Ninety-eight percent of Americans eat pizza, with fifty-four percent claiming they love it. That makes sense, considering Americans collectively consume an astounding 350 slices of pizza every second. It goes without saying if you're in the pizza business, you've got a lot of potential customers and competition. So when figuring out how to increase sales with your pizza POS system, there are 5 actions you must take if you want to boost revenue and, ultimately, your bottom line.
1. Add commission-free online ordering & delivery to your pizzeria.
Having your own online ordering system (instead of relying on third-party delivery apps) is the biggest step to boosting revenue for your pizza store. With it, customers can easily order from your website or an app while you only pay low monthly rates instead of having to fork over a percentage-based commission every time someone orders a pie.
And because a frantic Google search often follows a sudden pizza craving, your online menu must be synced to your Google My Business profile. This allows hungry prospective customers to place orders directly in Google whenever your pizzeria appears in Google Maps or Search. You'll want to ensure your pizza POS system can automatically capture your customers' information (for marketing purposes), send orders instantly to your kitchen digitally (see kitchen display systems in #3), and pace the influx of orders based on your kitchen capacity.
You also must have an affordable and reliable way to deliver hot pizzas in under 30 minutes. If you don't have the time and resources to manage your own drivers, you can take advantage of SpotOn's unique partnership with DoorDash that gives you access to the DoorDash network of drivers at low flat per-order rates and the ability to decide how much of the delivery costs you want to pass on to your customers. Not only will this increase pizza delivery sales, but it will also be a reason for customers to choose your pizza shop over the one down the road the next time that craving strikes.
2. Speed up in-house pizza orders with handhelds & QR codes.
If your pizzeria is a full house on Friday or Saturday nights (or any night for that matter), you'll want to consider adding handhelds and/or QR codes to your technology arsenal. Handhelds are pocket-sized POS systems that allow your servers or counter-service staff to take orders and accept payments anywhere in your restaurant. By eliminating the need for pen and paper, they reduce the number of mistakes made by scribbled order-taking. With a couple of taps, team members can not only take a guest's order in seconds, but they can also send that order straight to the kitchen in a flash.
Over the past couple of years, pizza lovers have also become more familiar with QR codes. By scanning a code with their phone at your location, guests can get instant access to your online menu, place an order, and even pay for their entire order through a credit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. For full-service pizzerias, QR codes can be placed at tables allowing guests to order more drinks, add appetizers, or settle their checks when they're ready to leave.
3. Leverage a kitchen display system (KDS) in the back-of-house.
If you want to turn your restaurant into a pizza-making machine, throw out your chit printers and thermal paper and get a kitchen display system (KDS). These are large screens in front of your cooks that can "talk" with your POS system and receive orders from POS terminals, handhelds, Order with Google, your online menu, and QR codes. With a KDS, you can say goodbye to tickets falling in the sauce, hard-to-read tickets due to low ink levels, or having to reload the printer while cooks are tossing the dough.
A good KDS will help your cooks stay organized with timer notifications, allergy notes, and color-coding to highlight order modifications. These benefits translate into faster order-completion times, fewer pies being thrown out or eaten by your staff, and happier customers who'll think of you the next time they get that unexpected hankering for some made-to-order pizza.
4. Keep pizza lovers coming back with a loyalty program & marketing.
The only thing people love more than pizza is a great deal on pizza. The top pizza chains in the U.S. know this and heavily rely on loyalty rewards programs because they work. Imagine a family sitting at home on a Friday night, and no one wants to make dinner. The quick and easy solution? Order pizza. The decision becomes even easier if someone in the family has enough loyalty points to get an extra-large pizza at half price.
Your POS system should have an integrated loyalty program that makes it easy for your customers to sign up, earn points, and spend their rewards. Not only do loyalty programs drive repeat business (and reoccurring revenue), but customers who participate in them typically end up ordering more items, increasing your ROI.
In addition to loyalty, the best POS systems for pizza shops will also collect marketing data (name, email, pizza-topping preferences) when guests order online or in-house so that you can send them promotions for your Thanksgiving Eve promotion, your Super Bowl Sunday sale, and of course, your extreme deal on National Pizza Day (February 9th). Keeping your pizzeria at the top of your customers' minds throughout the year will also keep your business at the top of its profit potential.
5. Slice up your reporting data and double down on what's working.
A big part of increasing your pizza sales is analyzing the numbers behind your pizzeria. What are your best-selling (and least-selling) pizza combinations? What toppings are customers pairing together? (Maybe you'll discover the next big combo). Who are your top-performing team members? What's the average order fulfillment time? What soda or beer do customers pair with their favorite pie?
Getting answers to questions like these will show you exactly which efforts are paying off and which might need a little tweaking. Your pizza POS should not only have accurate, up-to-the-minute reporting data, but it should also display it visually, so you don't have to dig through pages of metrics to make intelligent data-driven decisions. An insightful reporting dashboard will give you charts and graphs that quickly show how to optimize your menu and where to concentrate your marketing efforts.
Your pizza sales are tied to your POS system.
In this internet age, customers expect instant online ordering, faster delivery service, and a streamlined experience when they visit your pizzeria—in person or online. When you meet these expectations, sales soar, and when you don't, they plummet. Your POS system can help you set the cadence of your pizza restaurant so that you can not only meet your customers' demands and sell more pizza but also focus on how to grow your establishment. The right point-of-sale system for pizza shops will be a seamless solution that handles the predictable so you can create the exceptional.
