How to Increase Restaurant Sales: 10 Tips & Strategies

The rise of online search engines and food delivery platforms has given customers unprecedented access to a wide array of dining options right at their fingertips. This heightened competition, along with rising costs, puts pressure on restaurants to expand their customer base and encourage repeat business. If restaurants can’t grow their sales, they risk stagnant revenue, shrinking profit margins and opportunities for competitors to pull ahead.

Sounds daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. This article explores effective and actionable tips and strategies that restaurant owners and managers can follow to increase sales and revenue, while also enhancing the dining experience for both new and returning customers.

What Are Increased Restaurant Sales?

Increasing sales is a common strategy for restaurants seeking to boost the revenue they generate over a given period attributed to various factors, including a rise in customer traffic, faster table turnover or a higher average spend per customer. In simple terms, a sales increase means that restaurants are selling more food, beverages and services and collecting more revenue.

Additionally, increasing sales is a primary way businesses in the food service industry earn capital to reinvest in their operations in order to improve their ingredient quality, hire and train additional staff and expand menu offerings. Consistent sales growth also helps restaurants create a buffer against economic downturns and is a key indicator of an establishment’s financial health, especially during volatile or uncertain economic times.

Key Takeaways

• Restaurants can increase sales by acquiring new customers, encouraging repeat business from existing customers or raising the average amount spent per order — or, ideally, a combination of all three.
• To increase sales, restaurants typically implement a blend of strategies, including targeted marketing and promotional campaigns, improvements in operational efficiency and robust customer relationship management.
• Ongoing improvements, such as by adjusting menus, leveraging new technology and continually analyzing trends, enable restaurateurs to adapt to changing demand, market factors and customer preferences.

Restaurant Sales Explained

Restaurant sales encompass all revenue generated from the sale of food, beverages and other services offered by an establishment. This includes food served to dining customers, takeout orders and event catering, as well as additional purchases, such as bottled sauces or premade meals. To effectively increase these sales, restaurant owners and managers must understand their target market, customer preferences and dining trends. This knowledge allows them to make informed decisions about menu offerings, pricing strategies and marketing campaigns that resonate with their customer base, resulting in a reliable and high-quality brand identity.

By analyzing sales data and customer feedback, restaurants can identify better ways to serve their customers and increase profitability. For example, through menu engineering, restaurateurs can optimize their menus by eliminating low-selling, low-margin items and prioritizing popular and more profitable fare, which boosts sales. Additionally, understanding sales trends, such as seasonal, weekly or daily traffic, allows restaurants to make strategic decisions about staffing, inventory management and resource allocation. This data-driven approach reduces waste without leaving customers waiting for a table or disappointed by sold-out items or subpar service. Ultimately, with a strong understanding of restaurant sales, businesses can create a more efficient operation, enhance the customer experience and drive long-term growth in this highly competitive industry.

The Most Common Challenges Faced by Restaurants

Running a successful restaurant is no easy feat, as numerous factors can impact the bottom line. And many of these factors are outside of a restaurant’s control, which adds to the challenge and forces businesses to adjust operations just to maintain profits, let alone increase them. Here are five common challenges to consider when implementing strategies to increase sales.

• High operating costs: Restaurants often face significant expenses, including rent, utilities, labor, and food and beverage costs, especially during inflationary periods or tight labor markets. To monitor operating costs, many modern restaurants use bookkeeping software with data analytics capabilities to more effectively find areas where costs can be reduced without affecting customers. Unfortunately, operating costs are often determined by external forces, such as rent hikes, vendor rates or shipping costs, which creates a challenge for restaurants looking to reduce their expenses through internal improvements. For example, if a restaurant’s rent has increased by 10%, the owner may be hesitant to reduce costs, as cutting material or labor expenditures may also cut into food quality or customer service. Instead, the owner may decide to launch a marketing campaign to increase sales by a similar percentage to maintain profitability.
• Menu price inflation: As the cost of ingredients rises thanks to inflation and supply chain issues, restaurants may need to adjust menu prices to maintain margins. However, increasing prices too much can drive customers away and reduce sales. Striking the right balance can be challenging, especially in high-density areas where customers have many other dining options to choose from. Many restaurants use subtle and indirect strategies to raise margins, such as engineering more profitable menus to highlight high-margin dishes. For instance, if a restaurant raises the price of its signature dish by $2 to cover increased ingredient costs, sales may decline. But by placing it on the first page of the menu, next to a large, appetizing picture and a “specialty item” marker, sales may rebound.
• Declining customer traffic: Changes in consumer preferences, economic conditions or local competition can lead to inconsistent customer traffic. And if fewer customers visit a restaurant, sales will likely suffer. A restaurant located in an office complex, for example, may experience a significant drop in sales if a major employer in the area relocates, reducing potential on-site lunch customers. To counteract this scenario, many restaurants invest in marketing efforts to raise brand awareness, including hosting pop-up events in the community, partnering with third-party delivery companies and increasing their social media presence.
• Labor shortages and high turnover: Restaurants often struggle with attracting and retaining skilled workers, leading to labor shortages and high turnover rates. In fact, 54% of hospitality managers surveyed by Axonify in 2023 reported difficulties finding skilled workers. These challenges can negatively impact service quality, customer satisfaction and, ultimately, sales. They can also lead to increased labor costs resulting from having to recruit, onboard and train new staff. If a restaurant is consistently understaffed, it typically suffers from longer wait times and a poor customer experience, resulting in fewer tables served and lower sales during a given period, as well as long-term damage from decreased repeat visits and negative word of mouth. Through diverse skills training, generous compensation and advancement opportunities, restaurants can retain a high-quality and agile workforce capable of maintaining the service and food standards that customers expect.
• Competitive market: The modern restaurant industry is highly competitive, with establishments vying for customer attention and loyalty through multimedia marketing, delivery apps and all the other sources customers turn to for their next meal idea. In this saturated market, restaurants must work harder than ever to differentiate themselves and attract customers. For example, if a new restaurant with a similar concept opens nearby and offers promotional discounts, an existing restaurant may need to make some changes, such as revising its menu or creating a loyalty program, to bring wandering customers back.

10 Tips and Strategies to Increase Your Restaurant Sales

To entice diners and boost the bottom line, businesses should carefully consider which strategies will fit their specific restaurant type and customer base. This section explores a range of general, but effective, tips and tactics that serve as a starting point for restaurants looking to increase their sales. The strategies cover key areas, such as customer acquisition, revenue growth, operational efficiency and customer relationship management, and they can be adapted or combined to suit a restaurant’s unique needs and goals.

Customer Acquisition and Revenue Growth

Most restaurants juggle multiple dining options to satisfy their customers’ diverse needs. The following strategies help restaurants maximize the value from each transaction, whether that consists of diners with a regular Friday night table or new customers going online to place their first takeout order.

1. Reach new customers: Restaurants need to meet potential customers where they are, through a combination of local, digital and traditional marketing strategies. And for a more hands-on approach, many restaurants attract new diners by engaging in community events, partnering with local influencers and enhancing their online presence through search engine optimization and “Google My Business” listings. A restaurant could participate in a local food festival, for example, to showcase signature dishes to a wider audience and ask attendees to tag them on social media, encouraging their friends to visit and try other menu items.
2. Attract repeat business: A loyal customer base drives steady sales, creating a reliable revenue source to fund the restaurant. To attract repeat business, restaurants should aim to deliver consistently exceptional customer service, respond to feedback from reviews and create personalized dining experiences. Loyalty programs that reward customers for their visits and purchases can also incentivize diners to choose the restaurant over competitors’ establishments. For example, many restaurants offer free appetizers or desserts after a certain number of visits or to members appearing on their text or email lists. Additionally, training staff to make personalized recommendations based on customers’ preferences, seasonal specials and dietary requirements can create a memorable dining experience that makes customers feel valued and encourages them to return.
3. Influence customers to spend more: To encourage customers to spend more, restaurants can focus on upselling techniques, such as suggesting add-ons or highlighting high-margin items, or they can offer unique and exclusive menu items. For example, a restaurant can create a signature cocktail using high-quality, locally sourced ingredients and market it as part of a happy hour promotion or theme night. Additionally, “bottomless” offers on high-margin goods, such as drinks or appetizers, can attract customers who may not end up consuming as much as they thought they would, yet leave feeling they got a good deal. Other potential upsell opportunities include reservation upgrades, interactive dining experiences and special dining packages for groups, including parties and corporate events.
4. Increase takeout sales: Modern restaurant patrons increasingly demand the convenience of off-premises dining, with 57% of Americans preferring takeout over dining in a restaurant, according to a US Foods survey. To capitalize on this trend, restaurants can create user-friendly websites, partner with delivery platforms and tweak their menus and packaging for takeout orders. Additionally, offering exclusive promotions or discounts for takeout orders can keep sales high without overcrowding tables or increasing the burden on waitstaff. Restaurants can also create new revenue streams through meal-kit subscriptions or takeout bundles that combine low-selling items into a premium package.
5. Drive in-venue sales: In-venue sales still make up a large portion of many restaurants’ revenue and are often good opportunities for upsells and add-ons that customers wouldn’t necessarily have included in a takeout order. To increase the number of dine-in customers and convince them to spend more, restaurants should carefully plan their table layout, provide exceptional service and create an inviting atmosphere. In fact, that same US Foods survey ranked “for the atmosphere” as the top reason people preferred going out to eat (63%). Streamlining the menu and ordering process through digital tools, such as tableside kiosks, digital menu boards with daily specials and contactless payments, can boost sales by highlighting high-margin items and creating a convenient way for curious customers to learn about and try new items. Additionally, behind-the-scenes improvements, such as more efficient kitchen operations and inventory or labor management, can increase the speed at which customers are served, giving them more opportunities to place additional orders or freeing up tables for the next hungry customer.

Operational Efficiency and Customer Relationship Management

By looking inward to back-of-house and administrative processes, restaurants can highlight and implement improvements in operational efficiency that support long-term growth and increase profitability. Homing in on the following key areas can help restaurants streamline processes, manage costs and foster strong customer relationships.

6. Financial management: Regularly monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), such as food or labor costs as a percentage of expenses, helps restaurants create targeted cost management processes to control their expenses. These data-driven, KPI-based strategies help financial staff create accurate budgets and financial plans that enable restaurants to continually update their projections, improve their bottom line and maintain financial stability as they grow. For example, a restaurant might conduct an annual financial audit to determine where it can reduce supply costs, such as by adjusting portion sizes to minimize waste and changing or renegotiating vendor contracts.
7. Staff management and training: A well-trained and skilled staff can deliver exceptional customer service and drive sales through upselling, cross-selling or imparting detailed or personalized menu knowledge to customers. Restaurants can motivate employees to perform at their best through ongoing training, staff incentive programs and bonuses. These initiatives encourage, recognize and reward exceptional work and create a positive and supportive work environment that can improve employee satisfaction and reduce turnover. For instance, a fast-casual restaurant might offer a monthly bonus to servers who sell the most of a new or high-margin menu item, encouraging the entire team to focus on promoting profitable dishes.
8. Health and safety: Establishing and maintaining regular sanitation and cleaning protocols ensures that a restaurant will uphold a high standard of safety and hygiene that meets all local regulations and guidelines. This commitment to safety protects customers and employees, as well as safeguards the business from liability and noncompliance penalties. Regular employee health checks, strict adherence to proper food-handling practices and frequently updated safety training help make sure that restaurants are following current best practices to prevent foodborne illnesses and injuries. For example, a restaurant might implement a daily cleaning checklist that includes tasks such as sanitizing high-touch surfaces, clearing counters and checking refrigerator temperatures. With more than 90% of respondents to a P&G survey emphasizing the importance of a visibly clean area when dining or ordering takeout, these checks ultimately create a better dining environment for customers.
9. Innovation and adaptation: To stay relevant and competitive, restaurants must innovate and adapt to evolving consumer demand and dining preferences. Many restaurants rely on new technologies, such as ordering systems powered by artificial intelligence and data analytics tools, to streamline operations and gain valuable insights into customer behavior and cost trends. For example, many modern customers value sustainable practices, such as reducing single-use plastics or sourcing local and organic ingredients. To appeal to these environmentally conscious consumers, restaurants can spotlight their green initiatives on social media and on their menus. Staying attuned to dietary trends, such as the growing demand for plant-based options, and exploring flexible business models, such as ghost kitchens and pop-up events, also allow restaurants to cater to a wider range of customers and tap into new revenue streams. Many restaurants partner with local farms, for instance, to host farm-to-table dinners that showcase their commitment to the community and sustainability.
10. Customer relationship management: Strong, lasting relationships with customers drive repeat business and build a positive brand reputation. Restaurants can make customers feel valued and encourage repeat visits by implementing personalized marketing efforts and promotions, such as targeted offers for popular items. Modern restaurants typically build this brand loyalty and trust by engaging with customers through multiple channels, including social media, email, texts and in-person interactions. For example, a restaurant might promote additional sales by creating a loyalty program that rewards customers for trying new items, incentivizing them to try other dishes and accumulating points for future discounts or special perks.

Maximize Your Revenue Potential With NetSuite

To increase sales, restaurateurs need to utilize every tool at their disposal to attract new customers and keep existing ones coming back. With NetSuite financial management software, restaurants gain the financial visibility they need to make informed and data-driven decisions to spur growth. By leveraging this powerful tool, restaurants can improve their operational efficiency, reduce costs and create targeted strategies to increase sales. This cloud-based solution automates key financial processes, such as financial close and generation of expense reports, to save time and eliminate errors on both scheduled and ad hoc reporting.

NetSuite financial management software includes budgeting and forecasting tools that can be integrated into existing systems, allowing restaurants to more easily create accurate financial projections, benchmarks and demand forecasts based on companywide historical data and market trends. This centralized approach consolidates data across multiple locations, providing a holistic and secure view of a business’s financial health and performance for all authorized users. With NetSuite, restaurants can spend less time analyzing outdated data and guessing what to do next and more time serving customers and growing the business.

Restaurateurs must navigate myriad challenges to effectively increase sales, including acquiring new customers, growing revenue and managing existing customer relationships. Through actions like optimizing menus and leveraging technology, restaurants can attract new customers, encourage repeat business and boost their profitability. Furthermore, by steadfastly monitoring trends, gathering feedback and adapting to evolving preferences, restaurants can create a solid foundation for sustainable and ongoing growth as they continue to deliver high-quality food and experiences to their customers.

Increase Restaurant Sales FAQs

How do you increase the sales in a restaurant?

Increasing restaurant sales requires a multifaceted approach that includes menu optimization, marketing and customer service. By regularly analyzing sales data, businesses can identify top-performing menu items and adjust offerings accordingly. Managers should also train staff to upsell and cross-sell effectively, suggesting complementary items or higher-priced options when appropriate. Digital marketing channels, such as social media and email, are also valuable advertising tools to reach customers and showcase loyalty programs, special events and targeted promotions to attract new customers and encourage repeat visits.

How can I increase my restaurant profit?

To increase a restaurant’s profit, owners and decision-makers should focus on strategies that boost sales and/or reduce costs. These strategies include:

• Analyzing the menu to identify high-profit items and promoting them strategically.
• Optimizing inventory management to minimize waste and reduce food costs.
• Implementing staff training programs to improve efficiency and customer service.
• Expanding revenue streams through catering, delivery or retail offerings.

How do you increase online sales for restaurants?

One of the most important, direct ways to increase online sales is to ensure that the restaurant has a user-friendly, mobile-responsive website that showcases the menu and allows for easy online ordering. Many restaurants partner with popular food delivery platforms to expand their reach and make it convenient for customers to order and pay. Restaurants can also engage with customers directly through social media by sharing enticing food photos and promoting special offers. Additionally, targeted email marketing campaigns can keep a restaurant top of mind and encourage repeat orders from loyal customers.

How do you increase foot traffic in a cafe?

Many restaurants focus on local marketing efforts to increase foot traffic. Common marketing strategies include:

• Collaborating with nearby businesses to cross-promote or offer joint discounts.
• Participating in community events and festivals to gain exposure and attract new customers.
• Leveraging social media and local online directories to boost visibility.
• Offering special promotions or loyalty programs to incentivize repeat visits.
• Making sure the restaurant has attractive signage and curb appeal to draw in passersby.