Drive Restaurant Online Sales: Some Tips
This article will discuss how to drive restaurant online sales by offering you some tips. Online food ordering is on the rise. After all it is following the modern trend in ordering patterns in every sector from supermarkets to clothes. For example, in the year 2000 Dominos was receiving 100,000 online orders. In addition, by 2015 it was reeling in 600 million. Therefore, this trend aligns with the trend that Ireland is heading towards a cashless society.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) reveal that people are using cards more rather than cash. In addition, new food delivery companies are making huge inroads against traditional restaurants that provide their own delivery service. Therefore, it’s clear that restaurants with online ordering are the ones playing the game.
As you can tell the online ordering world has exploded. As much as I encourage you to dive in, you need to be sure of something. Ensure you are choosing the right online ordering solution for your own business. The food industry has seen rapid growth in online ordering. However, it has seen a huge change also with the introduction of Menuu Online Ordering.
Menuu Online Ordering has transformed the industry by being the first flat rate online ordering platform in Ireland.
Menu Offers:
Fixed Monthly Payments & No Commission
Your Own Payment Gateway for Quicker Payments
Full Access to Customer Data
Loyalty & Promotions Engine
Click & Collect to beat the queue
With that being said, I am here to give you some tips to drive your restaurant’s online sales.
Drive Restaurant Online Sales By Providing Exclusive Offers
Customers love a good deal more than anything. However, the challenge is diverting customers from third-party providers to your own website. Therefore, these websites use aggressive advertising and sponsored features to boost your rivals’ positioning on their page. As a result, you should work to promote your platform by offering good deals to your customers.
Drive Restaurant Online Sales By Considering Menu Design
Your menu needs to stand out to your customer. Therefore, you need to refine and optimise the menu on your platform. This is in a means to show off your meal deals and best sellers. Your menu should be visual and appealing to customers. So, add images of your food onto the menu as customers order with their eyes. Also, be sure to watch out for key food trends. In addition, change up your menu to make it fun for customers.
Drive Restaurant Online Sales Through Packaging And Driver Integration
The operations of ordering outside the kitchen must be efficient. Therefore, you need to avoid any issues with packaging or the delivery of food for your customer. In order to achieve this, your packaging must deliver on temperature control and quality. Packaging should also be distinctive and represent the brand. You should also inform your customers of an estimated time of arrival or collection for their food. In addition, customers like to know how long they will be waiting for their food. Therefore, excellent customer service is a vital ingredient to boost sales.
Drive Restaurant Online Sales By Promoting Your Online Business To In-House Customers
It goes without saying that you must be promoting your online ordering platform to customers. Therefore, tell your staff to let your customers know all about the website and app. In addition, attract customers by printing flyers to give out and to attach to takeaway orders. Likewise, shop-front signs and in-door posters work well too. Another thing to do is to offer in-store customers an online discount code with their bill to build customer loyalty.
Drive Restaurant Online Sales By Linking All Social Media Channels To Your Online Menu
Your target audience most likely scrolls through social media in their spare time. Therefore, you need to build the gap between your website and your social media channels. You can do this by embedding a link to your online menu. Therefore, giving a direct pathway link between your website and your customers, without any distractions.
Drive Restaurant Online Sales By Avoiding The Bottleneck
It is well worth highlighting this to food business owners, however it does not apply to all. For example, I will give you one method to increase revenue. It is to avoid the bottleneck of queues, in-house seating and turning tables for new customers. Therefore, developing a more cost-efficient business and changing your customers to online customers. For example, you could imitate the ways of a “dark kitchen”. This is a takeaway without table seating and is a trend on the rise. Another option is that you could limit in-house seating to optimise space and prioritise your online customer orders.
One Click Option
Online ordering should really be a fast and easy environment. Therefore, customers can store their details and favourite orders onto your website and app. In addition, time is money and simplifying the process benefits your customers heavily. As a result, this one-click step adds value by instantly improving the customer’s interaction with your business.
Paid Advertisements
Combining online with offline marketing is key to developing your food business. In this case, online marketing tools such as Google Ads can successfully target your customers online and inexpensively. Therefore, Google Ads highly influences consumer decisions and uses location targeting which is incredibly useful for takeaways and food businesses.
Google Maps
One of the most trending searches for online ordering is “food delivery near me”. Therefore, you must always claim your food business on Google to direct customers to your website. The location of your business will influence your customer’s preference, due to convenience and delivery zones. For example, the best scenario is if your website features in the top results of the search engine. This will help to drive online sales. It too adds a visual element to the search page. This is very appealing to customers when it comes to decision making.
Customer Feedback Forms
There are new data protection laws in place. This presents a challenge for business owners who want to extract contact details of their customers. A solution to this challenge is to feedback forms for your food business, both in store and online. In addition, you get free feedback. Also, you can ask your customer for permission to contact them for promotional material. Therefore, simultaneously boosting interaction between your business and your customer. Not to mention, promoting your online ordering platform.
Conclusion
This article discussed how to drive restaurant online sales by offering you some tips. The rise of online food ordering cannot be stopped. With new food delivery companies popping up all the time, there has never been more competition. In order to stay on top and drive sales, you need to follow these tips. They will help to drive your restaurant online sales. In addition, set up an online ordering platform as it offers many benefits to your business.
