As the summer season unfolds with its warm days and lively nights, businesses everywhere must adapt to the shifting dynamics in consumer behaviour. The promise of sunny skies often leads to a surge in outdoor activities, and with that comes an evolution in how customers engage with your restaurant. Whether you’re managing a bustling café, a cosy bakery, or a vibrant bar, leveraging the summer vibe can significantly enhance your sales. Here’s how you can harness the power of summer to grow your online orders and keep your customers coming back for more.
Summer’s charm lies in its spontaneity. People are out enjoying the warmth, and quick, convenient service becomes more critical than ever. Offering a Click and Collect option allows your customers to order online and pick up their meals without the hassle of waiting in line. This service is not only a crowd-pleaser but also a business booster, giving you the ability to prepare for peak times and manage order volumes efficiently.
Last year, 4 in 10 orders on Slerp were for collection. If you’re not offering Click and Collect, you’re missing out on a substantial slice of sales. For your on-the-go customers, our PressPay feature simplifies the process, allowing them to order in as little as six seconds. Explore how you can integrate this service here.
As temperatures rise, so does the desire for lighter, refreshing meals. Introduce seasonal specials like crisp salads, energising smoothies, and light bites that cater to the summer palate. Not only do these offerings entice customers looking for something new, but they also showcase your restaurant’s versatility and commitment to fresh, local ingredients. Promote these specials across your digital marketing for restaurants strategy to keep your menu appealing and relevant.
Incorporating local, seasonal ingredients into your dishes not only enhances flavours but also appeals to the environmentally conscious diner. Highlight these ingredients on your menu to attract customers who appreciate knowing the origins of their food. Summer is the perfect time to experiment with new dishes and keep your menu vibrant and exciting.
If you have the luxury of outdoor seating, QR code ordering can streamline your service and enhance the customer experience. By placing QR codes on tables, you allow guests to order seamlessly without interrupting their conversations or waiting for staff. This modern approach also helps you collect valuable customer data for future marketing efforts.
Summer holidays bring families together, and that means more opportunities for dining out or ordering in. Create enticing family deals or bundle options that cater to both kids and adults. With 54% of people seeking more kid-friendly options when ordering, offering smaller portions, healthy choices, and fuss-free dishes can make your restaurant a go-to choice for family dining during the school break.
Social media is a powerful tool to promote your summer offerings and attract new customers. Share vibrant photos of your seasonal dishes, announce special promotions, and engage with your audience to build excitement around your brand. Utilise platforms like Instagram and Facebook to reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your online ordering system.
From deliveries to the park to QR code ordering at your outdoor tables, optimising for outdoor dining is crucial during summer. Encourage customers to enjoy their meals in nature, whether it’s a picnic in the park or a cosy meal on your patio. Make sure your online ordering system is set up to support these experiences, ensuring that your service is as delightful as the summer itself.
Summer presents a golden opportunity to adapt and thrive amidst changing consumer habits. By implementing these strategies, you can weatherproof your sales and make the most of the season. From enhancing your menu with seasonal specials to optimising your online ordering for outdoor experiences, each step helps you cater to the summer crowd effectively. Embrace the sunny days ahead and watch your sales soar as you grow your online orders this summer.
54% of people want more kid friendly options when ordering
KAM Media X Slerp
Consumer survey
Read more about Slerp’s delivery.
We know you’re busy and have a to-do list that’s a mile long, but if you’re serious about growing your business, you need to start with the basics. Who are your customers, and where do they come from? We present to you: Google Analytics. Millions of businesses both big and small rely on this tool for web analytics. It’s a free and relatively simple tool to use.
We reckon google analytics is the perfect partner for your online ordering system. But in case you’re not familiar, we thought we’d give you a quick overview of some of the basics and how you can use them in your hospitality business.
It’s a tool that allows you to track visitors to your online shop, telling you where people have come from (through social media or email for example). You can then utilise this information to give you a better insight on how to convert these visits into sales.
You don’t need to track visits. You could just let them happen and hope for the best … just like you could continue to use marketplace apps and never own YOUR data. But as we’ve said before, if you’re looking for long term growth, you might want to reconsider. Here are a couple reasons
You want your customers to be able to find your store easily and from multiple channels. Whether they come through ads, social or just searching for your URL, you need to understand the role that each of these channels plays in your overall sales mix.
To find traffic sources for specific pages you just need to do the following:
Once you’ve grasped the basics and have learnt to navigate around your analytics, it’s time to start analysing. Looking at the data is really important and interesting but it’s what you do with it that matters.
Pay attention to what days and times are most popular with your customers and tailor your offering to what they need. Do you need to have more staff available to support your online shop on those days? Or might you need to stock up on a certain product! With analytics, you can start to anticipate customer needs.
Where are they ordering from? You might have grounds to expand your delivery radius or even think about adding ‘nationwide’ delivery to your lineup so that more people have access to your venue.
It can also give you insight into what you’re not doing well and indicate where you can improve. For example, are customers bouncing (leaving the site) before actually buying anything? Do you need to update your imagery, change product descriptions or offer a more affordable delivery rate? Analytics can help you answer all these questions and more.
Google Analytics can be intimidating at first, but it’s a really great tool when you get your head around it. Once you’ve mastered the basics and optimised your organic channels, let us help you level up. At Slerp we have an expert team of digital and performance marketers who can support you. They can increase your revenue, running ads on your social media and google search, and help you boost your search ranking through SEO, all of which attract new leads and convert them into orders.
Remember we’re always here for any questions you have or support you need, just drop us a line and we can guide you through the tools that are right for you and your hospitality business.
You don’t need us to tell you about the boom of food delivery. We’ve become so used to ordering from restaurants, takeaways and other hospitality businesses. We order our food to be delivered straight to our doors and expect it quickly and efficiently too!
If there’s one takeaway from the last two years for the hospitality industry, it’s the importance of having a strong infrastructure for food delivery. One of the key decisions you will need to make will then be between third-party and in-house delivery. So what is the best option for you?
When we say courier we are referring to a model where a third party service handles your restaurant or eatery’s courier logistics.
If your brand is only just starting out – choosing a reputable courier could make a lot of sense. You may simply not have the time, experience or resources to manage every aspect of your business’s food deliveries directly, and that’s okay!
By partnering with an outsourced delivery service, your time could be freed up, allowing you to focus on what you do best – cooking up irresistible dishes that will delight your customers’ taste buds at home, to the same standard as when they visit you on site.
And even if you could invest in self-delivery, you might still favour partnering with a delivery specialist who can help you scale your operations and handle a high volume of deliveries. At Slerp, we routinely empower hospitality brands to sell directly to the customer in the knowledge that we handle all the delivery logistics
We manage relationships with both local couriers and national delivery providers – big names such as Royal Mail, DHL, DPD and more – to ensure customers receive their orders ASAP. We can build the complete food delivery ordering system for your restaurant, so that your customers only associate your brand with the finest things in food.
Perhaps you’ve decided to invest in your own fleet which can handle local deliveries for you – if so, perfect! Slerp can set you up to receive the orders, and you handle the delivery logistics. If you’re concerned about the quality of hospitality and customer experience with managed delivery – don’t be! Standards are high, and issues are rare. But either way, we have options to suit every requirement.
Before making your decision however, it’s worth considering the commitment of self-delivery. Investing in your own fleet naturally comes with an initial set-up cost, and requires time to get started.
But if you are prepared to take on these responsibilities, building your brand’s own delivery service is a big plus! It gives you the opportunity to control every stage of the customer’s experience from start to finish. You could maintain direct communication with your customer from the moment they order, right up to the arrival of their food at their doorstep. Also letting you receive direct feedback, and implement changes as needed.
Restaurants that set up in-house delivery systems are actually often surprised by how good an option it is for minimising operational overheads.
Well ultimately the answer to this question will always be, “it depends”. Each solution has its own opportunities and downsides, and your final choice will come down to which one is the best fit for your business.
However, know that whatever decision you make, Slerp is here to help. Whether you need a little more time and information or you already know we’re the partner for you, contact the Slerp team today.