4 ways you could increase order values

How can we increase the amount of money our customers spend? This is a common question we are asked by our clients and I’m sure the answer is one every takeaway and restaurant would love to know.

The simple answer is “give the customer what they want and they will spend more money”, but there are a few things you can do to achieve this more often, below are 4 things we see se work all the time.

Keep your menu simple

A business can be afraid to have a short menu or to limit what is available for takeaway, but the reality is if you know which products sell and what makes you a good margin, you shouldn’t be afraid to drop things that rarely get sold or don’t actually make you any money.

You should be able to get this kind of data from your online ordering system, spread over a reasonable amount of time, so you can use the facts about your products to get your menu just right.

Make adding extras easy

If you sell items that are likely to want extras added, then make them available when the customer is adding the main item.  A classic example is fish and chips, if you have a section called fish, when I choose my large cod does it ask me if I want chips or mushy peas? Even a buttered roll?

Using the above example also tends to increase the order value, as people traditionally buy two portions of fish and share one chips, whereas asking them as they add each portion of fish, they will likely order two portions of chips instead.

Promote your best dishes

Your most popular dishes always sell well, so make sure everyone knows what they are.  Have a ‘Popular Dishes’ or ‘Customer Favourites’ menu section that highlights these items very clearly.  Don’t show too many, just 4 or 5 as a rule, and don’t forget to update it as trends may change with the time of year etc.

Incentivise bigger value orders

Giving customers a reason to spend more can have a positive effect on your order values, even after giving them something back, examples may include free delivery, free items or a discount, but only offer these on higher value orders.

Doing this will get customers used to spending more money all of the time and should have a positive effect on your average order value and profits!

All of these things should be easy to manage and maintain with your own online ordering platform and you should be able to learn from the data it captures for you.

At App4, we help our clients understand the data captured by the online ordering system we provide, so they can manage their menus effectively, promote the right dishes and try to encourage their regular customers to spend more money.