Consumer Industry Reports: Restaurant Trends for 2021
Restaurants were arguably the hardest hit industry during the pandemic in 2020. With mandates limiting public gatherings, indoor dining, and business hours, restaurants experienced little to no foot traffic, forcing them to adapt and find innovative ways to cater to their customers. Delivery services like UberEats and Doordash experienced a skyrocket in market share and more than doubled their revenue from 2019. While 2020 brought devastation to many local restaurants, 2021 brings hope and plentiful hard-earned lessons. Here are some trends for the restaurant industry that will help them thrive in 2021.
The restaurant industry experienced a major storm of challenges, losses, and innovation in 2020. As of December 2020, less than 45% of consumers feel comfortable going out for food or a drink (Mintel Reports).
Top 5 Trends in the Restaurant Industry to Leverage in 2021:
Carry-Out Orders
Social Media Presence
Instagram Ads
Meal Prep Kits
Delivery
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the digital age is more prevalent than ever before. Customers interact and engage with companies online who are active and helpful. They fully embrace the convenience and ease of online orders, delivery, and instant access. This new wave of digital access will undoubtedly skyrocket restaurants who utilize it to the top of their local market in 2021.
1. Carry-Out Orders
Carry-out orders are nothing new, but have inspired new ideas that that cater to similar needs. Offering family-sized meals for carry-out is a great way to cater to those who do not feel like cooking but don’t want to sit in a restaurant and be waited on either. Most of the time, these family-sized meals are seen as a great deal, especially since there are usually leftovers.
A great way to leverage carry-out orders would be by promoting it among local residents and professionals who either work or live in the area. Promote your carry-out orders for lunch and for dinner as a quick stop on their way home. Run display ads through Google that run between 9:30 and 12:30 in the morning and again from 2:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon. Target these ads towards local residents who live or work in certain industries in areas near you and promote the convenience of ordering from your website online and picking it up on their way home.
There’s no doubt that as soon as mandates are lifted, consumers will want to eat out again. But before long, those eager consumers will return to their desired convenience of quick and easy dinner options. Knowing how to market those options and cater to their specific interests will allow restaurants to stay ahead of their competition in 2021.
2. Social Media Presence
While having a presence on social media has always been important for this industry, it is vital for success now more than ever. Consumers want to see what an experience at your restaurant is like, what your food looks like, and stay up to date on special promotions you are running. Often, customers will look up restaurants to dine at on Google and visit their website or social media profiles to compare potential experiences and learn more about the environment and food.
In this particular industry, that’s why interacting with your customers online to promote a positive brand experience is so essential. Winning over loyal brand followers will encourage them to spread the word about how great your food is, why they love visiting your restaurant, and will prompt them to leave great reviews on digital platforms people browse when deciding where to eat.
Social media also increases your online exposure, which helps more customers find your restaurant to check it out. That’s also why creating and managing a presence on platforms like Google My Business and Yelp is so important. It allows customers to find you directly by searching for specific keywords, read your reviews, visit your website, and view other business information from there. If you’re not sure what keywords to include in your restaurant profile or website, you can always use a keyword generator to find different variations.
3. Instagram Ads
While having a social media presence is vital for a restaurant’s success in 2021, running ads that promote special offers and increase your exposure are just as important. Instagram is a hotspot for younger generations that are constantly looking for new trends to try out. Running ads on Instagram could potentially help you build a strong following and promote instant foot traffic.
Especially if you are in a college town, you can target local students who are looking for drink specials or lunch specials. Run ads to let this audience know where you are, what your environment is all about, and how awesome your food tastes. Most importantly, this specific audience will care more about specials and discounts than they will about location or aesthetics.
Always know the audience you are advertising to and make content for each segment. If you know your niche already, make ads for them and hyper-focus your content on their interests. Find out what they value - price, environment, convenience, experience, location, food type - and feature those variables in your ads and social media content. Overall, running Instagram Ads is a great opportunity to build a following quickly, promote specials, and encourage instant sales.
Instagram Ads have proven very successful for local businesses that are active and engaged with their audience.
4. Meal Prep Kits
Perhaps the most interesting trend that came out of 2020 is the idea of local restaurants offering meal prep kits. This concept came about after grocery stores experienced a massive increase in premade frozen dinner sales in 2020. In fact, as of December 2020, 68% of consumers frequently prepare premade meals for dinner (more than once a month).
Restaurants could very well make their own meal kits from their most popular dishes and sell them as a meal prep kit for a quick and easy dinner solution. This would be a fantastic way to cater to the needs of your customers and stay on their plate even when they don’t feel like going out. This trend offers a whole new potential for growth when it comes to a grocery store presence, repeat and bulk sales, and spreading awareness amongst new customers who are avoiding dining out.
As of December 2020, 57% of consumers don’t feel comfortable dining out, which offers a huge opportunity to meet the needs of those customers outside of your restaurant and more specifically, in the comfort of their home. Premade meals could be just what your restaurant needs to reach consumers who are looking for alternatives to frozen foods.
5. Delivery
Consumers want affordable and convenient ways to get food. Especially if they lead a busy life, having meals delivered to them at home or work makes their lives that much easier. While there are options such as UberEats and DoorDash that exist, they often charge the consumer outrageous fees that end up more than doubling the cost of the meal itself. Not only do these fees apply to consumers, but they also apply to restaurants. It could very easily be less expensive for both the restaurant and the consumer to have a meal delivered from the restaurant directly.
Not only will it promote more sales in a less expensive way, but it will very likely encourage customers to order a delivery from your restaurant several times a week to avoid the excess fees they incur on a third party platform. While this may not be a viable option to offer everyday, offering it a couple times a week and promoting it could help improve your sales and online orders dramatically. Have an extra staff member come in on weekends or on Wednesdays and run a promotion for delivered food minus the middleman fees. If it goes well, see about adding it as a full-time service.
Takeaways
There are a lot of unique trends that can be mirrored from other similar industries, but these five listed here will unarguably benefit restaurants who take advantage of them in 2021. Take the year 2020 as a hard-earned lesson about the need for innovation and unique ways to meet the needs of potential customers.
Consumers are still weary about going out in public and need to be reached through other channels. 2021 will be a very digital-oriented year and will require strong online presence from the brands that want to dominate their local market. Instagram Ads, social media, different meal offers, and providing the convenience of quick and easy food options will drive success in the restaurant industry during 2021. If you want your restaurant to drive more online orders and foot traffic, staying ahead with these trends will be your best bet.
