Increasing Dine-In Revenue In A Take-Out World
Full-Service Restaurants Bite Into The 50 Billion Dollar Event Market.
Are restaurants in danger of being ‘Amazoned’ by the rapid rise of online food delivery? Savvy restaurateurs are capitalizing on the rising popularity of events to entice customers to dine-in.
While e-commerce competition has completely changed the face of retail, restaurants for a time seemed to escape the same fate. However, consumer demand for online food delivery is now growing 300 percent faster than dine-in ordering, and is fast eating into profits.
On the surface it appeared that apps like Uber Eats and Grubhub were providing a great new revenue source for restaurants. However many restaurants are reporting a decline in overall profit, particularly due to the loss of alcohol sales, with more transactions going out the door. With more customers drawn to the convenience of home delivered food, restaurants are increasingly turning into production lines, losing ground on in-store sales. Dine-in meals offer greater value to restaurants and the decline in dine-in customers is impacting the bottom line.
Particularly popular with millennials, online food delivery is still in the early stages of growth, at 6 percent of the total market and estimated to reach 11 percent by 2022. Morgan Stanley projects this market has the potential to grow from 11 billion to as much as 210 billion, which is 40 percent of the total restaurant market. While a strategy to cater to this market is clearly important, restaurateurs are testing new ideas to entice customers back to dine-in.
Restaurant operators are realizing they need to adapt fast before their businesses become unprofitable in the future. Many are now looking to capitalize on the 50 billion dollar US events market and the rising popularity of experiential events.
People are increasingly searching for new experiences and events. According to Google, mobile searches for “events/attractions” plus “near me” have grown over 500 percent from 2016 to 2018. While 51 percent of all mobile searches on Google are for restaurants. With 35 million people discovering public events on Facebook each day, now is the time to be promoting event dining experiences. Restaurants need to promote more than a menu online, offer an experience to entice customers from the comfort of their living rooms. Unique experiences gain consumer interest, a special event or curated dining experience creates an occasion people want to participate in.
Across the hospitality industry, from bars, family restaurants to fine-dining, managers are looking to experiential event dining to give people a reason to leave the house. Ticketbud works closely with hospitality venues to create and manage in-store events, with packages and campaigns that can be created across multiple events and locations.
“Prepaid events not only bring people in-store, they offer predictable revenue with cash in advance. Our restaurant clients report greater attendance for prepaid events, with less than 2% no-shows. Offering patrons a prepaid booking and exclusive menu package can capture them for hours, increasing in-store alcohol sales and a chance to promote new menu items”.
Meredith Smith, Director of Operations, Ticketbud.
Partnering with Ticketbud for in-store dining events
Ticketbud partners with businesses to create event solutions and packages to fit individual business needs. A successful event partnership offers our clients opportunities for customer engagement, creative new marketing initiatives, customer data, increased in-store revenue and predictive sales for budget forecasting.
We only make money if you make money. Unlike restaurant reservation booking tools, there is no subscription requirement and organizers can build our very low fees into the ticket price. There is also no additional hardware required to execute an in-store event with Ticketbud. We understand the pain points restaurant operators face with training staff on new POS or online ordering devices. We cut that out entirely, making for a smooth and seamless online and in-store transaction.
Ticketbud offers white label custom solutions or ready to use templates for event promotion pages. Our branded Showcase Pages provide a space for event organizers to cross promote all their events and include an interactive calendar to view all upcoming events. Our platform and check-out is mobile optimized to ensure we maximize sales from mobile devices.
We cater to individual or multi-location event campaigns, with unlimited ticket programming for a variety of packages and experiences to be offered. With real time reporting and simple to use check-in options, Ticketbud makes event hosting a smooth experience. The insights and data gained through event registrations is a great opportunity to learn more about your customer base and is of significant value for future promotions.
Get in contact with the Ticketbud team if you would like to learn more about hospitality event opportunities with Ticketbud.