How Greenlane Got 51% of Orders Into Its App Without Slowing Down the Drive-Thru

Greenlane’s whole model is built on speed: fresh salads and wraps, through the drive-thru, in under three minutes. So when it came to mobile ordering, the app had to be just as fast and simple. Today, 51% of orders come through the Greenlane app.

Making Healthy Food as Convenient as Fast Food

Founded in Tampa by restaurant veterans with more than 55 years of combined experience, Greenlane was built around a simple idea: fresh, healthy food should be just as convenient and affordable as traditional fast food. Serving made-to-order salads and wraps from compact, 1,200-square-foot drive-thru locations, the brand has designed every part of its operation around efficiency. With no indoor dining room, Greenlane maintains an average drive-thru time of just two minutes and 36 seconds, with salads and wraps assembled in as little as 15 seconds.

The brand has also brought plenty of personality to its growth through its partnership with Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski and his family, who are investors in the business. Gronk’s connection to fitness and an active lifestyle made him a natural fit for Greenlane, and when a new restaurant opens, he has even spent time working the drive-thru alongside the team. His involvement has made its way onto the menu, too. Guests can order the Gronk Wrap or add extra protein to another item by asking to “get it Gronk’d.”

As the concept grew, Greenlane wanted to give guests a digital way to order and an additional reason to come back, without adding friction to a model built on speed.

The App Helps Speed Orders Through the Drive-Thru

For Greenlane, mobile ordering couldn’t feel like an extra step.

Guests were already choosing the brand because it made fresh food fast and convenient. If ordering through the app was complicated, slow or difficult to navigate, it would work against the experience Greenlane had built. The team needed an app guests could understand immediately, move through quickly and use to customize an order without friction.

With Toast already in place as its cloud-based POS, Greenlane needed a digital ordering platform that could work with its existing technology while delivering a fully branded guest experience. Incentivio integrated directly with Greenlane’s Toast POS, allowing app orders to flow straight to the kitchen without adding extra steps for staff.

The team first discovered Incentivio after seeing the digital experience another Incentivio customer had created. What stood out was how amazing the app looked and how simple the experience was to use. That became the benchmark for Greenlane: ordering through the app needed to be as easy as ordering through the drive-thru.

With Incentivio, guests can browse the menu, view ingredients, customize their salads and wraps, and place an order directly through Greenlane’s branded app. App orders are picked up at the drive-thru window, so guests skip the menu board and wait for their order. That ease of use has translated into meaningful adoption.

For a high-volume drive-thru concept, that digital adoption is especially valuable. Mobile orders give guests another fast, convenient way to order while helping Greenlane manage demand and maintain the speed and experience its customers expect. Instead of digital ordering competing with the drive-thru experience, it has become an extension of it.

Turning Mobile and Drive-Thru Guests Into Returning Guests

With guests ordering digitally through the mobile app, Greenlane has another opportunity: building a relationship that continues beyond the first transaction. Loyalty has been part of that strategy from the beginning.

Greenlane initially offered new members a free salad or wrap. As the program evolved, the team worked with Incentivio to refine its welcome journey, introducing a $5 discount for guests who sign up through the app. Once enrolled, members continue to earn one point for every dollar spent, which can be redeemed toward free menu items.

Since opening its first location in 2023, Greenlane has grown its loyalty program to more than 24,000 members, creating more opportunities to engage guests and encourage repeat visits.

The team has also found opportunities to turn drive-thru visits into longer-term digital relationships. In August 2026, restaurant teams began consistently asking guests whether they were part of Greenlane’s loyalty program, introducing them to available offers and encouraging them to participate. During the month, Greenlane nearly doubled its typical number of loyalty sign-ups.

It’s another example of how Greenlane approaches digital engagement: not as something separate from the restaurant experience, but as a way to make that experience easier and keep the relationship going after a guest drives away.

Testing What Resonates With Guests

In April 2026, Greenlane added SMS to its guest engagement strategy and approached its first campaign as a test. On April 1, Greenlane used Incentivio to send SMS opt-in members a simple offer: a Chicken Caesar Wrap for $5.

The response exceeded expectations. The campaign generated a 56.9% redemption rate and Greenlane sold 10 times its typical volume of Chicken Caesar Wraps. Demand was so strong that locations sold through nearly all of their Caesar Wrap inventory.

That early success encouraged the team to keep testing different offers, occasions and approaches. A Tax Day campaign offering guests $3 off generated an approximately 56% redemption rate, while an $8.70 Gronk Wrap offer for Gronk’s birthday saw approximately 50% redemption. Other campaigns have centered on moments relevant to Greenlane and its community, including National Drive-Thru Day, National Caesar Salad Day, July 4th weekend and 813 Day, a nod to Tampa’s local area code.

Rather than relying on the same promotional formula, Greenlane uses each campaign as an opportunity to learn what resonates with its guests. The team has also found that teasing an offer a day or two in advance can help build anticipation before it goes live.

Building a Digital Experience That Can Grow With Greenlane

As Greenlane opens more locations, the app, loyalty and SMS will keep doing what they do best: making it easy to order and giving guests a reason to come back long after they drive away.

Digital ordering has become an important part of delivering on that experience. And once a guest enters Greenlane’s digital ecosystem, loyalty, SMS and targeted engagement give the brand more ways to turn that convenient first order into an ongoing relationship.