News

Study: Getting lightest restaurant users to visit more is key to increasing sales

January 26, 2017

If just half of the country's lightest restaurant users made one more visit per year, the industry would see a $1.1 billion increase in sales, according to a report from NPD Group.

The report is based on NPD's receipt mining service and its ongoing foodservice market research. It delves into the reasons consumers have cut back on restaurant visits and which frequency of user has cut their number of dinners out the most. According to the research, 75 percent of consumers who have cut back on eating out say they watch how they spend their money on most or all purchases. Many of these respondents think restaurant prices are too high, according to the report.  

Heavy restaurant users who typically visit restaurants three or more times per week, cut back visits most, according to the study. This user group's visit reduction was a major factor in traffic growth coming to a halt, said the news release.

Super-light and light users, who visit restaurants once or less a week, were cited as extremely valuable customers in the report. Combined, the two groups account for 47 percent of all restaurant customers in a year, and they spend more per visit than heavy users. 

In the news release, NPD Group said that its determined that if half of light users made just one more restaurant visit each year, it would drive an incremental sales increase of $1.1 billion. NPD said restaurants can entice these users to visit more with regular discounts and, more importantly, discounts of their choosing.

"Many restaurant operators have spent much of their resources and time in rewarding heavy buyers," NPD restaurant industry analyst and report author, Bonnie Riggs, said in the news release. "It's important to continue recognizing heavy buyers, but to grow their business operators need to increase visit frequency from all user groups, including light and super light users."