#Restaurant Operators: Nationally, off-premise is HUGE (30% of sales!), but it requires a different game plan than dine-in.
I will provide more information next week on how to use off-premises channels for greater effect.
Off-premises is a whole different ball game than on-premises. Its channels, tech tools, and competition are different from on-premises. I am well aware of the piling challenges surrounding restaurants from low profitability to finding and retaining qualified employees. In delivery apps, 75% or more of users never scroll past the first page of search results and that could be why your off-premises revenue is low. It is cut-throat business.
We have only so much time and mental energy to spend for great execution and thus,
I don’t recommend spending a second on off-premises if you aren’t already good at or have a plan to be better at the following:
1) Are you ranking high on delivery apps? Off-premises is a different ball game than on-premises. They are completely different sales channels. Unless you are already ranking high on the apps or have a plan to show up higher, it will be a hit or miss.
2) Can you track off-premise profitability? The profitability of the off-premises channel is generally lower. If your General Ledger and P&L are not set up to comprehensively separate on and off-premise contribution margins, it would be challenging to make sensible business decisions like investing in marketing dollars.
3) If you don’t have the bandwidth to create a solid off-premise channel, the shift in focus could hurt your bread-and-butter on-premises business.
In summary, off-premises is a great tool when deployed properly. Only a fraction of the restaurants nailed it down. If you haven’t invested heavily and have the resources to make this channel successful, you could be better served by focusing on on-premises.
Please share what strategies worked for you or what challenges are keeping you at night.