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Image of a customer ordering food from their mobile phone on the Cartzie App.

7 Ways Online Ordering System Can Boost Your Restaurant Profit

In recent years, tech developments have redefined what it means to improve customer satisfaction. Now, customers seek convenience, control, and quick service when interacting with a brand. This is where online ordering comes in. The perfect way to order food from the comfort of your home. Online ordering not only helps people save time but also enables restaurants to boost profits – a win-win situation for everyone. But how can an online ordering system boost restaurant profit? Let’s dive in! What Is an Online Ordering System & How It Works A restaurant online ordering system is a system designed to make the ordering process easy for customers and restaurateurs. It allows customers to order products without the need to visit the restaurant. The ordering system works when a customer interacts with your online menu via a website or application. A good restaurant’s online ordering system allows customers to securely pay online, personalize their order, and receive order updates, all with a few intuitive taps. Online ordering helps the restaurant staff as well since the customer’s order pops into your KDS for swift order preparation. The customers’ contact and order information get stored in your back-office software for future purchases, discounts, promotions, and loyalty rewards. This makes the whole process easy and smooth, allowing both parties to save valuable time. But do you need online ordering, or is it just an extra cost for your restaurant? Why Your Restaurant Needs an Online Ordering System Online ordering has grown 300% faster, as compared to dine-in since 2014, and now accounts for up to 40% of the total restaurant sales.   Without having a robust online ordering system in place, you may lose 40% of potential sales. This is the biggest reason to have a reliable and secure online ordering system. Here are 3 other reasons why your restaurant should implement a restaurant online ordering system. Improve Order Accuracy Phone orders can be inaccurate due to the different volume levels, loud background noise, or language barriers. This could result in poor customer experience and food waste. Online ordering gives the customer the comfort of selecting their favorite meal without talking or explaining to your staff. Save Money Customers can take a long time to order food from your restaurant. This could not only occupy space for a longer time but also make it difficult for your staff to deal with confused customers. Online ordering prevents any lost time that staff might experience and allows customers to order food online. Enhance Marketing An online ordering system helps you to improve your marketing by allowing more people to buy from you. By creating deals and offering promotional discounts, you can attract more customers. You can also capture emails and contact details, which allows you to remarket these individuals with special discounts. 7 Ways to Utilize Online Ordering System to Boost Your Restaurant Profit Now that you are aware of the importance of an online ordering system, you might be wondering how it can boost profits. Here are the top 7 ways to utilize an online ordering system to maximize your revenue. Personalized Experience A robust restaurant online ordering system offers customers the ability to tailor their orders according to their preferences. Your customers can select from dietary restrictions or exclude specific ingredients. This personalized approach enhances customer satisfaction, allowing them to come back for more. Improve Order Management Order management is the backbone of your restaurant operations. A slight mistake in the order can ruin the customer’s experience. A restaurant’s online ordering system can help you streamline your order management process. You can avoid costly mistakes, enhance customer experience, and save time while helping your bottom line. Minimal Labor Costs Cutting costs is the key for restaurants to maximize profits. An online ordering system can help you to avoid hiring more staff. You don’t need the waiters to take the orders that are from the online ordering system. Automation helps you to save money while bringing more accuracy. Cutting labor costs is a big strategy that a restaurateur can deploy. Get Better Consumer Data One of the significant benefits of an online ordering system is the data it generates. You can get a wealth of data related to order trends, popular items, customer feedback, and much more. This helps you to make informed decisions, identify areas of improvement, adjust price strategies, and make choices that positively impact revenue. Be Available Everywhere An online ordering system allows customers to conveniently place their orders from anywhere, at any time. This flexibility not only improves the customer experience but also helps you to reach a wider audience. The increased accessibility results in more sales, ultimately giving you more profits. Upselling & Cross-Selling Upselling and cross-selling are popular marketing practices to increase the average order value. By utilizing the online ordering system, you can implement suggestive selling techniques to sell underperforming products or items. You can suggest additional sides or beverages to encourage customers to spend more. This ultimately increases check size and adds more revenue. Transparency An online ordering system gives you complete transparency on your sales and orders. It also provides a secure gateway for your customers to order their favorite meals. They can know the exact price of the dish; with the time it will take to deliver or be picked up. Once the order is complete, the customer feels satisfied, and the restaurant earns their trust. How To Set Up a Restaurant Online Ordering System? No online ordering system is exactly the same, so when looking to set up a restaurant online ordering system, it’s always crucial to know your options. There are three ways to set up an online ordering system. DIY Restaurant Website Builder Third-party App First-party App   DIY Restaurant Website Builder This is the most tedious and time-consuming way to set up a restaurant’s online ordering system. You have to build a website that can accept online food orders and payments. There are dozens of Website Builder tools that can

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Convenience store worker manually taking inventory

Retail Inventory Method: What it is and How it’s Calculated

Running a retail or convenience store can be challenging, especially when you’re trying to grow your business. To succeed in today’s market, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and overcome any obstacles that come your way. Regardless of the type of store you run, inventory is a key metric for any DTC (direct-to-consumer) business. But it can be one of the biggest obstacles that can not only cost you more but also drain your time. You have hundreds or thousands of SKUs that serve your growing customer base. To make sure that it doesn’t cost you a small fortune, you always need to monitor inventory counts, ensuring that inventory records are completely accurate. While it may seem that counting inventory isn’t a challenging task, when it comes to moving tens of thousands of units through the supply chain, counting each item manually becomes impossible. This could ultimately result in stalling operations, underutilized labor, inaccurate financial reporting, and much more. To prevent these issues from happening, many retailers rely on the retail inventory method to account for their inventory. A retail inventory method allows you to calculate your inventory without performing a physical inventory count. This method was created to help retailers save time they spend on counting and managing inventory. But what is the Retail Inventory Method? Today’s guide will help you learn more about the Retail Inventory Method (RIM) and how to run calculations. What Is Retail Inventory Method? The RIM or retail inventory method is defined as an accounting strategy to calculate your inventory over time. It relies on the cost-to-retail ratio i.e., comparing the purchasing cost of your product to the price it is sold for. While it serves as a shortcut to physical inventory count, it’s important to note that it isn’t always 100% accurate. It works best for the products that have the same markup. For instance, it isn’t the best method if you are calculating the value of wine, which has a 50% markup, and shirts that have a 100% markup. Instead, it works best when you compare the same products. Understanding The Retail Inventory Method As a retailer, you probably have invested a lot of cash in stock, which makes sense, as buying inventory is essential to ensure that you have enough product in hand to capture every possible sale. However, doing physical inventory is one of the most time-consuming tasks most retailers fail to manage. This is where the retail inventory method comes in. It is one of the fastest and most cost-efficient ways to keep a pulse on the value of your inventory every month. A retail inventory method allows you to monitor your inventory so you can make informed decisions on ordering stocks, the type of merchandise you need to invest in to boost sales, and the type of products to carry. Why Retail Businesses Should Use the Retail Inventory Method? The retail inventory method is a helpful tool that assists retailers in managing their inventory. The top reasons why retail businesses should use the retail inventory method are as follows. 1. Simplifies Inventory Count Process No need to close the doors of your shop to count your inventory. RIM simplifies the inventory count process by allowing you to count your stock at any time. It saves you from spending much time reviewing purchases and invoices. 2. Time & Cost Efficient RIM is a quick and efficient tool that saves you valuable time in calculating the inventory. It even saves you extra costs that could arise if the workers need to work long hours counting inventory. You can easily manage other business operations without getting worried about the inventory.  3. Applicable For Any Retail Business RIM isn’t limited to any certain retail business. Instead, every retail business, regardless of its size and type, can use the retail inventory method. The best part is you don’t need to be an expert or exceptionally good at accounting to get it right. How To Calculate Inventory by Using Retail Inventory Method Calculating your monthly ending inventory value by using the retail inventory method isn’t difficult. You need to first figure out the total sales, cost of goods, and cost to retail percentage. Now, you might be wondering how to get the cost of goods, sales, and cost to retail percentage to find the ending inventory value. Don’t worry, here are the steps that you can follow to calculate the monthly ending inventory.  Step 1: Calculate Cost-to-Retail Percentage To calculate the cost-to-retail percentage, you need to divide your cost by the retail price and then multiply it by 100 to get the percentage. For Example: If you are selling a bottle of wine at $30 and purchase each bottle at $10, the cost-to-retail percentage would be Cost/retail price x 100 = cost-to-retail percentage 10/30 x 100= 33.33% Step 2: Calculate The Cost of Goods Available for Sale To figure out the cost of goods available for sale, you need to add your beginning inventory cost to the cost of newly purchased inventory. For Example: Consider a liquor store’s beginning at-cost inventory was $10,000 (1000 units = $10,000/$10), and it purchased $20,000 (2,000 units = $20,000/$10) worth of additional inventory during the month. So, the cost of goods available for sale would be Value of Existing Inventory + Value of Newly Purchased Inventory = Cost of Goods Available for Sale $10,000 + $20,000 = $30,000 Step 3: Calculate the Cost of Sales To calculate the cost of sales, you need to add all your monthly sales and then multiply the total by your cost-to-retail percentage. For example: Consider the liquor store sold $6,000 worth of products ($6,000/10 = 600 units) in the same period and the cost to retail percentage is 33.33%, which we get from the example in step one, then the total sales would be Sales during the period x cost to retail percentage = cost of sales $6,000 x 33.33% = $1,999.8 Step 4: Get The Ending Inventory Value

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Image showcasing a magnet to represent customer acquisition cost

5 Proven Ways to Reduce Customer Acquisition Costs

Whether you are running a QSR, full-service, or fast casual restaurant, there is always one goal in mind – gain more customers for sustainable growth. When you are on the path to growth, a big chunk of your budget will go toward marketing and advertising to reach new diners/customers. However, to know how effective your marketing campaigns are, you have to determine the customer acquisition costs. When customer acquisition costs are high and customer lifetime value is low, it ultimately breaks down your bottom line. Therefore, it is vital to strike the right balance and keep your expenses in check. This blog aims to help you make your marketing efforts count by sharing the proven tactics to reduce your CAC. What Is Customer Acquisition Cost & How to Calculate It Customer acquisition cost or CAC is the total amount you spend to acquire new customers. It is one of the important business metrics that lets you know whether the total amount you spend on acquiring new customers outweighs the money you make. In simple terms, customer acquisition cost is designed to measure and maintain the profitability of your business. Calculating your customer acquisition cost can be challenging, but there are online tools, such as the Restaurant Marketing Calculator, to help you calculate it properly. How to Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost Almost all businesses depend on customer acquisition. However, the cost associated with CAC can significantly impact your business profitability. As a result, business owners need to explore more ways to minimize the cost involved with acquiring customers. Here are 5 proven ways that can help you to reduce customer acquisition costs. 1. Test Your Options The first step towards reducing customer acquisition costs is to know which method works for you. The best way to find out is by testing your options. You need to find out which option appeals to your target audience and turns more customers in. However, when testing marketing options, don’t try all the options at once. For instance, if you want to test Google Ads, Facebook (Meta) ads, or consider going with billboard advertising make sure to try one by one and then compare all the results with each other to know which method works. This is one of the smartest moves to determine which channel gives you better results and will ultimately reduce your customer acquisition cost.   2. Try Referral Programs Did you know having a referral program can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs?  Having a robust referral program in place allows you to get warmer leads and helps you obtain prospects who are already familiar with your business. This minimizes the cost you spend on acquiring new customers. To increase recurring sales, you can introduce a loyalty reward system that can help you create loyalty campaigns and entice your customers to come back for more. 3. Push Organic Social Media Growth Organic social media growth is the key to reducing your customer acquisition cost. Businesses can leverage user-generated content (UGC), share and create valuable content that resonates with the audience, and easily convert viewers into customers. To achieve this, you need to align topics, channels, and formats with your target market. Once you start increasing your organic followers, you’ll soon be able to convert them into a target audience. Remember to keep checking your organic social media growth by monitoring and analyzing which type of posts are working for you.   4. Track Your New Customers Keeping track of your new customers is essential to know the progress of your marketing. However, it can be difficult for you to know your new customers when using a paper-based order-taking system. Therefore, to make sure that you can easily track your new customers you need to adopt either of the two solutions given below. Credit Card Tracking: A smart POS system integrated with credit card processing can help you make a database of your customers. You’ll easily track your new customers, as well as those who make repeat purchases. Online Signups: By using a custom website and app you can easily know new signups. This can help you to get an estimate of the new customers that order from your restaurant. It’s a smart way to track your new customers and know exactly how many customers you gain. 5. Invest In SEO & Digital Marketing To reduce your customer acquisition cost it is important to find new and cost-effective ways to acquire fresh customers. Digital marketing and SEO can help you reduce your costs. By simply claiming your page through Google My Business, and pushing for reviews, you can gain customers through Google. Meanwhile, by practicing SEO you can rank on certain keywords your customers are typing to search restaurants and grab more audience. Make Informed Decisions by Using the Best CAC Practices Your business is dependent on new customers. However, acquiring customers by spending more money without knowing where it’s going, won’t help you to drive business growth. By using the right tools and following the above strategy you can drastically decrease your customer acquisition cost. FAQs What is a Good Customer Acquisition Cost? There is no one-size-fits-all answer for good customer acquisition cost. It varies depending on the type of business you own. However, a general way to know whether your customer acquisition cost is good or not is to compare it with the Customer Value. Your CAC should be lower than your CV.   What is The Difference Between Cost Per Acquisition & Customer Acquisition Cost? CPA or cost per acquisition is related to the campaign or channel metric that helps you to assess what it costs to generate contact with your target audience who are still not converted into your customers. Whereas customer acquisition cost is defined as the business-wide metric aimed to calculate your overall marketing spending on acquiring new customers. Why Is It Important to Calculate CAC? Knowing how much you need to spend to bring in new customers will help you optimize your marketing strategy for

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Grocery basket on top of a receipt

How Restaurants Can Deal with Rising Inflation Costs

Running a restaurant business in 2024 seems to get tougher with the rising inflation costs. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurant inflation has ballooned, with the supply costs affecting menu prices. This has increased production costs for the restaurateurs, making it impossible for them to retain old prices. Now, many small to medium-sized restaurants struggle to decide how to price their food to customers. Many restaurants have already increased their prices to meet the cost. According to an article from Forbes, menu prices at quick-service restaurants are up about 8% over 2020, while full-service restaurants have increased nearly 6% more. For restaurateurs, increasing prices seems to be the only way to fight labor, supply chain, and inflation pressures. The most obvious way to deal with rising inflation costs indeed is to raise menu prices – which consumers have noticed. However, as a restaurant owner, a rise in menu prices can positively impact your bottom line. To combat the rising cost, increasing menu prices is often inevitable, but without the right strategy, you might lose your loyal customers. Therefore, this blog has rounded up the best practices to help you deal with rising inflation costs. The Impact of Inflation on Restaurants Whether you’re a startup or an established restaurant owner, you must be feeling the heat of the rising cost, and the supply chain becoming more expensive. While there is no business in the world completely unaffected by inflation, the restaurant industry, which is already on a thin profit, tends to get hit harder. According to Statista, the food inflation rate in the United States was at about 5.8% in 2023, and with a slight decrease of 1.3% predicted in 2024, the price for many food items will continue to rise. This also impacts consumer behavior. As of November 2023, more than 43% of consumers feel worried about paying for food. This means that passing the rising ingredient cost on to your customers won’t be easy for restaurants. The restaurant owners are now in a tight spot, trying to figure out how to maintain the quality of food while making a profit. Meanwhile, the labor cost becomes the elephant in the room, making it harder for the restaurant chains to maintain their profits. More than 30 states have made the minimum wage higher. This will continue to rise, affecting restaurants of almost all types. In such a situation, restaurant owners need to revise their strategy to deal with rising inflation costs. How To Deal with Rising Inflation Costs Americans have long been known to enjoy eating out. Even now, in spite of economic challenges, there are predictions that the restaurant and food service industry will continue to thrive in 2024. Eating out is still in demand and restaurants do have the chance to grow and thrive even in difficult economic times. You need to adapt innovative ways to deal with rising inflation costs. Here are the top ways that can help you to deal with rising inflation costs. 1. Trim the fat Before you start raising your prices to protect your profit margin, start by trimming the fat. Identify the items in your menu that are not selling and immediately remove them. Optimizing your menu items will help you to cut the cost. Now, identify your high-cost ingredients and remove them with an affordable option. If you source imported ingredients that are more expensive than local ones, consider sourcing local ingredients, which are often the same or even better quality because they don’t have to go through rigorous travel and logistics to be delivered. Look across all your vendors and see if any offer a discount on bulk orders, especially when you have multiple restaurants. You may have to cough up more money when you purchase, but it can make a huge difference in reducing your costs in the future. Trimming the fat enables you to minimize the impact of inflation on your menu prices. 2. Avoid Food Waste At the time of economic crises, avoiding food waste can be of significant help. Since food costs take up a huge margin of your budget, any unnecessary waste is an expense that no restaurateur wants to bear. Therefore, your second step should be to reinforce training with your employees and make sure that food isn’t wasted due to wrong orders, customer allergies, or carelessness. Once you and your staff are on one page, the next step is to do a thorough inventory check of everything. This helps you to know whether you’re ordering enough to meet demand or more than you possibly use. You can use POS system inventory reports to know the exact inventory figures. 3. Practice Menu Engineering Menu engineering is one of the most effective ways to sell high-cost food. You can integrate a POS system and inventory management software to gain valuable insights into the cost of dishes and the profit margin of each dish. By managing your menu, you can improve the performance of your menu items, ultimately making more profits. You can check out our blog, Menu Engineering: What it is & How it Can Increase Your Restaurant Profit, to learn how menu engineering can help you boost sales and increase profit. 4. Reduce Labor Cost As the minimum wage rises across the country, it becomes crucial for you to track your labor costs and take steps to reduce extra expenses. Once you get insights on the total labor cost you carry every month, it will become easy for you to optimize. Common steps you can take to reduce labor costs are: Use Technology: Technology is the key to reducing labor costs and streamlining your restaurant operations. Start by adding a reliable all-purpose restaurant POS that helps you to track employee performance, provides detailed insights, and lets you automate numerous tasks. Optimize Schedule: No need to pay for extra hours when you expect fewer customers during that part of the day. Optimizing employee schedules can help you prevent overstaffing, ultimately saving you more on

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Menu Engineering guide

Menu Engineering: What is it & How it can increase your restaurant profit

Running a restaurant isn’t all about focusing on your operations and the quality of dishes. Of course, it matters, but without focusing on the small details, you can’t expect your sales to grow. When a customer enters your restaurant, they are likely greeted with a smile and a menu. The menu of your restaurant is the first impression that can help you build a positive brand image. It’s not only a way to communicate with your audience but can also influence what your customers will order and how much they will spend in your restaurant. Therefore, the design of your restaurant menu is an important factor in boosting your sales. Restaurant menu engineering can be the best way to transform your menu into a money-maker. Why Do You Need to Focus on Your Menu? On average, restaurant guests spend around 100-109 seconds (about 2 minutes) studying the menu. This means that you only get a few seconds to make an impression and let your customers select the most profitable dish.  You need to focus on your restaurant menu to stand out from the competition. Menu engineering can help you make a profitable menu by keeping it concise, well-organized, and perfectly laid out. This is a smart move for restaurateurs searching for ways to make more profits. But what is it? Menu Engineering Basics: Rules Restaurateurs Need to Know Menu engineering, often called menu psychology, is the popular practice of making a restaurant menu more appealing to guests. It is used to categorize the menu by using sales data and food costs. Restaurant menu engineering requires you to have exact menu item prices, food costs per serving, and contribution margin to fully optimize your menu. This helps you to maximize your profits by encouraging your guests to select only the most profitable items. By implementing menu engineering, you can raise profits by up to 15%. However, it’s important to know the following key basic concepts to make an effective physical menu design. Pay Attention to Colors Colors can influence your guest’s feelings and behavior. Restaurateurs that use color psychology can influence purchasing habits and brand loyalty while boosting revenue. You should use your restaurant’s branding or decor colors in your menu; however, you can slightly add bright colors like red, orange, or yellow that trigger appetite. This small change can encourage hungry guests to order their favorite meal quickly. Align Your Menu Items with Guest’s Eyes Engineering your menu according to eye movements can help you maximize your sales of highly profitable dishes. Most humans tend to move their eyes in certain patterns, and knowing these patterns can help you put your high-margin dishes in the desirable placement areas of your menu. Optimize Your Menu Descriptions Do you know that the descriptions of menu items can have a direct impact on your sales? According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, the design and description of your menu influence the customer’s mind. When writing a menu for a restaurant, you need to keep a balance between the number of words you use to convince customers and keeping their attention. A description like “Cheese Sandwich” won’t be an effective way to write a menu item. However, replacing it with a “Classic Cheese Sandwich” could be a better option.  But the best way to write down the menu item would be                     “Fresh savory, buttery, toasted bread with melted cheese fillings.”  Pictures Are Forbidden… Sometimes When designing a menu, there is always an internal urge to place pictures of your dish. While you may think that it’s a good move, as the picture says a thousand words, however, it doesn’t apply to high-end restaurants. If your target audience is luxury clients for fine dining, it’s always good to avoid placing pictures. In contrast, if you run a fast casual or fast-food business, then adding images could help customers quickly see your most popular items. You should only use high-quality images of your best meals to showcase. Low-resolution or blurry images take away from the overall design of your menu and weaken your credibility. Menu Pricing Everyone knows that setting a profitable price is crucial. Of course, you won’t charge $3 for a chicken sandwich which costs you more than $5. But how to make it sellable? That’s the real question! Most of the expensive items listed on your menu won’t make it to the guest’s table unless you have the right pricing. Here, the key is not to lower the prices but to apply psychological tricks. Remove The $ Sign: The dollar sign on your menu not only attracts guests but also makes the dish look more expensive. Use digits such as 15 instead of $15 to let customers spend more. Use Decimal: Use of decimal instead of putting a straight amount can make your dish look more affordable. A dish with a price of 10 will look more expensive compared to a dish that is priced at 9.99 cents. Right Arrangement: Wanna sell more of your mid-priced food? Consider setting one high-priced item at the top of the list that makes the rest of the dishes look like a more affordable option. Boost Your Restaurant Profit by Using Menu Engineering Menu engineering offers significant benefits that go beyond designing an attractive menu. You can influence customer choices, improve sales, and enhance your brand image. Here are the key steps to boost your restaurant’s profit by using restaurant menu engineering. Step 1: Calculate Your Food Cost Calculating your food cost allows you to know your expenses to prepare one dish. You need to know the exact cost needed to produce one portion of every dish on your menu. The food cost information is often available in your restaurant POS system; however, if it is not, you can use the manual method. Let’s say you serve chicken tenders for $9. A single serving takes up to 4 ounces of chicken, 1 tablespoon

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AI generated image of a robot holding a cupcake

Snack Time Reimagined: The Future of Foodservice in Convenience Stores

In today’s fast-paced world, nobody wants to waste time waiting in long queues for their meals. The demand for fast and convenient meals has significantly risen. Now people want to be served faster than ever before. Observing this continuous demand, C-stores have already started making a debut in the foodservice industry. The customers are making their local convenience stores a go-to spot for food. Now, c-stores aren’t just the gas stations that sell food; they’re the restaurants that sell gas- making a difference. But what does the future of foodservice in convenience stores look like? Is it worth investing in the foodservice section? Let’s explore this in today’s blog. Evolving Foodservice Trends in C-Store C-stores have long been known for their easy access to snacks, beverages, and other necessities. They are completely based on a grab-and-go model making it convenient for customers to get in and out with what they need in a short amount of time.   As work and family obligations leave people increasingly time-crunched, finding quality, inexpensive grab-and-go meals has become a challenge. To meet customer needs and preferences, C-stores have undergone a significant transformation in their foodservice offerings. According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), the number of C-stores throughout the United States has increased by 1.5% from 2023. The industry’s increased focus on serving fresh food played a major role in making C-stores successful. The top two major notable trends in convenience stores are Quality– As consumer preferences shifted c-stores started investing in high-quality ingredients and culinary expertise to meet the growing demand of the customers. Customizable Meal Options– As the demand for personalized food experiences increases, the C-stores start catering to individual preferences and dietary restrictions by offering customizable meal options. Why Introduce Foodservice in Your Convenience Store? Introducing foodservice in your convenience store comes with significant benefits. You become a one-stop shop that offers not only fuel, and snacks, but a quick meal option to the customers. Don’t just take it from us, hear from Mak’s Convenience owner, Nabil Maknojia, on the future of foodservice in convenience stores. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ay6_yhbtU A customer who is already exhausted from a full day of work, hungry, and looking to get a quick bite when greeted by the aroma of hot, fresh pizza, and sandwiches will quickly change his mind to purchase a $3 bag of chips and a soda. The ease of ordering his favorite meal by self-service kiosk and receiving it within a few minutes allows him to prefer you over a Quick Service Restaurant. Even according to QSR Magazine, the c-stores are directly competing with QSRs by providing customers a reason to stop beyond the gas pump. The top main reasons to introduce foodservice at C-store are as follows: The foodservice margin is generally higher than QSR, giving more opportunities to offer deals and more discounts. You deliver a better customer experience by becoming a one-stop shop to your customers. It is easy to attract customers by using your service strengths- such as neighborhood convenience, secure and speedy checkout process, and a clean shopping environment.v What Is the Future of C-Store Food Services? As customer preferences are changing, embracing new approaches to food services has become essential. C-store brands are consistently evolving and have changed the way they offer fresh and hot items. The drive-thru and curbside pickup, digital presence through customized applications, and better-quality food, are some of the few changes that C-stores are adopting. By implementing modern technology, and taking innovative steps, c-stores will soon look more like a hybrid between Quick Service Restaurants and traditional Convenience Stores. It is expected that in the future more C-stores will add foodservice models, and home-delivery options to provide a seamless experience for customers. How Can C-stores Get Prepared for The Future? As the market dynamics are changing the c-store retailers need to quickly adapt to the growing demand to meet consumer expectations. Now, a high-quality foodservice program is a must-have for all convenience store retailers. To develop a distinctive foodservice identity, c-stores need to offer excellent food, clean stores, innovative limited time offers, and super friendly staff. Here are a few points that you need to follow to prepare yourself for the future. 1.    Advancement in Convenience Foodservice Customers today expect the same level of convenience from stores as they do from technology. Smooth checkout, no interference, and quick processing- your customers want a seamless experience. To help your guests get in and out of the store as efficiently and comfortably as possible you need to invest in mobile ordering, self-checkout stations, and personalized loyalty programs.    2.    Sight for Evolution The C-stores need to continuously search for evolution to ensure that they stay relevant in the future. You need to keep a close eye on the market trends, changes in customer behavior, and your store growth. More stores are now using an all-in-one POS system that redefines operations, keeps everything in control, and tracks store performance. 3.    More Focus on Consumer Behavior The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated consumer’s desires to find shortcuts to quality food and drinks in their day-to-day lives. Consumers are now becoming more health-conscious with the increased demand for quality food. C-stores need to focus more on preparing quality food, customized meals, and offering self-services to increase consumer confidence in grab-go food offerings. Stay Ahead of The Curve Convenience stores are undergoing a foodservice revolution by entering a new market. As a C-store retailer, it’s time to recognize the change and adapt the modern trends to survive in the industry. By examining the future of foodservice in convenience stores you need to offer customers a better experience by catering to their needs. FAQs What is The Future of Convenience Stores? Convenience stores will continue to evolve more towards being experience-driven destinations. They will soon be seen as a convenient option for a lunch break during the week and a dinner option for the whole family. Are C-Stores Recession Proof?C-store is often considered a recession-restraint business because customers always need

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Image of a customer ordering food from their mobile phone on the Cartzie App.

7 Ways Online Ordering System Can Boost Your Restaurant Profit

In recent years, tech developments have redefined what it means to improve customer satisfaction. Now, customers seek convenience, control, and quick service when interacting with a brand. This is where online ordering comes in. The perfect way to order food from the comfort of your home. Online ordering not only helps people save time but also enables restaurants to boost profits – a win-win situation for everyone. But how can an online ordering system boost restaurant profit? Let’s dive in! What Is an Online Ordering System & How It Works A restaurant online ordering system is a system designed to make the ordering process easy for customers and restaurateurs. It allows customers to order products without the need to visit the restaurant. The ordering system works when a customer interacts with your online menu via a website or application. A good restaurant’s online ordering system allows customers to securely pay online, personalize their order, and receive order updates, all with a few intuitive taps. Online ordering helps the restaurant staff as well since the customer’s order pops into your KDS for swift order preparation. The customers’ contact and order information get stored in your back-office software for future purchases, discounts, promotions, and loyalty rewards. This makes the whole process easy and smooth, allowing both parties to save valuable time. But do you need online ordering, or is it just an extra cost for your restaurant? Why Your Restaurant Needs an Online Ordering System Online ordering has grown 300% faster, as compared to dine-in since 2014, and now accounts for up to 40% of the total restaurant sales.   Without having a robust online ordering system in place, you may lose 40% of potential sales. This is the biggest reason to have a reliable and secure online ordering system. Here are 3 other reasons why your restaurant should implement a restaurant online ordering system. Improve Order Accuracy Phone orders can be inaccurate due to the different volume levels, loud background noise, or language barriers. This could result in poor customer experience and food waste. Online ordering gives the customer the comfort of selecting their favorite meal without talking or explaining to your staff. Save Money Customers can take a long time to order food from your restaurant. This could not only occupy space for a longer time but also make it difficult for your staff to deal with confused customers. Online ordering prevents any lost time that staff might experience and allows customers to order food online. Enhance Marketing An online ordering system helps you to improve your marketing by allowing more people to buy from you. By creating deals and offering promotional discounts, you can attract more customers. You can also capture emails and contact details, which allows you to remarket these individuals with special discounts. 7 Ways to Utilize Online Ordering System to Boost Your Restaurant Profit Now that you are aware of the importance of an online ordering system, you might be wondering how it can boost profits. Here are the top 7 ways to utilize an online ordering system to maximize your revenue. Personalized Experience A robust restaurant online ordering system offers customers the ability to tailor their orders according to their preferences. Your customers can select from dietary restrictions or exclude specific ingredients. This personalized approach enhances customer satisfaction, allowing them to come back for more. Improve Order Management Order management is the backbone of your restaurant operations. A slight mistake in the order can ruin the customer’s experience. A restaurant’s online ordering system can help you streamline your order management process. You can avoid costly mistakes, enhance customer experience, and save time while helping your bottom line. Minimal Labor Costs Cutting costs is the key for restaurants to maximize profits. An online ordering system can help you to avoid hiring more staff. You don’t need the waiters to take the orders that are from the online ordering system. Automation helps you to save money while bringing more accuracy. Cutting labor costs is a big strategy that a restaurateur can deploy. Get Better Consumer Data One of the significant benefits of an online ordering system is the data it generates. You can get a wealth of data related to order trends, popular items, customer feedback, and much more. This helps you to make informed decisions, identify areas of improvement, adjust price strategies, and make choices that positively impact revenue. Be Available Everywhere An online ordering system allows customers to conveniently place their orders from anywhere, at any time. This flexibility not only improves the customer experience but also helps you to reach a wider audience. The increased accessibility results in more sales, ultimately giving you more profits. Upselling & Cross-Selling Upselling and cross-selling are popular marketing practices to increase the average order value. By utilizing the online ordering system, you can implement suggestive selling techniques to sell underperforming products or items. You can suggest additional sides or beverages to encourage customers to spend more. This ultimately increases check size and adds more revenue. Transparency An online ordering system gives you complete transparency on your sales and orders. It also provides a secure gateway for your customers to order their favorite meals. They can know the exact price of the dish; with the time it will take to deliver or be picked up. Once the order is complete, the customer feels satisfied, and the restaurant earns their trust. How To Set Up a Restaurant Online Ordering System? No online ordering system is exactly the same, so when looking to set up a restaurant online ordering system, it’s always crucial to know your options. There are three ways to set up an online ordering system. DIY Restaurant Website Builder Third-party App First-party App   DIY Restaurant Website Builder This is the most tedious and time-consuming way to set up a restaurant’s online ordering system. You have to build a website that can accept online food orders and payments. There are dozens of Website Builder tools that can

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Convenience store worker manually taking inventory

Retail Inventory Method: What it is and How it’s Calculated

Running a retail or convenience store can be challenging, especially when you’re trying to grow your business. To succeed in today’s market, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and overcome any obstacles that come your way. Regardless of the type of store you run, inventory is a key metric for any DTC (direct-to-consumer) business. But it can be one of the biggest obstacles that can not only cost you more but also drain your time. You have hundreds or thousands of SKUs that serve your growing customer base. To make sure that it doesn’t cost you a small fortune, you always need to monitor inventory counts, ensuring that inventory records are completely accurate. While it may seem that counting inventory isn’t a challenging task, when it comes to moving tens of thousands of units through the supply chain, counting each item manually becomes impossible. This could ultimately result in stalling operations, underutilized labor, inaccurate financial reporting, and much more. To prevent these issues from happening, many retailers rely on the retail inventory method to account for their inventory. A retail inventory method allows you to calculate your inventory without performing a physical inventory count. This method was created to help retailers save time they spend on counting and managing inventory. But what is the Retail Inventory Method? Today’s guide will help you learn more about the Retail Inventory Method (RIM) and how to run calculations. What Is Retail Inventory Method? The RIM or retail inventory method is defined as an accounting strategy to calculate your inventory over time. It relies on the cost-to-retail ratio i.e., comparing the purchasing cost of your product to the price it is sold for. While it serves as a shortcut to physical inventory count, it’s important to note that it isn’t always 100% accurate. It works best for the products that have the same markup. For instance, it isn’t the best method if you are calculating the value of wine, which has a 50% markup, and shirts that have a 100% markup. Instead, it works best when you compare the same products. Understanding The Retail Inventory Method As a retailer, you probably have invested a lot of cash in stock, which makes sense, as buying inventory is essential to ensure that you have enough product in hand to capture every possible sale. However, doing physical inventory is one of the most time-consuming tasks most retailers fail to manage. This is where the retail inventory method comes in. It is one of the fastest and most cost-efficient ways to keep a pulse on the value of your inventory every month. A retail inventory method allows you to monitor your inventory so you can make informed decisions on ordering stocks, the type of merchandise you need to invest in to boost sales, and the type of products to carry. Why Retail Businesses Should Use the Retail Inventory Method? The retail inventory method is a helpful tool that assists retailers in managing their inventory. The top reasons why retail businesses should use the retail inventory method are as follows. 1. Simplifies Inventory Count Process No need to close the doors of your shop to count your inventory. RIM simplifies the inventory count process by allowing you to count your stock at any time. It saves you from spending much time reviewing purchases and invoices. 2. Time & Cost Efficient RIM is a quick and efficient tool that saves you valuable time in calculating the inventory. It even saves you extra costs that could arise if the workers need to work long hours counting inventory. You can easily manage other business operations without getting worried about the inventory.  3. Applicable For Any Retail Business RIM isn’t limited to any certain retail business. Instead, every retail business, regardless of its size and type, can use the retail inventory method. The best part is you don’t need to be an expert or exceptionally good at accounting to get it right. How To Calculate Inventory by Using Retail Inventory Method Calculating your monthly ending inventory value by using the retail inventory method isn’t difficult. You need to first figure out the total sales, cost of goods, and cost to retail percentage. Now, you might be wondering how to get the cost of goods, sales, and cost to retail percentage to find the ending inventory value. Don’t worry, here are the steps that you can follow to calculate the monthly ending inventory.  Step 1: Calculate Cost-to-Retail Percentage To calculate the cost-to-retail percentage, you need to divide your cost by the retail price and then multiply it by 100 to get the percentage. For Example: If you are selling a bottle of wine at $30 and purchase each bottle at $10, the cost-to-retail percentage would be Cost/retail price x 100 = cost-to-retail percentage 10/30 x 100= 33.33% Step 2: Calculate The Cost of Goods Available for Sale To figure out the cost of goods available for sale, you need to add your beginning inventory cost to the cost of newly purchased inventory. For Example: Consider a liquor store’s beginning at-cost inventory was $10,000 (1000 units = $10,000/$10), and it purchased $20,000 (2,000 units = $20,000/$10) worth of additional inventory during the month. So, the cost of goods available for sale would be Value of Existing Inventory + Value of Newly Purchased Inventory = Cost of Goods Available for Sale $10,000 + $20,000 = $30,000 Step 3: Calculate the Cost of Sales To calculate the cost of sales, you need to add all your monthly sales and then multiply the total by your cost-to-retail percentage. For example: Consider the liquor store sold $6,000 worth of products ($6,000/10 = 600 units) in the same period and the cost to retail percentage is 33.33%, which we get from the example in step one, then the total sales would be Sales during the period x cost to retail percentage = cost of sales $6,000 x 33.33% = $1,999.8 Step 4: Get The Ending Inventory Value

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5 Proven Ways to Reduce Customer Acquisition Costs

Whether you are running a QSR, full-service, or fast casual restaurant, there is always one goal in mind – gain more customers for sustainable growth. When you are on the path to growth, a big chunk of your budget will go toward marketing and advertising to reach new diners/customers. However, to know how effective your marketing campaigns are, you have to determine the customer acquisition costs. When customer acquisition costs are high and customer lifetime value is low, it ultimately breaks down your bottom line. Therefore, it is vital to strike the right balance and keep your expenses in check. This blog aims to help you make your marketing efforts count by sharing the proven tactics to reduce your CAC. What Is Customer Acquisition Cost & How to Calculate It Customer acquisition cost or CAC is the total amount you spend to acquire new customers. It is one of the important business metrics that lets you know whether the total amount you spend on acquiring new customers outweighs the money you make. In simple terms, customer acquisition cost is designed to measure and maintain the profitability of your business. Calculating your customer acquisition cost can be challenging, but there are online tools, such as the Restaurant Marketing Calculator, to help you calculate it properly. How to Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost Almost all businesses depend on customer acquisition. However, the cost associated with CAC can significantly impact your business profitability. As a result, business owners need to explore more ways to minimize the cost involved with acquiring customers. Here are 5 proven ways that can help you to reduce customer acquisition costs. 1. Test Your Options The first step towards reducing customer acquisition costs is to know which method works for you. The best way to find out is by testing your options. You need to find out which option appeals to your target audience and turns more customers in. However, when testing marketing options, don’t try all the options at once. For instance, if you want to test Google Ads, Facebook (Meta) ads, or consider going with billboard advertising make sure to try one by one and then compare all the results with each other to know which method works. This is one of the smartest moves to determine which channel gives you better results and will ultimately reduce your customer acquisition cost.   2. Try Referral Programs Did you know having a referral program can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs?  Having a robust referral program in place allows you to get warmer leads and helps you obtain prospects who are already familiar with your business. This minimizes the cost you spend on acquiring new customers. To increase recurring sales, you can introduce a loyalty reward system that can help you create loyalty campaigns and entice your customers to come back for more. 3. Push Organic Social Media Growth Organic social media growth is the key to reducing your customer acquisition cost. Businesses can leverage user-generated content (UGC), share and create valuable content that resonates with the audience, and easily convert viewers into customers. To achieve this, you need to align topics, channels, and formats with your target market. Once you start increasing your organic followers, you’ll soon be able to convert them into a target audience. Remember to keep checking your organic social media growth by monitoring and analyzing which type of posts are working for you.   4. Track Your New Customers Keeping track of your new customers is essential to know the progress of your marketing. However, it can be difficult for you to know your new customers when using a paper-based order-taking system. Therefore, to make sure that you can easily track your new customers you need to adopt either of the two solutions given below. Credit Card Tracking: A smart POS system integrated with credit card processing can help you make a database of your customers. You’ll easily track your new customers, as well as those who make repeat purchases. Online Signups: By using a custom website and app you can easily know new signups. This can help you to get an estimate of the new customers that order from your restaurant. It’s a smart way to track your new customers and know exactly how many customers you gain. 5. Invest In SEO & Digital Marketing To reduce your customer acquisition cost it is important to find new and cost-effective ways to acquire fresh customers. Digital marketing and SEO can help you reduce your costs. By simply claiming your page through Google My Business, and pushing for reviews, you can gain customers through Google. Meanwhile, by practicing SEO you can rank on certain keywords your customers are typing to search restaurants and grab more audience. Make Informed Decisions by Using the Best CAC Practices Your business is dependent on new customers. However, acquiring customers by spending more money without knowing where it’s going, won’t help you to drive business growth. By using the right tools and following the above strategy you can drastically decrease your customer acquisition cost. FAQs What is a Good Customer Acquisition Cost? There is no one-size-fits-all answer for good customer acquisition cost. It varies depending on the type of business you own. However, a general way to know whether your customer acquisition cost is good or not is to compare it with the Customer Value. Your CAC should be lower than your CV.   What is The Difference Between Cost Per Acquisition & Customer Acquisition Cost? CPA or cost per acquisition is related to the campaign or channel metric that helps you to assess what it costs to generate contact with your target audience who are still not converted into your customers. Whereas customer acquisition cost is defined as the business-wide metric aimed to calculate your overall marketing spending on acquiring new customers. Why Is It Important to Calculate CAC? Knowing how much you need to spend to bring in new customers will help you optimize your marketing strategy for

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Grocery basket on top of a receipt

How Restaurants Can Deal with Rising Inflation Costs

Running a restaurant business in 2024 seems to get tougher with the rising inflation costs. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurant inflation has ballooned, with the supply costs affecting menu prices. This has increased production costs for the restaurateurs, making it impossible for them to retain old prices. Now, many small to medium-sized restaurants struggle to decide how to price their food to customers. Many restaurants have already increased their prices to meet the cost. According to an article from Forbes, menu prices at quick-service restaurants are up about 8% over 2020, while full-service restaurants have increased nearly 6% more. For restaurateurs, increasing prices seems to be the only way to fight labor, supply chain, and inflation pressures. The most obvious way to deal with rising inflation costs indeed is to raise menu prices – which consumers have noticed. However, as a restaurant owner, a rise in menu prices can positively impact your bottom line. To combat the rising cost, increasing menu prices is often inevitable, but without the right strategy, you might lose your loyal customers. Therefore, this blog has rounded up the best practices to help you deal with rising inflation costs. The Impact of Inflation on Restaurants Whether you’re a startup or an established restaurant owner, you must be feeling the heat of the rising cost, and the supply chain becoming more expensive. While there is no business in the world completely unaffected by inflation, the restaurant industry, which is already on a thin profit, tends to get hit harder. According to Statista, the food inflation rate in the United States was at about 5.8% in 2023, and with a slight decrease of 1.3% predicted in 2024, the price for many food items will continue to rise. This also impacts consumer behavior. As of November 2023, more than 43% of consumers feel worried about paying for food. This means that passing the rising ingredient cost on to your customers won’t be easy for restaurants. The restaurant owners are now in a tight spot, trying to figure out how to maintain the quality of food while making a profit. Meanwhile, the labor cost becomes the elephant in the room, making it harder for the restaurant chains to maintain their profits. More than 30 states have made the minimum wage higher. This will continue to rise, affecting restaurants of almost all types. In such a situation, restaurant owners need to revise their strategy to deal with rising inflation costs. How To Deal with Rising Inflation Costs Americans have long been known to enjoy eating out. Even now, in spite of economic challenges, there are predictions that the restaurant and food service industry will continue to thrive in 2024. Eating out is still in demand and restaurants do have the chance to grow and thrive even in difficult economic times. You need to adapt innovative ways to deal with rising inflation costs. Here are the top ways that can help you to deal with rising inflation costs. 1. Trim the fat Before you start raising your prices to protect your profit margin, start by trimming the fat. Identify the items in your menu that are not selling and immediately remove them. Optimizing your menu items will help you to cut the cost. Now, identify your high-cost ingredients and remove them with an affordable option. If you source imported ingredients that are more expensive than local ones, consider sourcing local ingredients, which are often the same or even better quality because they don’t have to go through rigorous travel and logistics to be delivered. Look across all your vendors and see if any offer a discount on bulk orders, especially when you have multiple restaurants. You may have to cough up more money when you purchase, but it can make a huge difference in reducing your costs in the future. Trimming the fat enables you to minimize the impact of inflation on your menu prices. 2. Avoid Food Waste At the time of economic crises, avoiding food waste can be of significant help. Since food costs take up a huge margin of your budget, any unnecessary waste is an expense that no restaurateur wants to bear. Therefore, your second step should be to reinforce training with your employees and make sure that food isn’t wasted due to wrong orders, customer allergies, or carelessness. Once you and your staff are on one page, the next step is to do a thorough inventory check of everything. This helps you to know whether you’re ordering enough to meet demand or more than you possibly use. You can use POS system inventory reports to know the exact inventory figures. 3. Practice Menu Engineering Menu engineering is one of the most effective ways to sell high-cost food. You can integrate a POS system and inventory management software to gain valuable insights into the cost of dishes and the profit margin of each dish. By managing your menu, you can improve the performance of your menu items, ultimately making more profits. You can check out our blog, Menu Engineering: What it is & How it Can Increase Your Restaurant Profit, to learn how menu engineering can help you boost sales and increase profit. 4. Reduce Labor Cost As the minimum wage rises across the country, it becomes crucial for you to track your labor costs and take steps to reduce extra expenses. Once you get insights on the total labor cost you carry every month, it will become easy for you to optimize. Common steps you can take to reduce labor costs are: Use Technology: Technology is the key to reducing labor costs and streamlining your restaurant operations. Start by adding a reliable all-purpose restaurant POS that helps you to track employee performance, provides detailed insights, and lets you automate numerous tasks. Optimize Schedule: No need to pay for extra hours when you expect fewer customers during that part of the day. Optimizing employee schedules can help you prevent overstaffing, ultimately saving you more on

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Menu Engineering guide

Menu Engineering: What is it & How it can increase your restaurant profit

Running a restaurant isn’t all about focusing on your operations and the quality of dishes. Of course, it matters, but without focusing on the small details, you can’t expect your sales to grow. When a customer enters your restaurant, they are likely greeted with a smile and a menu. The menu of your restaurant is the first impression that can help you build a positive brand image. It’s not only a way to communicate with your audience but can also influence what your customers will order and how much they will spend in your restaurant. Therefore, the design of your restaurant menu is an important factor in boosting your sales. Restaurant menu engineering can be the best way to transform your menu into a money-maker. Why Do You Need to Focus on Your Menu? On average, restaurant guests spend around 100-109 seconds (about 2 minutes) studying the menu. This means that you only get a few seconds to make an impression and let your customers select the most profitable dish.  You need to focus on your restaurant menu to stand out from the competition. Menu engineering can help you make a profitable menu by keeping it concise, well-organized, and perfectly laid out. This is a smart move for restaurateurs searching for ways to make more profits. But what is it? Menu Engineering Basics: Rules Restaurateurs Need to Know Menu engineering, often called menu psychology, is the popular practice of making a restaurant menu more appealing to guests. It is used to categorize the menu by using sales data and food costs. Restaurant menu engineering requires you to have exact menu item prices, food costs per serving, and contribution margin to fully optimize your menu. This helps you to maximize your profits by encouraging your guests to select only the most profitable items. By implementing menu engineering, you can raise profits by up to 15%. However, it’s important to know the following key basic concepts to make an effective physical menu design. Pay Attention to Colors Colors can influence your guest’s feelings and behavior. Restaurateurs that use color psychology can influence purchasing habits and brand loyalty while boosting revenue. You should use your restaurant’s branding or decor colors in your menu; however, you can slightly add bright colors like red, orange, or yellow that trigger appetite. This small change can encourage hungry guests to order their favorite meal quickly. Align Your Menu Items with Guest’s Eyes Engineering your menu according to eye movements can help you maximize your sales of highly profitable dishes. Most humans tend to move their eyes in certain patterns, and knowing these patterns can help you put your high-margin dishes in the desirable placement areas of your menu. Optimize Your Menu Descriptions Do you know that the descriptions of menu items can have a direct impact on your sales? According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, the design and description of your menu influence the customer’s mind. When writing a menu for a restaurant, you need to keep a balance between the number of words you use to convince customers and keeping their attention. A description like “Cheese Sandwich” won’t be an effective way to write a menu item. However, replacing it with a “Classic Cheese Sandwich” could be a better option.  But the best way to write down the menu item would be                     “Fresh savory, buttery, toasted bread with melted cheese fillings.”  Pictures Are Forbidden… Sometimes When designing a menu, there is always an internal urge to place pictures of your dish. While you may think that it’s a good move, as the picture says a thousand words, however, it doesn’t apply to high-end restaurants. If your target audience is luxury clients for fine dining, it’s always good to avoid placing pictures. In contrast, if you run a fast casual or fast-food business, then adding images could help customers quickly see your most popular items. You should only use high-quality images of your best meals to showcase. Low-resolution or blurry images take away from the overall design of your menu and weaken your credibility. Menu Pricing Everyone knows that setting a profitable price is crucial. Of course, you won’t charge $3 for a chicken sandwich which costs you more than $5. But how to make it sellable? That’s the real question! Most of the expensive items listed on your menu won’t make it to the guest’s table unless you have the right pricing. Here, the key is not to lower the prices but to apply psychological tricks. Remove The $ Sign: The dollar sign on your menu not only attracts guests but also makes the dish look more expensive. Use digits such as 15 instead of $15 to let customers spend more. Use Decimal: Use of decimal instead of putting a straight amount can make your dish look more affordable. A dish with a price of 10 will look more expensive compared to a dish that is priced at 9.99 cents. Right Arrangement: Wanna sell more of your mid-priced food? Consider setting one high-priced item at the top of the list that makes the rest of the dishes look like a more affordable option. Boost Your Restaurant Profit by Using Menu Engineering Menu engineering offers significant benefits that go beyond designing an attractive menu. You can influence customer choices, improve sales, and enhance your brand image. Here are the key steps to boost your restaurant’s profit by using restaurant menu engineering. Step 1: Calculate Your Food Cost Calculating your food cost allows you to know your expenses to prepare one dish. You need to know the exact cost needed to produce one portion of every dish on your menu. The food cost information is often available in your restaurant POS system; however, if it is not, you can use the manual method. Let’s say you serve chicken tenders for $9. A single serving takes up to 4 ounces of chicken, 1 tablespoon

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Snack Time Reimagined: The Future of Foodservice in Convenience Stores

In today’s fast-paced world, nobody wants to waste time waiting in long queues for their meals. The demand for fast and convenient meals has significantly risen. Now people want to be served faster than ever before. Observing this continuous demand, C-stores have already started making a debut in the foodservice industry. The customers are making their local convenience stores a go-to spot for food. Now, c-stores aren’t just the gas stations that sell food; they’re the restaurants that sell gas- making a difference. But what does the future of foodservice in convenience stores look like? Is it worth investing in the foodservice section? Let’s explore this in today’s blog. Evolving Foodservice Trends in C-Store C-stores have long been known for their easy access to snacks, beverages, and other necessities. They are completely based on a grab-and-go model making it convenient for customers to get in and out with what they need in a short amount of time.   As work and family obligations leave people increasingly time-crunched, finding quality, inexpensive grab-and-go meals has become a challenge. To meet customer needs and preferences, C-stores have undergone a significant transformation in their foodservice offerings. According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), the number of C-stores throughout the United States has increased by 1.5% from 2023. The industry’s increased focus on serving fresh food played a major role in making C-stores successful. The top two major notable trends in convenience stores are Quality– As consumer preferences shifted c-stores started investing in high-quality ingredients and culinary expertise to meet the growing demand of the customers. Customizable Meal Options– As the demand for personalized food experiences increases, the C-stores start catering to individual preferences and dietary restrictions by offering customizable meal options. Why Introduce Foodservice in Your Convenience Store? Introducing foodservice in your convenience store comes with significant benefits. You become a one-stop shop that offers not only fuel, and snacks, but a quick meal option to the customers. Don’t just take it from us, hear from Mak’s Convenience owner, Nabil Maknojia, on the future of foodservice in convenience stores. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ay6_yhbtU A customer who is already exhausted from a full day of work, hungry, and looking to get a quick bite when greeted by the aroma of hot, fresh pizza, and sandwiches will quickly change his mind to purchase a $3 bag of chips and a soda. The ease of ordering his favorite meal by self-service kiosk and receiving it within a few minutes allows him to prefer you over a Quick Service Restaurant. Even according to QSR Magazine, the c-stores are directly competing with QSRs by providing customers a reason to stop beyond the gas pump. The top main reasons to introduce foodservice at C-store are as follows: The foodservice margin is generally higher than QSR, giving more opportunities to offer deals and more discounts. You deliver a better customer experience by becoming a one-stop shop to your customers. It is easy to attract customers by using your service strengths- such as neighborhood convenience, secure and speedy checkout process, and a clean shopping environment.v What Is the Future of C-Store Food Services? As customer preferences are changing, embracing new approaches to food services has become essential. C-store brands are consistently evolving and have changed the way they offer fresh and hot items. The drive-thru and curbside pickup, digital presence through customized applications, and better-quality food, are some of the few changes that C-stores are adopting. By implementing modern technology, and taking innovative steps, c-stores will soon look more like a hybrid between Quick Service Restaurants and traditional Convenience Stores. It is expected that in the future more C-stores will add foodservice models, and home-delivery options to provide a seamless experience for customers. How Can C-stores Get Prepared for The Future? As the market dynamics are changing the c-store retailers need to quickly adapt to the growing demand to meet consumer expectations. Now, a high-quality foodservice program is a must-have for all convenience store retailers. To develop a distinctive foodservice identity, c-stores need to offer excellent food, clean stores, innovative limited time offers, and super friendly staff. Here are a few points that you need to follow to prepare yourself for the future. 1.    Advancement in Convenience Foodservice Customers today expect the same level of convenience from stores as they do from technology. Smooth checkout, no interference, and quick processing- your customers want a seamless experience. To help your guests get in and out of the store as efficiently and comfortably as possible you need to invest in mobile ordering, self-checkout stations, and personalized loyalty programs.    2.    Sight for Evolution The C-stores need to continuously search for evolution to ensure that they stay relevant in the future. You need to keep a close eye on the market trends, changes in customer behavior, and your store growth. More stores are now using an all-in-one POS system that redefines operations, keeps everything in control, and tracks store performance. 3.    More Focus on Consumer Behavior The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated consumer’s desires to find shortcuts to quality food and drinks in their day-to-day lives. Consumers are now becoming more health-conscious with the increased demand for quality food. C-stores need to focus more on preparing quality food, customized meals, and offering self-services to increase consumer confidence in grab-go food offerings. Stay Ahead of The Curve Convenience stores are undergoing a foodservice revolution by entering a new market. As a C-store retailer, it’s time to recognize the change and adapt the modern trends to survive in the industry. By examining the future of foodservice in convenience stores you need to offer customers a better experience by catering to their needs. FAQs What is The Future of Convenience Stores? Convenience stores will continue to evolve more towards being experience-driven destinations. They will soon be seen as a convenient option for a lunch break during the week and a dinner option for the whole family. Are C-Stores Recession Proof?C-store is often considered a recession-restraint business because customers always need

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About Altria

Altria Group, Inc. is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of tobacco and related products. They have been the undisputed market leaders in the U.S. tobacco industry for decades.

Altria Group is known for owning the most enduring names in American business including but not limited to Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company.

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Benefits

  • Monitor and track all promotional efforts by directly integrating deals into insights
  • Receive Altria rebates smoothly by sharing scan data reports
  • Generate Altria scan data report program at a click

Pricing

Included in Advanced Plan

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About Cartzie

Cartzie is a loyalty application designed by Modisoft, with you in mind. It is a one-stop loyalty and online ordering solution that is fully equipped with all the tools needed to make your business grow.

With Cartzie, you can do curbside pickups, delivery, and drive-thru ordering. Cartzie has revolutionized the way businesses interact with customers.

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Benefits

  • Add delivery options for your customers
  • Boost your marketing efforts through targeted campaigns
  • Take your business online in a few clicks
  • Receive payments online for your orders

Pricing

+$49 per month with Retail Plans

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About Comdata

COMDATA has been serving businesses for over 45 years and is recognized as a leading provider of commercial payment solutions. They specialize in serving the trucking industry and are known as an issuer of fleet fuel cards, trucking permits, corporate spend cards, and paperless payroll cards.

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Benefits

  • Automatically transfer sales data from the Comdata POS into Modisoft back-office software
  • Get an all-in-one solution to monitor and track your sales separately
  • Easy accessibility to manage all your fuel sales

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About DoorDash

DoorDash, Inc. is a food ordering and delivery platform based in San Francisco. It is the largest food delivery company in the United States with more than 50% of the market share in the convenience delivery category. It provides an on-demand food delivery service to restaurants and stores. Their services help businesses innovate, grow, and reach more customers.

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Benefits

  • Receive order directly into your POS System
  • Manage your online DoorDash menu
  • Enable DoorDash orders for your customers

Pricing

+$69 per month for Third-Party Order Management

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About Fintech

Fintech has been dedicated to serving the beverage alcohol industry for the last 30+ years. Established in 1991, Fintech operates from its headquarters based in Tampa, Florida. Supported by TA Associates and General Atlantic, Fintech automates alcohol invoice payment, streamlines payment collections, and facilitates comprehensive data capture for 1 million B2B business relationships.

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Benefits

  • Import vendor invoices directly into your back office
  • Optimize purchase order management
  • Improve your alcohol vendor management

Pricing

+$5 per month

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About Gilbarco Veeder-Root

Gilbarco Inc. is a supplier of fueling equipment including fuel dispensers, payment systems, point-of-sales systems, and support services. The company operates from Greensboro, North Carolina.

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Benefits

  • Effortlessly connect your POS data from the Gilbarco system to Modisoft Insights

Pricing

Included in Advanced Plan

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About Instacart

Instacart is a delivery company that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in Canada, and the United States. It is one of the largest grocery marketplaces in North America. Instacart makes the delivery process easy for store owners.

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Benefits

  • Monitor and manage your Instacart inventory levels from Modisoft Insights
  • Updated Instacart inventory levels in real-time
  • Avoid stockouts by ensuring accurate inventory levels

Pricing

+$19 per month

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