Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, operators have seen a rise in demand for food delivery and a decline in dine-in numbers. A trend that experts suggest is likely to last. As an F&B operator, this presents you with a unique opportunity to enhance your food delivery menu—focusing on meals that can be delivered to customers who will enjoy your dishes in the comfort (and safety) of home.
Here are a few useful tips for increasing the demand of your food delivery offerings.
Infuse your menu with the latest trends from world cuisine
There’s no doubt that consumer habits have changed during the pandemic, and that includes their eating behaviors and taste preferences. Due to the impact of travel restrictions, there has been an increase in demand for international flavors. That includes East Asian cuisine (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Thai), West African ingredients (like jollof and suya), as well as interesting new twists on the classic favorites like black burgers and vegan pizzas.
Less travel also left consumers hungry for new and unique experiences, which resulted in increased spending on experiential dining, trying new cuisines for the first time, experimenting with different restaurants, and interesting pairings of flavors.
Increase sales of specific dishes (and your restaurant as a whole) by appealing to the adventurous side of diners. Here’s how you can do so:
- Identify a selection of dishes that are inspired by trending international flavors, then group these dishes and place them at the top of your menu.
- Highlight any unique ingredients that you use to make your dishes sound more interesting and on-trend.
- Work with food delivery operators to promote your selection of buzz-worthy dishes.
Provide great value with family-style set meals
The golden rule of a good food delivery menu is to make the purchase decision simple, so customers will go from menu selection to order confirmation quickly, without looking at another restaurant’s menu before purchasing from yours.
Set meals are a great way to make purchase decisions easy and add great value for money. Diners can get food, drinks and even a side in one set, rather than having to purchase them separately and incurring additional charges. Be sure to include set meal options for groups of all sizes.
A good selection of choices should (at least) include:
- Individual set meals
- Set meals for two
- Bundled sets and feasts for a family of 4 to 6 persons
Salads and soups are a great way of creating family style meals, while taking advantage of batch processing in the kitchen. Here are a few examples of healthy, nutritious meal ideas for your food delivery menu:
Ensure your food delivery options exceed expectations
Your food delivery menu shouldn’t simply be a digital version of your restaurant’s dine-in or takeaway menus. When it comes to winning the food delivery game, everything counts. These are a few quick tips:
- Select a menu that delivers well (and fast!)
- Choose appetising photos to entice customers
- Use quality, leakproof, branded packaging
- Offer promotions with your delivery partnrs
- Deliver promptly and punctually
