes. These capabilities translate into labor cost savings and more time to focus on guest experience.
Yoshinoya is also excited about Olo’s advanced capabilities, like smart cross-sells to increase personalization and boost revenue and Olo Guest Intelligence (OGI). OGI makes it easy for the brand to see relevant metrics like guest retention over 30, 60, and 90 days. The brand sees Olo as a strategic ally in their growth journey.
