Tag Archives: online ordering

Restaurant Trends for 2021 – How Restaurants will Succeed

COVID-19 has changed the way restaurants operate in a big way. In some states, they still aren’t fully operating, which leaves restaurants thinking outside the box longer than they ever thought necessary.

2021 looks like it will shape up much how 2020 ended, which means restaurant owners must continue being creative and figuring out ways to make the most of their business as it is right now.

Top Restaurant Trends for 2021

Focusing on Take-Out, Delivery, and Contactless Payments

No one knows when restaurants will open again (for indoor seating). This means all business owners must rely on take-out and delivery. Anything they can make contactless (including payments) is what will bring in the customers. Curbside delivery, online payments, and as little contact as possible are what will bring the business.

Creating a Brand for Themselves

Restaurants shouldn’t rely on just the food that they serve, but on the brand, they want to create. Think about what audience you serve. What are their pain points? What do you offer that helps them? That’s the brand you want to focus on and portray to your audience to bring in more business.

Providing Healthy Foods

Everyone loves to eat out (or order in), but today’s consumer is health conscious. You’ll still have those who love their favorite comfort foods, but including at least a few healthy foods on the menu will cater to a larger crowd.

Pop-Ups and Special Menus

Restaurants today are getting with the times and realizing many of their services may be short-lived. For example, if they can open for in-person dining, it may be for a short period. So instead, they think outside the box and have specials and limited opportunity pop-ups that bring a sense of urgency and excitement.

Online Reservations

Today consumers have to make reservations for just about everything, including any type of dining. The days of popping into a restaurant when you feel like are gone. Merchants need to adopt an easy reservation method, of which online reservations is the easiest. Whether you have a mobile app or just a website, enabling customers to reserve their time easily brings in more business.

Provide Quick Dining Opportunities

Anything you can do to make the diner’s experience contactless will take you far in 2021. Diners want to get in and get out. This includes when they’re taking the food to go. Self-service kiosks and contactless payments (online) let customers come in, get their food, and leave with little to no contact with others.

2021 is all about staying healthy. From serving healthy foods, ensuring the utmost safety precautions, and offering contactless opportunities for ordering, paying, and picking up food is important.

No one knows when the pandemic will end, but restaurants can stay strong by implementing the trends consumers want to see and that makes them feel safe. As we continue to navigate our new normal, it’s time to adapt to what’s in front of you and give your audience what they need to remain loyal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Five Ways to Boost Restaurant Sales During COVID19

If there’s one industry that’s been hit the hardest in COVID-19, it’s restaurants. Between the stay-at-home orders, limited capacities, and stark regulations to stay open, many restaurants are suffering with low restaurant sales.

Luckily there are ways to save your business and boost sales. Check out our top tips below.

Offer online ordering

Everyone does everything online today. If you offer online ordering, you’ll increase the likelihood of sales. People today want convenience. If they look online and can’t find a way to order with you, they’ll move on quickly.

Don’t let that happen.

Here are a few ways to offer online ordering if you don’t already:

Set up mobile ordering on your restaurant’s app
Set up online ordering on your restaurant’s website
Contract with one of the delivery services, such as Grubhub or DoorDash

Offering online services is convenient and it gets your restaurant name out there more. If people aren’t familiar with your restaurant, but they come across it on Grubhub or DoorDash, they may give it a try.

Stay active on social media

Let your customers and future customers know that you care about them and their health. Post updates on social media regarding how your restaurant is handling the precautions. What do you do to keep customers safe?

How are you thinking outside of the box to cater to your customers? That’s what they want to see. They don’t want restaurants pushing sales for the sake of pushing sales. They want to patronize restaurants that are taking the bull by the horns and figuring out a way to get their favorite dishes and drinks in your hands safely.

Here are just a few things to share on social media:

Behind the scenes footage of how you handle the pandemic and everyone’s safety. This is big right now so you can’t post it too much.
New, creative offerings you have whether it’s a package deal to help families have a fun night at home or a new offering that customers have always wanted but didn’t have time to create. We all have nothing but time now.
Specials or deals, especially if they’re time sensitive. You give your customers a sense of urgency that they must come now or they’ll miss a great deal.

Streamline your offerings

With fewer (if any) customers in your restaurant, now is not the time to go all out on ingredients and supplies. Simply your offerings and you’ll make it easier on everyone. Keep the fan favorites and choose a few others. You’ll keep your costs down and simplify the process for your customers, increasing your restaurant sales.

Streamlining doesn’t mean cutting back or making less money. If anything, you may even increase your profits by reducing your expenses and focusing on the dishes, drinks, and products that your audience loves the most.

Here’s what you can do.

Take a poll. Ask your audience what they love the most. Social media is a great platform for this. This way you know you are keeping the right offerings and getting rid of the ones that aren’t so popular right now and may be a waste of your money.

Promote the products you are keeping. You can’t keep everyone happy, there will be people who miss your other products, but promote the items you are keeping. Create urgency in them with specials or even create fun contests, like if you sell X number of a certain dish on a Friday night you’ll offer a special the next day.

Increase your digital marketing efforts

If you’ve relied only on in-person marketing, you could be missing out today. Everyone relies on the internet, especially while they are stuck at home. If you want to expand your reach, you have to get online and promote yourself on social media and even via email newsletters.

Create an opt-in so your customers provide their email addresses in exchange for something. It could be a discount, like 10% off, or something free, like a free cookie with your next purchase. The idea is that you get their email address so you can advertise to them in the future.

Your digital marketing efforts could include:

Email newsletters that have specials, announcements for new dishes, or new offerings. It could also be a way to share with customers how you’re handling the pandemic and keeping everyone safe.

Social media posts and paid advertising. Sponsored posts aren’t as expensive as most people think and since they’re so targeted, they often have a great return on your investment.

Offer healthy options

Today everyone is concerned about staying healthy. Show your customers you are on board with what they need by offering healthy options. Whether you always offered healthy food or it’s a new offering for you, it gives families other alternatives.

Here are a few ways to advertise your new offerings.

Showcase your new offerings on the home page of your website.
Promote the new dishes on social media in a post that talks about COVID-19 and staying healthy.
Stay up-to-date with your customers via email newsletters.

Boost your Restaurant Sales Today

It’s never easy to see sales slipping, but if COVID-19 taught us anything, it’s that we need to pivot our offerings. There are many ways restaurants can serve the community even if you are on stay-at-home orders.

Find out what your audience wants and needs and find a way to do it. The restaurants thinking outside of the box, creating new offerings, and finding ways to serve their customers are the restaurants that will survive the pandemic. Are you one of them?

How Will the Pandemic Change the Landscape for Restaurants in the US?

The Coronavirus pandemic has been wreaking havoc on the hospitality industry worldwide. However, some unexpected casualties are on their way for the US as a surprisingly large percentage of its restaurants decline and are forced to shutter their doors permanently.

Due to a mix of lockdowns and social distancing restrictions, many restaurants have frantically tried to adapt their business model to the “new normal.” Since eateries could only send out their orders through takeout, online ordering, delivery etc. and many were forced to decrease their dine-in occupancy count, the sharp decline had to happen. In fact, experts suggest that the above factors are enough to lead many restaurants to shut their operations.

An Overview of the Current Condition of the US Restaurants

According to celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, around 25 percent of small US restaurants will never see the light of dawn. He said, “They’re going to stay closed because they ran out of money and the landlords are evicting them. So it’s a really tough time.”

Running a restaurant is a challenge in a healthy economy, let alone managing a tattered one. For a restaurantowner to generate and maximize profits, he/she needs to fill at least 80 to 85 percent of the seats. Only then they can achieve break-even.

Now, with a pandemic-stricken economy, the costs and risks have greatly increased. The food delivery services, such as Uber Eats, keep 15 to 20 percent of the overall restaurant payment bill. Other than this, hosting customers means added costs to ensure that SOPs are followed, and safety measures like hand sanitizers, masks, and shields are available in quantities. However, not every restaurant can survive with these restrictions.

“The reality is not all of these restaurants are going to come back,” says Christopher Gaulke, a lecturer in the food and beverage area at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. “Expectations are that as many as 30 to 40% may not come back, of the independent restaurants, your mom-and-pop-style sit-down [restaurants].”

On the other hand, restaurants like Domino’s and Chipotle, who solely thrived on takeout and delivery, are coping well.

The Takeout Restaurants Are Doing Fine

“Anyone that was in the takeout and delivery game before this has just done incredibly well,” Gaulke points out. “If you look at Domino’s, Chipotle, these chains that had invested so heavily in the technology for enabling third-party delivery or online ordering, etc., they’re all doing well.” Since their dine-in facility was only more or less an extra source of revenue, they don’t feel threatened and aren’t expected to lose everything to the pandemic.

The only way US restaurants can survive the COVID-19 crises is through innovation and working on their ability to adapt. They need to go beyond standard menus and design meal kits to cater to the masses. As Gaulke puts, “We have a company here in town that has started selling meal kits and groceries, as well as pre-made foods.”

Final Thoughts

It is never too late! Restaurants heavily dependent on in-house dining will continue to suffer compared to the delivery and takeout spots. Hence, it is advisable to invest time, energy, and money to redesign the restaurant business models and prioritize delivery, meal or grocery kits, and takeout if restaurants want to remain in the business through the COVID-19 pandemic.