If you’re trying to increase the percentage of your restaurant’s revenue that comes from take out and delivery orders, getting more orders isn’t the only solution.
Marketing efforts that aim to increase the average order value can be extremely effective. For one, they can be free or inexpensive as they typically require only the online ordering software you already have.
Let’s look at two ways to increase your average takeout order value using Web Restaurants (or another online ordering software).
Offer “Upgrades” and Add-On Items
Is it $3 more to swap fries for kale chips? Use egg whites for an extra $1? Add a drink for just $1.50? Double the noodles for $4?
Little add-ons and upgrades can build up, increasing your average order totals significantly.
With an online ordering system like Web Restaurants, you can show available upgrades to your customers as they customize their menu selection. This offers a huge advantage over telephone ordering. With a telephone system, your employees would have to verbally explain each and every upgrade – a waste of time for them and a frustration for your customers.
With the Web Restaurant system, you can also encourage customers to bundle items together. Think adding a drink or dessert for a slight discount over ordering each separately.
Consider pairing items that go particularly well together into a bundle. Offer a cup of soup with that salad, or an extra side dish with a platter combo.
Your customers are more likely to make impulse purchases when they see their options, so make sure they know what else you’ve got.
Let Your To-Go Customers Leave a Tip
Dine-in customers know to think about tipping when they see a bill or a tip jar. But when ordering online, these cues disappear.
Some of your customers would be more than happy to leave you a tip if you’d only remind them. To increase your average order value, we recommend putting in a “non-confrontational” tipping reminder on your checkout page.
Web Restaurants accomplishes this by a simple slider bar on the checkout page. You can set the default ranges to whatever you’d like, customizing the experience for your business and customers.
With tipping reminders, your happy customers will be more likely to show their appreciation with a tip.
Tracking Your Average Value for Takeout and Delivery Orders
In order to tell if your adjustments are increasing your average order value, you’ll need to be actively tracking it.This is a piece of cake if your order processing system automatically provides this data, like Web Restaurants.
Make a plan to check your average order value every two weeks, at least. Consider keeping a notebook (physical or digital) with the numbers and a brief note about what marketing initiatives you tried during that period.
Need to increase your average order value?
Equipping your restaurant for online orders means more than just throwing your menu online. It also means investing in tools that make it easy for your customers to buy from you.
If your online ordering system isn’t quite cutting it, check out the features we offer here at Web Restaurants. Signing up takes just 15 minutes, and we can have a fully functioning takeout and delivery system active on your website in just 24 hours.
Michael Fied
Web Restaurants
Owner & Co-Founder
Schedule a call with me here
