Forkspot, an app dedicated to helping people find restaurant discounts, now enables users to pre-order food at the best discounted rates. This joins a number of existing Forkspot features, such as instantly notifying users to available discounts when they pass by or enter a restaurant.

Forkspot works by the placement of a bluetooth ibeacon device (distributed for free) in restaurants. These devices send users a mobile push notification when they are inside or in the vicinity of the restaurant, informing them of any available discounts. There is also the option to notify any potential customers—by location and food preference—of a new promotion in the local area. As eating out is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for Americans (for the first time in history Americans are spending more money at bars and restaurants than groceries), the potential savings are huge.

“Nobody wants to know about a discount at a restaurant after they have just paid full price, what use is that?” says Grigori Mikayelyan, founder and CEO of Forkspot. “But if we can make sure they see this information beforehand, we can both save people a lot of money, and bring new customers to restaurants, especially during down times”.

Mikayelyan thought of Forkspot after leaving a sushi restaurant only to find this restaurant had a 30 percent discount promotion. Frustrated—having just paid full price for his meal—he realized that if their was a way to inform people of discounts when they were inside, or passing by a restaurant, consumers would save money and businesses could market themselves more efficiently. To test out this thesis, Mikayelyan became a Lyft driver to conduct his own market research, surveying each of his 1500 Lyft passengers in order to find out how the app could most efficiently answer users’ needs.

The latest feature, the ability to pre-order ahead of time for pick-up and dine-in with additional discounts, adds yet more convenience to an already impressive list of features Forkspot has to offer. This includes Uber and Lyft integration, which automatically compares Lyft and Uber fares to any Forkspot restaurant and allows users to book the cheapest ride. Other features include in-app reviews, food recommendations and the listing of the most popular menu items.

As well as benefitting customers, Forkspot offers restaurants an incredibly precise and efficient marketing strategy. Unlike traditional food advertisements which target everyone, the app can hone in on a relevant target audience, delivering better results and reducing marketing costs. Forkspot then takes a very small pay-per-walk-in fee for any conversions; for customers who have previously visited or previewed a restaurant there is no fee.

“Americans no longer need a special occasion to eat out at a restaurant, many of them do it every day,” added Mikayelyan. “But with this increased frequency comes the expectation of convenience; they do not have time to trawl through discount and review sites or checking ride-sharing apps each time they eat out. What they want is a one-stop shop like Forkspot that will do all this for them.”