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Faced with rising labor costs and increasingly price-sensitive customers, restaurant brands are exploring new ways to balance profitability with consumer expectations. One of the most debated strategies is dynamic pricing, which adjusts based on demand and other variables. They were asked to place an order from an online restaurant.
Fast food and food delivery gradually began changing that equation. 2024 was a year of experimentation with AI, with restaurants testing it on customer-facing interactions, like AI drive-thru ordering, with varying degrees of success. The restaurant experience was once solely comprised of human-to-human, in-person experiences.
Onlineordering has transformed the restaurant industry, turning what was once a convenience into an absolute necessity. In 2025, the US onlinefood delivery market is expected to reach $424.9 Customers expect to browse menus, place orders, and pay for their meals with just a few taps of their phones.
. “Every guest touchpoint–whether it’s a dine-in experience, an onlineorder, or even a response to a review – can influence future business,” Mike Eng, Senior Director of Vertical Expansion at Klaviyo, told Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine.
Minimizing Menu Price Increases : Just because diners are still eating out and ordering in, does not mean they are happy about higher menu prices. Restaurant operators should limit significant menu price increases, explore value menus when possible, and avoid implementing any sneaky service charges.
Steady OnlineOrdering Brings Food Waste, Donations to the Forefront of Priorities Orderingfoodonline increases restaurant sales, but it also can potentially increase wasted food if proactive measures aren’t taken – for both the business and consumers at home.
Many restaurant operators have misconceptions about average order volume (AOV) and how it works, making statements like: I need more customers to make more money. For example, lets say you have 50 orders in a day that total $2,000 in revenueall you need to do is divide the total revenue by how many orders you have for the day.
Successfully navigating fluctuating food costs, especially with volatile ingredients like eggs, requires a multi-faceted approach, Mike Stasko Jr., What are the best practices for dealing with food costs for recipes when necessary items are fluctuating in price? How can you avoid rising prices on egg-focused menu items?
Menu pricing isnt just about covering costsits about finding that sweet spot where profitability, customer perception, and operational reality meet. Set prices too low, and youre leaving money on the table. Somewhere in between is the number that makes sense for your food costs, your market, and your restaurants unique position.
Mobile orders were expected to drive $38 billion in restaurant revenue in 2020. Although mobile ordering isn’t the new kid on the block, it has certainly become the most popular because it’s one of the safest – and easiest – ways to order and pay for food. Dining/fast food/take out.
While there was a brief dip in consumer awareness of menu price increases in late 2024, the spring of 2025 has seen a moderate rise, affecting dining habits and consumer perceptions of value. “With rising prices tied to eggs and imported goods, restaurants will need to think creatively about their menus,” Fink said.
When COVID-19 erupted earlier this year, scores of restaurants relied on online delivery marketplaces to deliver meals to their customers. The role these marketplaces have played during the pandemic, delivering restaurant orders right to people’s front doors, has become invaluable to many consumers.
This edition of Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine's Research Roundup features news on summer restaurant employment, indecisiveness ordering, onlineordering trends, and the world's best cities for food. percent of diners noting that recent price increases have altered their spending habits, and 58.5
Restaurants are already experimenting with using AI to handle drive through orders to allow human employees to focus on customer interactions in the restaurant. I think smart, AI-enabled platforms will turn data into intelligence around visit frequency, ordering, traffic patterns and more.
And no, increasing restaurant sales doesn’t mean turning your restaurant staff into pushy upsellers trying to squeeze a few extra dollars out of every order. Create Limited-Time Offers That Drive Action Limited-time offers (LTOs) give potential customers a reason to order now, not later.
If youre one of the thousands of restaurants that added onlinefood delivery in recent years, you might be wondering: is it actually helping my business grow? These metrics give you a clear picture of your delivery performancefrom order volume and customer retention to delivery speed and profitability.
An onlineordering system is table stakes for every restaurant these days. But if you're still on the fence about implementing onlinefoodordering software at your establishment, take a look at some of the latest stats from the National Restaurant's Association's 2025 State of the Restaurant Industry Report.
Understanding your target market is the foundation of making smart decisions for your menu, pricing, and overall guest experience. Meanwhile, a fine-dining steakhouse targeting business professionals will prioritize a refined menu, premium pricing, and marketing efforts that focus on corporate events and high-end experiences.
Is onlineordering inefficient? Do you lose money due to food waste? Experiencing over-ordering or last-minute shortages? Are you aiming to speed up service, cut labor costs, or increase online sales? Are labor costs too high? The best tech investments solve real problems. Too many missed reservations?
Every onlineorder, email sign up, and reward program interaction generates valuable insightsbut if that data just sits there, youre missing a major opportunity. Think about it: What if you could automatically send a special offer to a customer who hasnt ordered in a while? Restaurants collect a ton of customer data.
It’s the foundation of knowing your actual food cost. Knowing the true cost per serving means you’re not guessing where to set menu prices. When done correctly, dish costing helps you control food costs, reduce food waste, and price items in a way that supports your restaurant’s financial health without alienating guests.
Keeping menus updated across various onlineordering systems and third-party delivery apps can feel like a never-ending game of catch-up. Manually updating menus across multiple onlineordering channels is tedious, time-consuming, and prone to mistakes. Without it, updating a menu is a long and laborious process.
It blends sales data, food cost, and menu psychology to help you stop guessing and start making decisions that grow your margins. Real menu engineering efforts are grounded in hard numbers: data, food cost percentage, and how much profit each dish actually brings in, so you know exactly what to promote, rework, or cut.
Are you doing all the right thingsserving amazing food, delivering top-notch service, crafting perfectly balanced drinksbut the tables still arent filling up like they should? Youre delivering a great dining experience, yet foot traffic remains inconsistent, online engagement is low, and new customers arent coming in as often as youd like.
In this guide, youll learn how to use ChowNow tools along with a handful of other effective strategies to increase order volume, boost your current customer traffic, and grow your overall sales. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to stay top-of-mind with customers and remind them its time to order again from your restaurant.
Understanding what customers order, when they order, and how often is an untapped goldmine of information for restaurant operators. Using that data can help you answer questions like: Are we pricing our bestsellers too low or overpricing items customers arent buying? What do repeat orders say about our customer preferences?
The concept goes far beyond a simple online menu or QR code. Every dine-in experience starts with a menu, so having yours available online is the first step to going contactless. However, restaurants have discovered that not all online menus are made the same. Every restaurant should look into hosting its own onlineordering.
The tool from the East Coast vegan chain — a digital take on a split-flap mechanical display that appears on its website and in the chain’s ordering app — estimates the amounts of water, land, CO2, and oil saved by eating vegan burgers. The “ PLNT Impact Tracker ” on PLNT Burger’s website wants you to think about what you’re eating.
The restaurant industry is rapidly evolving, and mobile foodordering is at the center of this transformation. These mobile foodordering statistics reveal just how quickly digital habits are shifting — and what it means for restaurants trying to stay competitive. At first, mobile ordering seemed like a long shot.
Today, customers rely on Google searches, online reviews, and social media to decide where to eat. People want convenience, transparency, and a connection to the brands they support, and that starts with how you market your restaurant online. A strong online presence means more visibility, more orders, and, ultimately, more revenue.
Customers on average will order more menu items, resulting in a larger bill for the restaurant and a larger tip for the employee. Especially with buyers juggling 300+ ingredients each week, it can be difficult to stay on top of deals and prices. Luckily for restaurant managers, several tech solutions exist to cure this headache.
“We are seeing sign-on bonuses at fast food and fast casual locations, something never seen before in the industry. Some operators are willing to have you work today, get paid tomorrow in order to get people in place to handle their minimum requirements. 200 onlineorders a month with one to two people.
Diners want the convenience of ordering, booking, and engaging with their favorite restaurants straight from their phones. Beyond mobile ordering, restaurant apps support operations in ways that were never available before. Onlineordering and delivery apps. Here is an example of a restaurants branded app.
Financial restaurant KPIs give you visibility into your costs, pricing, and ultimately, your profitability. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) Cost of Goods Sold tells you how much it actually costs to make the food and beverage sales you sell. A typical COGS for a restaurant is around 30%-40% , depending on your concept and pricing.
Onlinefood delivery thrives as phones become one-stop shops for ordering and tracking meals. This convenience has made the onlinefood delivery market massive, with global revenues of over $1 trillion in 2023 alone. They must choose whether to use third-party onlineordering platforms or handle delivery in-house.
When you decided to open a restaurant, you probably didnt picture yourself glued to spreadsheets or tracking the price of eggs, but keeping an eye on the numbers is how you stay open year after year. A spike in food costs, a drop in sales volume, or one slow season can wipe out months of hard work.
Known for their health-conscious menu and convenient prepared meal options, the restaurant has built a loyal following of locals looking for food that fits into their busy lives. By partnering with ChowNow, Healthy Balance Meals saves over $13,000 annually in commission fees while gaining full control over their onlineordering experience.
77% of diners look at a restaurants website before going out to eat or ordering takeout or delivery. If you dont have a website, that means over three-quarters of the people near your restaurantyour potential customerswill never come in or place an order because they have no way to find you when theyre looking for a place to eat.
Each system has its own tablet, order flow, and set of requirements, making it difficult to keep up with operations smoothly. Each platformUber Eats, GrubHub, DoorDashrequires its own tablet, login, and order management system. Order management issues. Consumers report that 24.4% Staff training and inconsistent efficiency.
In 2024, restaurants across the country saw an average five percent increase in transactions and an average eight percent increase in profits with only four percent caused by price hikes. In recent years, the food service industry has undergone a rapid transformation of automation and increased technology usage.
Foodprices are soaring amidst supply chain disruptions, increasing labor costs, and processing plant shutdowns. Poultry prices are up 15 percent to 18 percent ; the cost of eggs has risen 73 percent. consumers say they’re happy paying higher prices for great service. First-Rate Service. Seven out of 10 U.S.
Every day, youre juggling staff, food quality, inventory, customer service, purchasing, and moreall while trying to cultivate a dining experience that wows your customers enough to keep them coming back. Customer Service and Experience Great food and drink is only truly enjoyed when its coupled with a great service experience.
Within a decade, it could be possible for an individual to approach a drive-through in an autonomous vehicle, order through an AI-powered voice ordering assistant, and eat food that was prepared by robots. Voice Ordering. But this technology has even more applications than just ordering on guests' personal devices.
Surging prices have been top of mind for consumers for two years and counting, leaving restaurant leaders questioning how inflation might influence diners’ behavior and overall spending habits, including their usage of digital ordering and third-party delivery apps– both of which gained momentum during the pandemic.
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