How to Boost Restaurant Sales by 20% Using Digital Menus

Many restaurant owners view digital menus merely as a cost-saving measure to eliminate printing expenses. But when used correctly, a smart digital menu acts as your best salesperson, quietly working to improve your bottom line and boost the average check size.

Transitioning to a robust QR menu system like Coolest Menu unlocks merchandising strategies that are impossible with traditional paper menus.

1. The Power of Food Photography

We eat with our eyes first. A paper menu has limited space, so only a few items get featured with photos. A digital menu allows you to attach high-quality, mouth-watering images to every single dish. Studies show that adding a photo to a menu item can increase its sales by up to 30%.

2. Effortless Upselling

Is your staff always remembering to suggest adding chicken to the salad or offering a second round of drinks? With a well-structured digital menu, you can easily categorize add-ons and profitable sides right next to the main courses, encouraging diners to customize their meals and inadvertently increase their total spend.

3. Real-time Menu Engineering

If it’s a rainy Tuesday, maybe you want to highlight a warm soup. If you have excess inventory of a certain fish, you need to push it quickly. With paper menus, making changes takes days and costs money. With digital menus, you can reorder your categories and highlight "Chef's Specials" in real-time.

"Since going digital, our dessert sales went up by 15% simply because diners could see the photos at the end of their meal without asking for a menu back."