Since 2020, more restaurants are looking to expand their digital sales channels. Digital revenue pathways, such as online ordering, reservations, and digital gift card sales, can add thousands of dollars to a bottom line. Trusting all sales to be performed in a physical location now seems restrictive. With SpotOn, restaurant owners can take advantage of 3 tools to ensure an expansive method towards closing more sales.

Relying On a Physical Location Has Restrictions

As inflation continues its stagnating presence on the economy, restaurateurs must harness all avenues to execute a sale. A restaurant’s physical location may be the primary sales channel. Still, restaurants’ that focus on only a physical location are seriously losing out on real cash.

A brick and mortar business is restricted by several factors. Bad weather can dissuade potential customers from eating at your location. A restaurant only has so many seats along with an occupancy limit. When there are too many occupants, a restaurant can then lose business. Zoning and regulatory restrictions may prevent a restaurant owner from physically expanding their location to add more seats.

Restaurant owners have to look past their four walls in order to grow their revenue streams. SpotOn’s software package allows them to do just that. SpotOn’s software package has 3 major digital sales channel opportunities to increase a restaurant’s revenue. Let’s break down the product, how it works, and a quick estimated revenue analysis for each one.

Online Ordering

SpotOn’s online ordering is included with no additional service fees. The programming runs on the same cloud software as your front-of-house. It’s easy to maintain and accessible anywhere, any time on any device. Plus. SpotOn’s online ordering takes modern payment methods, including Apple Pay.

Our online ordering software is important to utilize. Why? Restaurants continue to rely on Doordash and GrubHub for online ordering due to their delivery capabilities. Third party delivery companies can take a huge chunk out of online sales performed through their apps. Restaurants reliant on these need to steer their customers to in-house online ordering like SpotOn’s. Doing so can either supplement or negate losses incurred by utilizing third party delivery services.

Time for some math to prove it.

Example: Restaurant implements online ordering through SpotOn. Average takeout order is $50.00. Restaurant accepts 10 online orders per day. Open 7 days per week, 365 days per year.

$50.00 X 10 New Online Orders = $500.00 per Day X 7 = $3,500.00 per Week = $182,000.00 per Year in Revenue

Imagine shifting ten online orders per day from third party delivery services to SpotOn online ordering. $182,000.00 in projected revenue can mean renovations, paying for new staff, or being able to afford products you may currently be price conscious of. It’s a huge game changer.

Now, take the next step and implement your own reservation system.

Reserve

Why is it important and financially advantageous to have your own reservation system? First, this digital revenue channel is important to let customers know how busy your restaurant is. Their first interaction with your business is online before they’re even heading to your physical location. Therefore, reservations are key to your off-premise sales.

Having an integrated reservation system that sync with your point-of-sale can reduce headaches. Opting for pricey third parties, like Open Table, can leave a pricey per-reservation fee on your business credit card each month. Even worse, if you’re not taking reservations then your business is open to walk out’s and lost revenue from lost customers.

SpotOn Reserve can be added on to a SpotOn monthly subscription for a flat rate. This flat rate can reduce the cost of any per-reservation fee if a restaurant has a high reservation count. Furthermore, SpotOn Reserve is fully integrated with the point-of-sale. That means less support headaches. Reserve also works with Google to help reduce steps in placing reservations. Less steps, more secured reservations.

Back to the math.

Example: Restaurant does not take reservations. Loses 1 table per hour during peak hours per week due to bad wait time system. Peak hours are Thursday – Sunday 6PM – 10PM (total of 16 hours). Table average is $100.00. Implementing SpotOn Reserve now recoups those two reservation walk out’s.

$100.00 X 16 Recovered Walk Out’s = $1,600.00 per Week = $83,200.00 per Year in Revenue

Recovering only one walk out worth $100.00 during 16 peak hours means nearly $85,000.00 in recouped revenue. Add that to the online ordering total and now you’ve generated $265,200 in revenue. Now, what about digital gift card sales?

Digital Gift Cards

Those people that don’t like gift cards for holidays or birthdays? Forget them. The gift card loving folks are important to focus on here. The key to getting more gift card sales is to allow customers to purchase them in more places. For a restaurant, a major point of sale is the front counter or hostess stand. Consumers, though, want to be able to visit a website and purchase their gift card there. Digital gift cards have increased in sales, predominantly since 2020. Since 2020, digital gift card sales have grown from $258.34 billion to a projected $1,101.03 billion by 2030 according to Allied Marketing Research.

Opting to not sell digital gift cards allows your customers to spend their cash elsewhere. SpotOn’s digital gift card program can recapture that lost revenue and grow gift card sales. Customers can visit your online ordering page, choose from a catalogue of gift card designs, select an amount, and then send that gift card right to their recipient’s inbox. It’s as easy as 1-2-3…4. That extra step may exist but it’s might easier than driving to a restaurant, sitting in traffic, waiting for the hostess, and then driving back home.

The math checks out, too.

Example: Restaurant implements digital gift cards. Average gift card sale is $50.00. Restaurant sells 4 more digital gift cards per week over a year.

$50.00 X 4 More Digital Gift Cards Sold = $200.00 per Week = $10,400.00 per Year.

Take it the next step. Restaurant guests that use a gift card either do not redeem the entire balance or end up spending more than the gift card is worth. That’s either pure liquidity back in your pocket or added revenue from additional sales. According to Market Watch, 74% of gift card users spend on average $54.00 more after they use the balance on their gift card.

Apply this to our gift card sale example. Say 3/4 of those new digital gift card sales now spend an additional $54.00 during each transaction. That’s an additional $8,424.00 per year on top of the $10,400.00, equaling $18,824.00 per year.

What if these are high projections?

Great point. Take the total of the new digital revenue streams:

Online Ordering: $182,000.00

Reserve: $83,200.00

Digital Gift Cards: $18,824.00

Total: $284,024.00

Now, be cautiously optimistic. Taking all of these examples and only meeting half the estimate is still a whopping $142,012.00 in new annual digital revenue. Be even more conservative. Half off that, now a quarter of our original estimate, is still $71,006.00. Not too bad – that pays for two new staff members! Take our original estimate now with a massive grain of salt and accept only an eighth of it is reasonably possible at $35,503.00. That’s a new waiter, piece of kitchen equipment, or rainy day savings.

By utilizing SpotOn’s digital revenue channels, users can increase their total revenue without the restrictions of their brick and mortar location. Need more information? Contact us for your free consultation today!