Visual food merchandising is one of the most popular trends in the restaurant, catering and hospitality industry today, which is a wonderful art of presenting your products in such a way that your customers buy and also bring your products to life with the attention of freshness, color, quality and abundance.
An excellent program of merchandising products combined with cross-merchandising strategies will help increase your restaurant or catering services. sales significantly, and also increase customer satisfaction and return business.
The benefits of attractive merchandising displays of products and cross-screening techniques are immediate. Sales will increase from 15% to 300% if you have done a proper job with your merchandising program. Your employee morale will also increase from improved environments and satisfied customers.
Performing a catering operation takes much more than just displaying ordinary information, such as “daily special”. As an operator, you should take into account that it will lure your customers into your business first. Below are some basic rules and marketing tips:
1. Make it appetizing.
You must build your food displays so that customers can see them from all sides of your facility. Do not use anything other than the freshest ingredients and colorful food to get their attention. Show your products using irregular plates and dishes with different textures. Use terracotta and other eco-friendly colors, and add natural wood and bamboo to create a more modern, clean and sleek look.
For example, adding a simple, thick, wooden board placed inside a standard glass display for sandwiches, imposes on customers that sandwiches have just been made recently. Without a board, the sandwiches look starting and naked and allow customers to wonder how long they have been there since the glass and steel display give the impression of cold and emptiness. The cutting board helps add warmth and life to the display.
2. Place products on a slope and use color
Food is always displayed better if it is located on a slope and does not lie flat. Show your customers your products! Sloping European-style wooden racks are a great merchandising tool for displaying bread, cakes, pastries and other products, creating an attractive display to entice your customers to buy.
Color is one of the most important factors when working with food displays. Many foods usually come from brown and beige palettes, so you need to brighten up your work with green, red, orange and yellow colors, and create a fresh and healthy look. Think about what items you already have in your kitchen, in the pantry and storage rooms that can add mouth-watering color and substance to your display.
3. Use cross-merchandising techniques to exploit higher sales.
For the cafeteria and market operations, cross-merchandising is a great opportunity to grow by putting the right products together. Soups, sandwiches and potato chips should be placed in the same area, and coffee and tea should be served next to desserts. Side orders and salads can be divided. For example, small containers of salad can be packed and placed on the ice next to the grill, as well as next to sandwiches. Also try different types of cream cheese next to bagels or fresh fruit and whipped cream next to pastries and ice cream. Coffee and tea are an excellent partner for bakery products. Sales of beautifully packaged coffee will float when placed next to baked goods.
4. Use the zone of zeroing money
The cash area is the main property for merchandising. Proper merchandising of additional retail products in the field of money wrapping will help you to increase average checks. Use your ATM to sell last-minute coffee, soda, desserts, sweets and chocolate bars, as well as create an irresistible display of products that customers cannot refuse.
5. Proper labeling indicates a way to increase revenue
Proper signs can help you tell customers what you need to tell them when you cannot offer them personal attention. It is very important to be clean, concise and accurate when designing the signs for your operation. Make it so that customers can buy food by providing proper advertising signs that inform your customers about your products so that they can buy them. The sign can be displayed in all shapes and sizes and should be used accordingly. Use branded mini-cards for labeling and pricing your products and write brief descriptions of the product that details the ingredients you used or your cooking method. If you insist on painting your signs, be sure to make them legitimate and graphically attractive.
