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This year 2021 the restaurant marketing strategy, design and internal systems will evolve for both independents and chains.
Hospitality establishments are characterized by being a sector that takes time to adopt innovative technology. The pandemic changed that. Technology adoption was what kept many restaurants afloat during the pandemic.
We must not forget that clients visit a place (bar, restaurant, or cafeteria) to live an experience; You no longer just go to the place simply to have something out of necessity.
COVID-19 represented a 180-degree turn to the reality of the hospitality business, and it was a great boost to rising trends, such as home delivery or healthier meals.
COVID-19 has imposed some drastic changes and adaptations in the restaurant industry that will last until 2021 and well beyond. The good news is that the pandemic showed just how resilient the restaurant industry is.
In this post we want to present some trends to consider for next year.
Healthy food
Healthy food restaurants will replace closed independent restaurants. Unfortunately, many restaurants have been permanently closed during the pandemic. Healthy food restaurants will become dominant. The chains of this type of restaurant will proliferate.
The quest for healthy food by customers will cause establishments to reshape their menus seeking to meet these new demands from their customers, who are looking for healthy or vegetarian meals, even when eating out, rejecting those foods rich in fats and sugars .
Meals at home
The arrival of the pandemic has made restaurants learn to focus on the sustainability of operations by relying heavily on delivery, take-home service, curbside pick-up, contactless payment, and other enabling technologies.
Almost all restaurants have been forced to have a delivery service, or a relationship with delivery companies such as Uber Eats, Just Eat, or Glovo. Restaurateurs will fully embrace online ordering. Each restaurant, independent or chain, will provide e-commerce channels for customers to order food. Customers are increasingly used to ordering their food online.
Greater cleanliness
Further cleaning will continue to be a necessity. Restaurant employees will need to be trained to prepare and handle food, and constant sanitizing of common surfaces, such as counters, door handles, tables, chairs, and condiment containers, will become standard standards.
Ghost kitchens
Ghost kitchens will flourish. New and existing concepts will cooperate to develop phantom kitchens where multiple kitchens coexist in harmony to satisfy the hunger of urban dwellers, and the virtual dining scene will become more common.
Off-site business
Dining areas will shrink. Due to the shift to off-site dining, new restaurants in all categories will reduce the square footage of their dining areas. Existing locations will remove tables and chairs to always be prepared for social distancing.
Restaurants have been forced to reduce their internal capacities to facilitate social distancing, those with outdoor spaces seize the opportunity to maximize the opportunity to serve customers. Local governments and municipalities are also supporting initiatives to facilitate cookouts.
The off-site business will continue to prosper. Although consumers are getting used to ordering food online, the trend may slow down after the pandemic ends. Even so, the demand for food in open areas and terraces will proliferate.
Business digitization
From the inclusion of digital letters in establishments, installation of new systems with POS software, to the creation of web pages and social networks to promote the services offered by establishments.
Contactless has come to stay. The low-touch economy will continue to be the focus of consumer experiences. Today menus, orders, reservations and services must be scanned.
