Menu design is one of the key elements of your promotion, and one of the ways to increase sales. Every successful restaurateur knows, that this makes 90% of success, and therefore will never underestimate its importance. In the article, we will talk about techniques, with the help of which a menu layout can become a highly efficient trading tool.
1. Cross-selling
One of the main tasks of any entrepreneur is to find effective ways to get a guest to order as much as possible. Such a simple psychological trick as cross-selling will help to achieve this goal easily.
The point of this technique is to offer a client additional dishes, drinks or ingredients.
In a menu design: For example, add complement sauces for fish and meat under the dishes. You can also fill up your menu layout with additional ingredients / additives, which can be chosen optionally.
2. Focus on food, not price
If you want your client to make a big and expensive order, he must focus on what he is ordering, and not how much it costs. One of the ways to achieve this is to emphasize the taste, quality and origin of food.
Our recommendation: Come up with beautiful and tasty names and descriptions of each dish, be sure to add ingredients of the dish and their origin. It is also important to “hide” prices on the menu: put them under the name of the dish, and not in a separate column.
3. Sale of high-margin dishes
Even though most restaurateurs understand that it is important to pay special attention to high-margin dishes, they often confuse them with the expensive ones. So, high-margin are the positions, which have the highest extra charge and, accordingly, bring more profit.
Tip: Put a visual accent on these dishes. We recommend adding a so-called eye magnet to your restaurant menu layout – an element, which attracts your visitors first. Highlight high-margin dishes with color, frame or icon. More ideas can be found in the article about the tricks in menu design.
4. Novelties
One of the most effective ways to attract customers and stimulate sales is to create new products. Guests are always happy to spend the budget in exchange for new taste sensations.
In the menu design: Add new items to the category “Snacks” or “Novelties”. According to statistics, visitors order new dishes more often, when their portion is smaller.
5. Down-selling
Although the main purpose of the restaurant is to increase income, sometimes it’s a good idea to use a down-selling technique — lowering sales. In other words, offer your guests a more economical alternative.
Our recommendation: Add two dishes as a “bait”: an unreasonably expensive one and a cheap one. In most cases, a guest orders a mid-priced dish, which is the most profitable for you.
To make your menu design profitable, you need to think through every detail. Try the above techniques and you will see that a competent design can influence the decisions of your visitors.
