How Your Restaurant Can Take Advantage of Black Friday

Black Friday is well known as one of the most profitable shopping days of the year - but it can be a big day for cafes and restaurants as well! A smart restaurant owner will be looking for ways to capitalize on Black Friday. After all, there are going to be a lot of hungry shoppers out there - many of whom may have been up all night - so you can do a lot of extra business by luring them into your own shop.

There are plenty of ways that you could potentially make Black Friday a great day for your restaurant. Here are some of our favorite ideas.

Six Great Ways For Restaurants To Make Big Money On Black Friday

1 - Offer discount gift cards
First, play to what people are looking for. They want Christmas gifts, and gift cards are a perennial favorite. This is a great opportunity to offer discounts on gift cards. You could potentially offer a flat discount to everyone who stops in or tie the discount to an in-restaurant food purchase.

Plus, you don't even need to make the discount that large. Since gift cards are generally valued at 1:1 with their face cash value, even a relatively small discount, like 10%, will seem like a good deal.

2 - Do plenty of online promotion
You should be making great use of your customer information database here. If you've got a strong CMS and can see what orders people place most often, you could make a lot of people happy by offering customized email coupons on their favorite dishes.

Otherwise, make heavy use of social media. Don't be afraid to flood your feeds with offers and descriptions of your holiday specials. You want as many people as possible to know about them.

Also, are you on TikTok yet? It's currently the most popular new social media service, particularly among younger users. If your restaurant targets the under 30 crowds, you need to be on TikTok - and this is the perfect time to start.

3 - Read up on your competitors
You aren't going to be the only restaurant promoting yourself on Black Friday, so take the opportunity to do some business intelligence. Look at what others are offering, and then look to either undercut them or offer strong alternatives. For example, if a nearby restaurant is offering discounts on your entrees, offer discounts on your desserts instead. Or if they're discounting their gift cards, make your discount a little better.

4 - Run specials on the delivery services
In-store discounts are great but don't forget about UberEats, DoorDash, and other food-delivery services. For these, we'd suggest running an all-weekend promotion that includes Cyber Monday, so that you can catch people who are staying at home throughout the holiday.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of people are going to be staying up late and/or getting up very early trying to get the first crack at the best deals. Someone camping out at a Best Buy parking lot at 3 AM isn't going to have a lot of food options. If you're willing to stay open late/early for Black Friday, you'll have a somewhat captive audience who will be glad for more delivery options.

5 - Multi-meal or family-sized offers
It's fairly rare for people to go Black Friday shopping alone. Most of the time they'll be going with friends or family members, which gives you a great opportunity for bulk discounts. Rather than a flat discount on entrees, for example, you might have a "buy two get one free" style special - this encourages large groups to come to visit. Plus, large groups will mean large tips, and your staff should appreciate that.

6 - Tailor your specials based on expected crowds, and the weather
Think ahead! Look at all the restaurants in your vicinity. What sort of market or clientele are they likely to bring in? You should use this to guide your own decisions on what to discount, and by how much. Run discounts on wine if they're likely to bring in middle-aged women, or on beer or whisky drinks if your neighbors are catering to men.

You should also factor in the weather and offer specials to match. If it's going to be cold, your patrons would probably appreciate cheap hot drinks. On the other hand, for a hot Black Friday, cold foods and drinks would do well.

Plus, be sure to offer takeaway options as well. Not everyone is going to want to take a full breakfast or lunch break. To-go specials could result in a high volume of sales, without clogging up the whole restaurant.

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