Harpo’s goes online!

By Madushka Balasuriya

Harpo’s Pizza & Pasta has for the better part of a decade prided itself on being a pioneer in the homegrown pizza business offering a decadent range of fresh thin crust woodfired pizzas and delicious pastas, and now they are taking things a step further. As of yesterday they became the first homegrown pizza brand to offer an online ordering service.

To commemorate the launch Harpo’s also announced a new Premium Range of Pizzas - Pizza Buffalo Caprese, Pizza Salami Chorizo, Pizza Salami Piccante, Pizza Aragosta, and Four Cheese and Parma Ham Pizza – made with some of the finest quality ingredients from Italy.

Harpo’s has for many years offered delivery, alongside their dine-in and takeaway options, but the move to online ordering makes sense for the business as it helps them better serve the some 10,000 clients who are a members of their Pizza Perks Loyalty Program, which was implemented in February of this year. 

All Pizza Perks members will be able redeem their Harpo’s Pizza Perks online, while signing up for the online ordering service is as simple as typing in your phone number, with a confirmation code then sent to your mobile. If you’ve ever ordered from Harpo’s before you will be recognised as an existing customer on their online database, while new customers will be prompted to enter their details on a registration page.

“I am a firm believer that we need to introduce new and innovative ways to simplify operations for our customers and having the mechanisms in place to provide this service is important for current business and also for expansion. Our fans are very ‘techy’ these days and they keep telling me: ‘we are not going to call people anymore, we want to go online.’ So we like to make life easier for our customers and I think that’s the way forward in the future,” said Harpo’s Managing Director Harpo Gooneratne, speaking at the launch event for the online service on Wednesday evening.

The ordering service itself is a smooth and streamlined experience, the highlight of which is a handy search bar which allows you to search for any item based on a keyword of your choosing (chicken, beef, veg etc.). The response time is quick and clearly a lot of thought has gone into making the website as user friendly as possible. Payments can be made either via credit card, courtesy the HNB payment gateway, or by cash on delivery.

Harpo’s Pizza Brand Executive Shehaan Thahir explained that the website had been developed over the last six months, with a lot of emphasis being placed on identifying and solving the problems customers regularly face when ordering online.

“We did a lot of research to understand what was exactly holding people back from online ordering. There are a lot of companies that have online ordering websites but very few people actually using it,” noted Thahir, adding that Harpo’s expected the service to offer a 20% sales boost over the coming year. 

Harpo’s at present has two branches – The Bayleaf in Colombo and Harpo’s Pizza & Pasta Parlour in Nugegoda – therefore any orders placed will be dispatched from these two branches using Harpo’s in-house ‘Hot Wheels’ delivery service. The online ordering service can be accessed through tablet or smartphone as well, and deliveries will be made to any destination within the Col 1 to 15, Nawala, Rajagiriya, Mt Lavinia and Battaramulla areas.

Going forward Harpo’s plans to open another branch in Mount Lavinia, while there are also plans to release a mobile app in the near future with other, yet to be disclosed, plans also in the pipeline. But for now you can order your own woodfired pizza at www.harpospizzas.com.

– Pix by Daminda Harsha Perera