3 Ways to Increase Order Sizes at Your Cafe
Coffee shops tend to suffer from low average order sizes and high fixed costs. There’s a charge for every transaction run through your credit card processors, and labour involved in fulfilling each order. One strategy to increase the profitability of your restaurant is to generate more revenue per order
What is your average order size?
Before you look at ways to increase your average order size, you need a starting point to compare against. Calculate your current average order size by taking your daily sales total and dividing it by the number of orders placed that day.
Sales Total / Number of Tickets = Average Order Size
Then, as you make the changes listed below, you can compare your average order size with the one calculated. If the number increases, you know you’re on the right track.
1. Upsell & Cross-sell
Get into the sales mindset and always offer your customers something more.
In-Person
In your shop, start by educating your staff about all your menu items. Teach them about each drink, and have them try a taster of it, then do the same with each muffin, bagel, scone and sandwich. Your staff should know your menu inside out and be able to recommend their favourites to customers.
Get to the point where if a customer orders something, your staff are always either offering an upsell (“would you like me to make that a large for only $1 more?”) or a cross-sell (“the blueberry muffins go amazingly with our black roast. You want me to add one to your order?”). Build out a cheat sheet and place it by the cash, or better yet, program the prompts into your point of sale.
On Your Online Ordering Site & Mobile App
After you have upselling and cross-selling set up in your cafe, take a look at your online ordering site and mobile ordering app. A good system will allow you to add upselling and cross-selling prompts during the order process. Take care to ensure your prompts make sense with the order and have a little fun with the wording. Think of your branding, and how your staff speak to customers. Write your upselling prompts using language inspired by your in-store experience.
2. Create a Customer Loyalty Program
Reward your customers that order from you the most by offering a customer loyalty program. By rewarding customers for how much they spend with you, they will spend more.
Keep your program simple, and ensure you’re rewarding customers no matter how they buy from you. Set your reward tiers to certain spend levels, like $150 or $200. This way, your customers will receive their rewards faster by spending more per order. Which means you’re rewarding them for a larger order size.
Learn how to create a successful loyalty program in 6 Steps to Create A Successful Loyalty & Rewards Program For Your Cafe.
3. Offer More Customization
For instance, if a customer orders their coffee with almond milk instead of regular milk, do you charge an extra fee? Look through your existing modification options, and determine which ones are costing you money. If they are costing you, consider charging extra for them. Also, consider any customizations that you don’t currently offer due to the cost. Would they make sense if you charged for them?
Then, advertise your ability to customize orders for an extra charge. List modifiers in your mobile ordering app, and on your menu in-store. Make it clear that there is a charge, as you don’t want to trick your customers. Rather, your goal is to offer them choices that they may not have known about.
To keep your profit margin steady, you should always be thinking of new ways to increase your average cheque size. Listen to your staff, and pay attention to orders coming in from your mobile app and online ordering sites to see what customers are ordering.
If you don’t already have a mobile ordering app for your customers, talk to our team.
