“Would you like to have some fries with that?”
Restaurants have been bundling menu items for decades. Everyone knows that buying a hotdog with a side of fries and a soft drink is more cost-effective than buying everything separately.
Some restaurants may even let you switch out the fries with another side, such as a salad, for a small cost. So to put it simply, bundle offers satisfy the average consumer’s need to save money and capture more quality. Of course, we can’t forget that they also bring in more revenue for your restaurant.
In this post, we’re going to teach you a thing or two about bundling your restaurant’s menu items to offer appealing deals to your customers. With our tips, you will be able to encourage the people who use your online ordering system to spend more while also upselling your menu items.
First, let’s start with the basics.
The Undeniable Perks of Bundling
When you tailor meal bundles out of your menu items, you can benefit your business and your customers in many ways. For starters, bundling items together makes it easier to prepare meals. You will already know that when you bundle burgers, beers and fries together on Fridays, most of your customers are going to want that order. This makes the life of the people working in your kitchen a lot easier.
Moreover, bundle offers are advantageous for restaurant owners themselves, because you sell various menu items together for a slight discount. At first, this wouldn’t seem like it could benefit you but it definitely pays out when customers start spending more money than they would on ala carte meals and, in some cases, more money in their overall order.
As you begin to consider which items you can bundle together to design appealing deals for your target audience, make sure to consider your pricing strategy simultaneously. It also helps to keep your bundles as simple as possible, yet also adding those menu items in the bundle that most customers don’t order. In doing so, may be able to encourage your customers to try out something new and perhaps keep coming back for more.
How to Remain Profitable With Bundles
Ideally, customers have the most to win from bundle deals. They are granted the opportunity to enjoy a lot more food items and experiment with new food items since they are bundled as complementary items in the meal. In addition, customers have access to bundled items that cost much less than they would have if they were ordered individually.
This is why most restaurant owners wonder how they can profit from bundle offers. As it turns out, bundle offers allow restaurants to remain competitive in the tight market they operate in. However, cashing in a bundle deal can be a little tricky without obstructing your bottom line.
The best method of doing so is by strategically pricing a meal. Experts suggest doing so not only promises profits for restaurants but also increases the traffic on their online ordering systems.
These strategic bundle offers can be offered to those restaurants that may be in search of a way to offer discounts without actually lowering their profitability. In turn, these bundles have the ability to lead to larger orders from customers, which would inevitably result in increased profits.
What Qualifies As a Good Bundle Deal?
For starters, a bundle deal should be perceived as a discount. It will play to your advantage to promote its benefits and how the deal would cost less as compared to purchasing menu items individually.
Second of all, you will have to pay attention to your cost of food and margins so that you don’t end up sacrificing your profits. In order to make the most of your bundle deals, you should typically bundle high-margin menu items with limited amounts of high-priced items, including seafood and meat or out-of-season vegetables and fruits.
Of course, all of this can only be implemented with a strategy. This is where you will have to question your overall goal behind offering bundled items. For instance, are you planning on driving up your traffic on Tuesdays or would you like to increase the number of customers on Sunday night?
Try to consider bundles for happy hours, which can be offered later in the evening for after-work hours, or family deals for weekends.
It is up to you to capitalize on bundle deals. Typically, the best way to do so is to offer bundle deals during the busiest times of your restaurant. This will result in an uptick on your busiest days of the week so you can maximize your profitability.
Finally, you shouldn’t forget about marketing your bundle offers everywhere. This includes your restaurant, your social media campaigns, your website, and SMS and email campaigns.
Shining Examples of Bundle Offers
It isn’t necessary for you to offer deals all throughout the week. It would be more effective if you offer one deal per week. You can go as far as offering a different bundle deal for every day of the week. Of course, the frequency of your bundle offers will entirely depend on how many customers you manage to pull through these deals.
The most popular example of such deals can be seen surfacing during the football season. You may already be familiar with those Sunday deals for 6-pack of beer with 8-wings.
We’ve come across some steakhouses that offer menu bundles that include all 4-courses of a meal including a salad, a soup, an entrée, and a dessert for a relatively inexpensive price. With most other menu items being demanded less in a steakhouse, this bundle deal is bound to improve their profitability.
Next up, we’ve all heard of Chili’s. Recently, we came across a wonderful example of bundle deals from this restaurant chain. Chili’s took to their social media platforms to announce incredible dinner-for-two offers for any of their entrees and also threw in some delicious Corona-Rita's.
Similarly, many other massive restaurant chains have created great bundle deals for independent restaurants to follow. McDonald’s, for example, has the ‘Number 1’. This meal has worked beautifully for the restaurant chain over the years because of its perceived value. However, no one really stops to think about what each item costs individually. All they see is an opportunity for cost-saving.
Moving further, Applebee's has also been capitalizing supremely on their ‘2 for $20’ for so many years now. This tactic was used by the restaurant chain to introduce their customers to new menu items. Here’s how it works. Any two of their customers can share appetizers with their choice of entrée and call it a day for just $20. This offer has managed to motivate so many customers to try out new appetizers.
Longhorn Steakhouse is yet another great example. This restaurant would offer menu bundles that would make their restaurant seem more affordable to customers. They did so by advertising a dinner for two for just $29.99 by including a salad, an entrée and a choice between a dessert or an appetizer. Not only did this strategy get a lot more people to order at Longhorn Steakhouse, but also caused them to experiment with other menu items.
As you can see, a great method of bundling offers is by offering customers a choice within the bundle itself. Experts have noticed how these types of bundles are extremely popular among Millennials. Instead of just offering some beer with fries and wings, it would be a lot more beneficial for your restaurant to offer them other choices to mix and match their meal with.
For instance, you could just as easily offer some craft beer with their preference of fried, mild, or hot wings, with either a salad, soup or plain old fries. In doing so, you will be able to experience all the benefits of bundle offers AND make customers happier with the power of choice.
Offer Bundle Deals With a Restaurant Website That Benefits Both Customers and Restaurateurs
“The customer is why we are here. If we take good care of them, they’ll give us good reason to come back.” – Jenny McKenzie
Bundle offers can make a huge difference for your profitability and in turn, loyal customers are bound to spread positive words about your brand. MenuCRM offers a full-features web application that simplifies customer loyalty programs for small business and independent restaurant owners.
MenuCRM can be your restaurant’s website, online ordering system, CRM, restaurant loyalty app, and customer communications toll, all packed into one. By adopting MenuCRM, you will not only be able to increase your foot traffic and orders in less than 45-days but also streamline meal purchase processes without the need for internal restaurant maintenance.
So what’re you waiting for? Contact MenuCRM today to experience the difference.
