Restaurant owners are constantly seeking methods to enhance internet sales and generate more income. These days, online ordering is a crucial component of a hospitality business’s operations and a major source of revenue, not merely an optional bonus.

According to a Statista industry estimate, the restaurant-to-consumer delivery market, which is of course driven by online ordering, is anticipated to reach $159 billion by 2027.

The shift to digital ordering has intensified due to events of the last few years. This trend appears certain to continue quickly as takeout and restaurant companies make investments to expand their internet ordering platforms.

How therefore can your eatery take a larger share of this expanding market? By becoming experts at digital restaurant marketing, you can attract customers online, improve their ordering experience, and keep them coming back.

Let’s see how to accomplish that in more detail.

Possessing a branded website and app that allows users to place quick and easy orders for delivery or click-and-collect provides you with a strong foundation and the resources you need to be successful online.

Naturally, increasing your internet sales over time should be your next major objective. The secret to this is to improve the consumer experience and your online visibility. Now let’s explore ten doable strategies for growing online takeout and delivery orders.

1. Give your customers exclusive offers

Customers love a bargain – that’s something that never really changes! So attracting them with exclusive offers is always a good strategy.

You want to incentivize them to order directly through your own website or app for delivery or click-and-collect, rather than through third-party aggregators where you lose a big chunk of the order value to their high fees (along with other negative consequences for your business).

One simple but highly effective way to promote your delivery and click & collect services – both on your website and app – is by giving your customers offers that are exclusive to those channels.

Flipdish even enables you to send push notifications to your customers via mobile, informing them about any offers you want to promote. This helps to maintain strong engagement with customers, enticing them to order from you again and again.

2. Optimise your menu to boost online sales

Your online menu should impress and appeal to your customers right away. So we always recommend refining and optimising your menu to showcase attractive meal deals and best-selling items. Make your menu visually appealing by adding high-quality images of dishes where possible.

It’s also well worth watching out for new food trends. You can consider modifying your menu to make it more enticing for customers, maybe adding an exciting new dish or two, based on current and emerging trends (Flipdish can update any menu changes when you wish to add or remove items).

3. Provide an efficient service

The operation of online ordering needs to be efficient at every stage of the process. You want to avoid any negative issues or experiences with packaging or food delivery. So your packaging must provide quality, good presentation, and temperature control. Packaging should also be distinctive, showing off your brand positively.

It also helps to keep your customers informed of the estimated food delivery or collection time, to avoid any frustration or confusion on their part. Customers like to know how long they will be waiting, and this is one key part of providing an excellent customer experience, which helps to drive repeat orders.

4. Promote your online services offline

You should promote your online ordering platform at every given opportunity, and in-person communication with dine-in customers is one golden opportunity. Staff can routinely tell your dine-in customers about the ordering options through your website and app and perhaps next time they can click and collect.

Likewise, you can use your premises to promote your online ordering services through outdoor signage and indoor posters. Your premises itself is a big marketing asset and opportunity – so make use of it. Show the website address/URL and other key information clearly on any signage you display. This uses very traditional marketing tactics to promote modern digital ordering channels.

5. Link all social media channels to your online menu

Your target customer most likely scrolls through social media in their spare time on a daily basis – providing you with another great opportunity to promote your online ordering.

You can bridge the gap between your website and social media by showing a link to your online menu on your social media channels. This provides a smooth user experience, giving customers a direct route from browsing your Facebook page, restaurant Instagram posts, or latest TikToks to placing online orders with you.

6. Encourage customers to download your app to increase online orders

It’s one thing to have a great app, but you also need to make sure people download it. This sounds obvious, but you need to constantly promote your app and encourage downloads. This gives your business prime real estate on the customer’s phone, putting you top of mind when they go to order food.

Therefore, app downloads are a huge driver of long-term customer loyalty. Promoting your app on all available channels should be a key part of your marketing strategy in the year ahead.

7. Allow regular customers to reorder quickly

Online ordering needs to be fast and convenient in today’s world. Providing a positive user experience and simplifying the process benefits your customer – and ultimately you.

For example, on the Flipdish system, you can set up a ‘Favourites’ section of your menu, which is based on a customer’s previous ordering habits. This means they can reorder their favorite items in seconds, with just a couple of taps. It’s a useful shortcut, allowing customers to get what they want very quickly, helping to drive more orders.

8. Increase online orders with digital advertising

Sophisticated online marketing tools, such as Google Ads and social media advertising, can successfully target your customers at the right time and in the right place.

It often gives great value for money and a big return on investment in the form of increased sales. For instance, Google Ads makes use of location targeting, ensuring that potential customers in your area find your business quickly through the search engine.

9. Use Google My Business to enhance your online presence

A GMB account gives customers simple ways to find you and connect. This free service from Google is a great way to enhance your online presence as it’s designed to help promote local businesses.

It enables restaurant and takeaway owners to manage how they appear across Google platforms and make their businesses stand out. Given consumer habits these days, with huge volumes of local searches happening via smartphone every day, this is a very important area to concentrate on.

Being set up on GMB means you appear in Google Maps and Local Pack listings, which show the local businesses related to someone’s query.

Read Also: Ways To Make Money As A Top Chef

That means huge visibility to people searching in the local area, giving them the key information at a glance – including your location, contact number, and a link to your website. So it helps to bring more visitors to your site, ultimately driving more orders.

Convenient ‘Takeaway’ and ‘Delivery’ buttons within the Google Maps interface even allow users to go straight to food businesses offering those services, in just one click.

10. Gather data with customer feedback forms

With the strict data protection laws in place over the past couple of years, gathering customer contact details is a significant challenge for businesses. You need to be careful to follow the rules. One clever solution to this challenge is to provide customer feedback forms, both in-store and online.

Not only do you get free objective feedback, you can also ask customers for permission to acquire their contact details. This data can be immensely valuable to future marketing and promotional activities.

The secret is to choose the correct POS system and technology partner, regardless of your ambitious intentions to increase orders placed through your app, launch a new loyalty program, or redesign your ordering website in order to increase online sales.

That is one that provides first-rate technology, seamless onboarding, and excellent support without charging exorbitant costs as delivery aggregators do.

How do Restaurants Increase Average Order Value?

It’s one thing to have enough patrons in your restaurant, but it’s another to ensure you take advantage of these opportunities. It’s ideal to maximize this revenue while clients are visiting your restaurant by finding methods to raise the average order value of your patrons.

It’s simple for a waitress in your restaurant to suggest a dessert after the meal. To raise the average value of your customers’ transactions, you must use innovative tactics when it comes to online delivery and collection orders, for instance.

we’ve come up with 10 tips to help you easily increase your average customer basket.

1. Optimising the structure of your restaurant menu

Optimizing your restaurant menu can make a difference, and changing a few photos or removing a product can quickly double your sales. 

Reviewing what dishes are working and which are not, replacing the non-performing dishes with new ideas, and reviewing your dish prices are all examples of how adjusting your menu can potentially increase your average basket amount. 

2. Suggest formulas 

To increase the average basket, you can offer packages that increase the customer’s perceived value.

With a full three-course starter/main course/dessert menu, for example, you may be pushing customers to order more than they had planned, but they will feel that they are saving money by taking the set menu: it’s a win-win situation.

3. Increase your visibility 

It’s a fact that consumer habits have changed (and will continue to change). These days, the majority of people discover new restaurants via social networks, so you need to stand out from the crowd by occupying the space in a different way.

That’s why it’s so important for restaurateurs to respond to all the reviews posted online, and to pass on any positive comments. 

Just like word of mouth, reviews obtained on Google, TripAdvisor or any other place of exchange are taken into account in the choice of potential customers. For example, if a customer searches for “Italian restaurant” on Google, they will rely on the:

• Number of stars you have (rating out of 5)
• Number of reviews (remind your customers to leave a rating)
• Comments that appear the most (highlight the positive ones)

Also remember to respond to negative comments, thanking the customer for highlighting a problem that you can work on to offer the best experience.

To make it easier for new customers to find your restaurant’s opening times and menu, you’ll need an up-to-date, well-referenced Google My Business account. Google allows you to keep your customers informed, as well as boost collection and delivery orders. 

4. Offer delivery 

The idea is not to make you lose money by offering delivery to everyone. However, we have noticed that ads such as “free delivery on your first order” or “free delivery on orders of £30 or more” have the effect of rapidly increasing the average order value. 

Why is this? Because customers will often prefer to reach the minimum order rather than pay the cost of delivery from the restaurant to their home.

5. Set up promotions 

On a platform like Uber Eats, there is always a “Promotions” category at the top of the page, and this is what immediately attracts consumers. As with sales, having access to discounts encourages customers to spend more than they would normally (which increases the average basket). 

Like Uber Eats, think about offering promotions on your website: 

• Free dessert for orders over €20
• 2 menus purchased = 1 free
• Referral code
• Promotional code

Depending on what is profitable for your restaurant, you will need to calculate the ideal promotion and the minimum order threshold for offering delivery.

6. Launch offers over a limited period of time 

Offering deals for a limited time is a strategy that creates a sense of urgency among consumers, who won’t want to miss out on the opportunity of such a discount in your restaurant.

Type of limited offers:

• Flash sales ( -30% for one week)
• Happy hour (low rates at off-peak times)
• Product available until … (Launch of a trendy dish over a short period, as long as it matches the identity of the restaurant and its customers)

7. Offer a paperless loyalty programme

Keeping a customer costs you less than recruiting a new one. You can therefore set up various online loyalty programmes:

• Stamp card 

Customers are sure to come back for more if they know that after 5 courses in your restaurant, the 6th is free. Today, there are dematerialized systems for setting up this loyalty scheme in your restaurant.

• Loyalty points 

The principle of points accumulated throughout the year, which customers can use on an order whenever they wish.

Point of Sale Pro by SumUp is an all-in-one POS solution that takes care of everyday tasks, allowing you to boost and focus on customer loyalty. 

8. Convincing the customer to spend more with up-selling

The principle of up-selling is encouraging customers in a natural and comfortable way to spend more by buying:

• A larger portion (a large pizza instead of a medium one)
• A premium version (a wine of superior quality)
• Additional ingredients/dishes (such as an extra sauce to accompany your dish)

To practice up-selling during an online sale, you can add steps during order validation to suggest that your customer add to their basket by adding extra drinks, desserts or side dishes.

9. Generate additional sales through cross-selling 

Cross-selling is the act of encouraging a customer to associate a complementary product with a current order. For example, if your customer asks for a dessert and you offer them a coffee on the side, that’s cross-selling.

These are additional sales which do not necessarily represent an immediate need for the consumer but which correspond to their desires. In the case of an online restaurant, cross-selling is illustrated by a page that appears during the ordering process to offer you related items.

But be careful: too many steps in the checkout process can lead to shopping basket abandonment.

10. Avoid basket abandonment during online sales

Even if you apply all our advice, one problem remains: customers abandoning their shopping baskets. This can happen for many reasons that are beyond your reach: the customer changes their mind at the last minute, forgets their order, or has a connection problem when validating the basket.

How can you ensure that customers don’t change their minds? How do you boost online orders?

If you use cookies on your restaurant’s website, you can follow up with customers by email or with adverts to make sure they don’t forget to validate their order.

You can create a wishlist where customers can select their favorite dishes (even before the restaurant opens) and put them in their basket once they are sure of their choice. 

What are the main reasons for basket abandonment?

• Price: the order is too expensive or the delivery costs are higher than expected.
• The payment method: either the customer can’t find their preferred payment method, or the step takes too long (or doesn’t seem secure enough).
• The customer experience: if your site’s design isn’t attractive enough, or the order process isn’t intuitive enough, shopping basket abandonment is inevitable.

That’s why it’s so important to give yourself the best possible chance with:

• A new pricing policy
• Promotions and delivery offers (whenever possible)
• Call in a professional to improve the customer experience on your site 

If your restaurant only uses a delivery platform (Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Glovo) for online orders, you won’t be able to modify the interface. You will therefore have to rely more on promotions, upselling and cross-selling to increase the average basket.