13 Mistakes You're Probably Making With Your Domino's Order
Whether you eat pizza during the weekend, to simplify dinner after a busy day at work or school, for your child's birthday party, or to show your appreciation for your staff, almost any day and event pairs well with pizza. Domino's is one of the most well-known and beloved pizza chains — it can be found in all 50 states. And there are more than 6,700 restaurants across the country.
When you combine this information with the fact that Domino's was founded decades ago, in 1960, you'd think that we'd all be masters at ordering it. However, that is not entirely true. There are several mistakes that people make when placing their Domino's order, and you could be making them too. These can cost you money and prevent you from enjoying the chain's delicious pizza to the fullest. Next time a pizza craving hits, try avoiding some of these common mistakes.
1. Ordering delivery instead of picking up your order yourself
When you order from Domino's, do you have your pizza delivered or go pick it up yourself? If you've been ordering delivery, you may want to rethink that choice. Before you place your next Domino's order, check to see if the company is running its special promotion where carryout customers can claim a special coupon.
Domino's periodically runs a promotion to encourage customers to come to pick up their orders instead of asking for delivery. When they do, you can receive a carryout tip. The tip comes in the form of a coupon, which you can apply to your next order. One of the best things about this special is that you can use it more than one time. When you place your next order and redeem the coupon, you can also earn a new carryout tip as long as you spend at least $5. Think about how much you can save on delicious pizza with this deal.
2. Not signing up for Domino's Piece of the Pie Rewards
If you have not signed up for the Piece of the Pie Rewards program through Domino's, you've been making a mistake that you'll want to remedy as soon as possible. The Piece of the Pie Rewards program allows customers to earn free pizza just by ordering from Domino's. What's not to love about that?
Once you sign up for the program, you'll receive 10 points for every order you place, a maximum of one per day. Once you've accumulated 60 points — just six orders — you will earn a free pizza. There are other perks to being a member of the program. You'll get access to special deals available only to members and be able to check out more quickly because your information will all be saved in your profile. All orders, including those placed online, through the Domino's app, over the phone, or in a Domino's restaurant, are eligible to help you increase your points balance.
3. Not looking for coupons before placing an order
Unless you like spending more money, never place an order for Domino's without first looking for a coupon. There are several places where you can find Domino's coupons. First, it is possible that you already have printed coupons in your mail — check coupons that were sent and even your local newspaper. Browsing online through the coupons section on Domino's website can also be an excellent resource. You'll need to enter your zip code to pull up the coupons for your local restaurants, and then you'll be able to see what offers are available.
While the specific prices and specials will vary based on location, some of the types of coupons you could find include savings on combos, lower prices for purchasing specific pizza sizes, savings for buying multiple pizzas of the same size, and special offers for recently introduced entrées, sides, or desserts. If you're ordering online and find a digital coupon on the website you want to order, you can add the coupon directly to your account. Domino's even offers a coupon finder feature. Once you've entered your order, this feature will help you search for applicable coupons.
4. Not ordering for a group
If you want to get the best deal on Domino's pizzas, one trick is to buy several pizzas. When you purchase a large number of pizzas for a group, Domino's discounts the price of each pie. The first discount tier kicks in with just four pizzas, so you don't even have to buy that much to start benefiting. When you buy four to six pizzas, you'll receive a 10% discount. Increase the number of pizzas to at least seven, and your discount will increase to 15%. If you want to get the maximum discount of 20% per pizza, then you'll need to purchase 10 or more.
You can mix and match different types of pizzas or topping options, and you'll still be eligible to receive the discounted price. The only thing that matters is the number of pizzas you purchase. So, the next time you're looking to order food for a large group, consider doing so from Domino's.
5. Not downloading the Domino's app
The Domino's app is a great tool to have when ordering from the restaurant. There are many benefits to having the app installed on your phone. First, it makes it easy to order Domino's whenever the urge strikes. All you'll need to do is pull out your phone, quickly enter your order, and wait for it to be ready or delivered.
Another benefit of the app is the ability to create a Pizza Profile. Your profile will save your recent orders and favorite pizza combinations, making it quick and easy to reorder what you want. With the app, you'll always be signed in when you place your orders. This will help ensure that all of the points for each order are correctly applied to your Piece of the Pie Rewards, allowing you to rack up the free pizzas. The app will also allow you to search for coupons and use them with each order, helping you to save the most money every time you order.
6. Not signing up for email and text offers
Strings of emails and texts can be annoying. However, when they include special offers and incentives, they are the opposite of annoying. When you sign up to receive Domino's emails and texts, you'll receive special offers in your inbox, helping you to maximize your savings with the pizza chain. The discounts sent through text and email are often exclusive deals that you won't be able to find anywhere else.
If you prefer, you can choose to opt-in for either email or text offers, but you might want to consider sticking with both to receive the most opportunities to save. Signing up is simple — just visit the Domino's website and scroll to the bottom navigation menu where you'll find email and text offers. After clicking on that option, choose whether you want to receive emails, texts, or both, and enter the required information.
7. Not considering a Domino's baby or wedding registry for future pizza cravings
It may seem crazy, but Domino's offers both baby and wedding registries. While registering for pizza may seem a bit unconventional, when you stop to think about it, it can actually make a great gift for newlyweds or new parents. Pizza is a quick and easy meal, which can certainly come in handy following a wedding or when you're exhausted from caring for a newborn. Rather than worrying about what you should cook for dinner or coming up with the funds to pay for a meal yourself, you can simply redeem part of the gift card given to you by friends and family.
When you set up your registry, you can choose from several different packages to add. These packages range in price, allowing everyone to choose a gift that matches their budget. For example, with the wedding registry, guests could purchase the Married but Chill e-gift card option with a $15 value, or if they're looking to spend more, they could get you and your significant other the Dancing with My Slice e-gift card with a $100 value.
8. Not setting up a fundraiser with Domino's to put your order to good use
Did you know that you can raise money for your favorite non-profit organizations by ordering pizza? Well, if you set up a Domino's fundraiser, that is precisely what will happen. The chain's fundraiser program — called Domino's Delivering the Dough — is available at many locations across the country. Once you set up the fundraiser, you and other representatives from your organization will raise money by selling the Delivering the Dough cards.
Individuals who purchase the card will be able to redeem it to get up to 16 free pizzas. For each order they place, they are eligible to receive one free pizza when they buy one at the regular menu price. That means that over 16 visits to Domino's, they'll be able to redeem their 16 free pizzas. The organization you're raising money for will receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each Delivering the Dough Card. If you're interested in setting up a fundraiser with Domino's, start by talking to the manager at your local restaurant. Not all franchises choose to participate in this program.
9. Adding soda to your order
If you've been adding a soda to go with your pizza order from Domino's you've been making a mistake. And it isn't because the soda is too sugary, though that is something you also might want to consider. No, the mistake is spending more money than you should on a bottle of soda. While Domino's menu prices vary from one location to the next, most 20-ounce bottles of soda cost about $2, and most 2-liter bottles cost around $3.
Buying drinks at Domino's is just wasting your money. The same 20-ounce or 2-liter bottles will cost significantly less if purchased at the grocery store. Even with rising food and beverage costs, when you buy a 12-pack of soda from the grocery store, you can expect to spend about $6. That works out to about 50 cents per can. If you drink two 12-ounce cans, you'll get an extra 4 ounces of soda for half the price of buying a 20-ounce bottle from Domino's. Similarly, the average cost to purchase a 2-liter soda as of 2023 is about $2.30. That's almost $1 less than you'll pay for the same amount of soda from Domino's.
10. Not buying discounted gift cards
If you could purchase a Domino's gift card for less than the face value of the card, wouldn't you want to? Did you know that this is actually something you can do? There are several websites that sell discounted gift cards, which will help you keep more of your money in your pocket the next time you order pizza.
One website that offers discounted gift cards for Domino's is Raise. At the time this article was written, they were offering $25 Domino's gift cards for just $20.56. That's at 17.8% savings. Similarly, Gift Card Saving is offering a $10 gift card for $8.20, which works out to a savings of 18%. The best deal for Domino's gift cards that we could find was through Costco. They have a pack of four $25 cards — $100 total value — available for $79.99, offering a savings of 20%. With the pack of four gift cards, you could even choose to give some to friends or family and still save a few for yourself.
11. Not ordering from Domino's on National Pizza Day
Mark your calendars now so you don't forget to order from Domino's on National Pizza Day, which falls on February 9 each year. Beyond the perfect excuse to order pizza for lunch or dinner, or both, who are we to judge? Heading to Domino's on this special day can help you get your favorite pizza for an excellent price.
While we don't know what special the chain will offer for the upcoming National Pizza Day, we can get a pretty good idea based on what they offered in years past. In 2023, customers were able to choose any two items from the menu and get them for just $7. When you consider the regular price of most pizzas, especially large ones, you should be able to see what a great deal that was. The other promotion the chain was running on National Pizza Day in 2023 applied to carryout customers only. They could choose a one-topping pizza and either an 8-piece order of wings or a Dips & Twists combo for just $8.
12. Paying for too many extra sauces
Getting some dipping sauces to go with your pizza, wings, salad, breadsticks, or other menu items from Domino's is a good idea. The different flavor options, including marinara, ranch, blue cheese, BBQ, hot sauce, and more, can really enhance the taste of the various items on the menu. However, while it may be tempting to try multiple sauces or get lots of extra ones to enjoy at a later time, it isn't the best idea to do so.
Each dipping sauce can cost less than a dollar — but this depends on the location and can be slightly higher in some areas. When you add several sauces to your order, it will result in a much higher overall cost. If you want to try one or two sauces, it won't significantly impact your total. However, if you're looking to stock up on extra sauces, consider purchasing a bottle of ranch dressing or another sauce at the grocery store instead. It will be a much more economical choice. And, if you'd like to try different sauce flavors offered by Domino's, only choose a few to try with each order and save a few for the next time you pick up a pizza or have it delivered.
13. Not tracking your delivery order to know when your pizza will show up
If you're hungry and eagerly waiting near your front door for your pizza to be delivered without any sense of when it will arrive, this is a mistake you can easily fix. You can eliminate some of the unknowns associated with waiting for a pizza from Domino's by using the pizza tracker – it allows you to follow your pizza order through the entire process.
From the time that the order is placed until it is delivered to your door, you'll be in the loop. The tracker is broken down into five steps: order placed, prep, bake, box, and delivery. As the order moves from one stage to the next, a new bar on the tracker is filled in. The tracker will even display when the order is boxed and ready for the delivery person to grab.
While it doesn't provide real-time updates about the location of the driver or a more specific delivery estimate as they're approaching your home, seeing the time that the pizza was boxed and ready can provide you with a lot of insight into your order's status. If you know how far the Domino's is from your house, you could have a better estimate of when your pizza should show up, give or take a few minutes to account for traffic or other deliveries along the route.