Drive Incremental Restaurant Revenue Online
Keeping up with the goals you set for your restaurant is important for growth and prosperity. Increasing restaurant sales sustainably for the long-term means finding new ways to drive incremental revenue to your business, both online and off. But did you know that this can be accomplished with a new website?
BentoBox empowers restaurants to own their presence, profits and relationships all through the restaurant’s website. As it’s the first place people are visiting to find out where to dine, there are new ways to make money just waiting to be tapped. Sell gift cards, merchandise, tickets to key events such as wine tastings or classes and more. Your website is the front door to your restaurant online – working for you while you tend to your guests. Here are ways you can drive revenue online with a new website.
Check out BentoBox’s Year in Review for Restaurant Website Stats and Insights
Gift Cards
Gift cards are a surefire way of driving revenue to your restaurant. Whether you offer physical gift cards, digital or both, it’s simple for guests to go online and purchase gift cards for friends and family through your website.
Interestingly enough, we found that 57% of guests purchase digital gift cards over 43% who purchase physical. Guests receive the digital gift cards via email which are then easily translated to the participating restaurant to redeem. Of that, the average gift card amount is $90. It’s important to note that diners, on average, spend 20% more than the gift card amount when visiting your restaurant, ensuring revenue gains and cash flow for your business.
Catering
There are many benefits to offering catering to your guests. Those benefits include higher profit margins, advanced cash flow and predictable food and labor costs, not to mention time. Ensure that your website goes one step further than displaying a catering menu by offering a catering store so that guests can order and pay directly through your site. It’s also important to note that at BentoBox, we see an average catering store tip amount of 15.3%. More cash for you and your staff.
Merchandise
As restaurants are increasing becoming lifestyle brands, guests are more willing than ever to rep your brand and showcase customer loyalty. Sell branded merchandise on your website to maximize brand affinity, while increasing revenue that might not have come otherwise. If you sell it in your space, why not sell it online in an always-open store? An interesting fun BentoBox fact: we see four times the number of branded shirts sold online versus branded hats.
Tickets
Selling tickets online to special events is an easy way to drive traffic, create engagement with your guests and increase profits. At BentoBox, we found that the most popular occasions to sell tickets online are:
- Tastings and Classes
- Special Dinners
- New Year’s Eve Parties
- Prix Fixe Brunches
- Valentine’s Day
By highlighting your event on your website and by creating a marketing strategy around it, you’ll find new ways to increase incremental revenue for your restaurant. This ensures that seats will be filled and provides great cash flow for your business.
If Not Now, When?
It’s time to take action with your restaurant website. There is no time like the present to get a new website and drive additional revenue to your business by selling gift cards, tickets to special events, catering, merchandise and more. The possibilities are endless. Get in touch with a specialist from BentoBox to learn more about how you can grow your restaurant sales and prosper online.
About BentoBox: BentoBox powers website design as part of CHECK® Business Tools. BentoBox offers a restaurant website builder and develops websites exclusively for the restaurant industry. Creating a strong website for your restaurant can help convert visitors into paying customers, while saving your business time and money. Learn more about BentoBox by visiting website design in CHECK Business Tools.
Visit the CHECK Resource Center for more articles full of valuable insights, industry analysis and helpful tools that can help you grow your business.
Photo Credit: Evan Sung for BentoBox