THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBING
× 
Food and Beverage Tech Review Weekly Brief
Be first to read the latest tech news, Industry Leader's Insights, and CIO interviews of medium and large enterprises exclusively from Food and Beverage Tech Review
How Mobile Applications have Benefitted the Restaurant Business
Food and Beverages Tech Review | Thursday, July 09, 2020
In this extensive competition in the market, it is not possible for a single industry to survive without implementing proper technology. Similarly, in the food and beverage industry, it is equally essential, and restaurants are applying technologies that will not only help them to streamline the entire chain from getting vegetables in the kitchen to delivering it to the customers.
FREMONT, CA: With the support of technology, the food industry is up and booming again. The food industry is up and expanding still with the support of technology. The food sector has successfully managed to emerge as a highly profitable business because of its vast potential and insanely growing demand for restaurants with food
Stay ahead of the industry with exclusive feature stories on the top companies, expert insights and the latest news delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe today.
from various cultures around the world.
Nowadays, there are many hardcore food applications, and several restaurants have made themselves affordable for the customers and ensure that they provide them with a highly convenient experience.
Over the last few years, the restaurant market has attracted many people because technology has started to have a fundamental role in redefining the industry. Almost every restaurant that has been established to offer their customers not only with a highly satisfying but also a convenient experience. The growth of a business also depends on the revenue that has been generated by operating it. In the last few years, various sectors, including the food and restaurant companies, have to make use of the information technology solutions to improve their overall performance, customer satisfaction, and quality. Customers have also developed a fascinating image of the restaurants as far as technological integration is concerned. Therefore, it has become more comfortable for companies to satisfy their customers with menu viewing and ordering activities. Information technology has helped every business owner improve their customer services. Therefore, CIOs are considering new innovations that will help restaurant owners go beyond their limitations and reshape their businesses.
Every business owner in the restaurant sector struggles to have a highly organized mobile application and an equally impressive presence online so that they can attract several people in a short period. According to the CIOs, here are some of the technology solutions that a restaurant can implement to enhance their business.
1. Online slot reservation
Many mobile applications have the capability to connect users with the nearest restaurants and offer them the necessary details for reserving the table. Many participating restaurants cater to such requests as they have online registration.
The restaurants also allow their end-users to book their slots or determine whether they have a free table or not. This system also helps in the reduction of unnecessary traffic congestion in front of the restaurants.
It also becomes easy for the eateries to manage their customer data and keep them updated with relevant information such as special offers, attractive deals, and related information.
2. Digital menu card
Nowadays, many websites allow individuals to place their orders with the help of a digital menu card. With this system, customers can easily place their orders online without any trouble with just a few clicks on their smartphones.
It not only allows the restaurant to serve their customers without any hassle but also can provide them with a highly convenient experience. Many restaurants have the same facility for their mobile applications, but very few have their digital menu cards uploaded on a mobile application.
The customers can choose their favourite food item with just a click of a button. Moreover, it also allows people to choose a restaurant according to their budget and also preferences in terms of food items.
Many applications will provide the customers with recommendations with the most commonly ordered food or the best-selling food item so that it becomes easier for them to choose.
3. Ordering online and online delivery
The fast-food chains are also trying to eradicate the mediator's role while booking orders and help customers place their order with the help of online platforms and mobile applications.
It will become easy for the customers to order food, and they will end up saving the time that a mediator takes to write down the entire order. Tracking the order delivery will also become more manageable over a mobile application.
The customers can also track the location of their delivery once they order their meal online. The GPS technology will not only allow the customers, but it will also help the restaurant owners to keep track on the delivery person, therefore, strengthening the delivery process as well.
4. Location-based deals
CIOs are emphasizing on this technology as it will help the restaurants to increase their sales. There are a few restaurants that are already using this technology. A small device helps them send Push Notification to the customers who are near the restaurant.
The technology helps to tempt and lure the customers by offering them deals that they cannot refuse.
5. Online presence, especially on social media websites
With the present competition in the market, it does not matter the type of industrial sector where a business belongs to. It is essential to have an active online presence on social media sites to continuously grow with the changing trends. The social media sites help attract a large number of customers in a short period, and it is also an active process of online marketing.
Social media enhances brand value, and many people also get to know about new restaurants from online platforms only. Therefore, every restaurant must have an aggressive online presence as it also allows them to interact with their customers directly and provide a response to their feedback.
There are also some restaurants that provide their customers with Wi-Fi connection because they know that it will attract more customers as there are many internet obsessed people who do not like to get off track for a longer period for personal or professional reasons.
6. Loyalty programs
The loyalty programs are such a thing that helps the restaurants to retain the existing customers and also attract the new ones. According to market researchers, most of the customers are likely to download a restaurant's application if they provide them with exclusive offers at regular intervals.
Therefore the restaurants can provide schemes like discounts on some festivals, occasions, or weekends, and this will help them to retain their existing customers.
On the other hand, the introduction of offers like discounts on the first five orders will also help attract new customers. The loyalty programs are more effective than the traditional ones as they have a personal touch to it.
7. Better ROI on specials you offer
Restaurants can effectively offer Push Notifications so that they can let their customers know about the new dishes and combos. The technology will help the eateries to achieve good sales on weekdays and also increase their sale amount during weekends.
To be successful, the restaurants must remember that timing is key as they have to send the notification on time so that the idea about the food and the restaurant are tattooed in the minds of the customers. The chances are high with this that they will visit the restaurant as they have already justified their decision due to the reduction of cost.
The use of technology is not only limited to the restaurants for their business to customer activities, but it is also equally efficient and carries fruitful results for the business to business activities as they can interact more closely with their vendors and customers.
More in News
The hospitality sector, encompassing bustling cafes, elegant fine-dining establishments, and bars, relies on a delicate equilibrium of outstanding service and operational efficacy. Frequently underestimated, yet undeniably crucial, is the discipline of inventory management. Within an industry characterized by exceedingly narrow margins and fluctuating consumer preferences, antiquated methods of inventory tracking—such as manual pen-and-paper or spreadsheet-based systems—are rapidly becoming obsolete. The advent of smart inventory management software signifies a quiet transformation, optimizing stock control, significantly reducing waste, and substantially enhancing profitability.
Digital Transformation: The Heart of Smart Inventory
Modern inventory management software transforms what was once a chaotic and time-consuming process into a seamless, data-driven operation. These platforms provide a centralized, real-time view of stock, offering visibility down to the smallest detail—from a single olive to a premium cut of steak. With real-time updates as items are sold or consumed, managers gain immediate insight into what is available, where it is located, and how much is needed, helping to prevent both stockouts and overstocking. Automated ordering and reordering further streamline operations, as systems can generate purchase orders based on predefined thresholds and sales patterns. Advanced solutions can even send orders directly to suppliers to ensure timely replenishment. By accurately tracking usage and highlighting slow-moving or expiring items, these tools also play a crucial role in reducing waste, enabling proactive measures such as promotions or menu adjustments before products spoil. In addition, they provide robust cost control and supplier management capabilities by monitoring the cost of goods sold in real-time, delivering insights into ingredient costs and dish-level profitability, while also tracking supplier performance, pricing, and order accuracy.
The Future is Smart: Benefits Beyond Measure
For restaurants, bars, and cafés, adopting smart inventory management is no longer just an operational upgrade—it is a strategic necessity. By leveraging technology-driven solutions, businesses can unlock a range of benefits that directly impact profitability, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Smarter systems help reduce waste, optimize purchasing, and control costs, ultimately strengthening the bottom line. Automation further enhances efficiency by minimizing the time spent on tedious manual tasks, allowing staff to focus on delivering exceptional customer service. With accurate tracking and reduced stockouts, customers consistently enjoy access to their favorite dishes and drinks, fostering loyalty and repeat visits. At the management level, data-driven insights provide a robust foundation for informed decisions on menus, pricing, promotions, and staffing. Beyond financial and operational gains, a streamlined and predictable inventory process also reduces stress, bringing clarity and control to an area of hospitality that is often chaotic and disorganized.
The hospitality industry is constantly evolving, and success hinges on adaptability and efficiency. Smart inventory management software, powered by AI and seamlessly integrated with POS systems, is no longer a luxury but a necessity. It’s the intelligent backbone that ensures a restaurant or bar not only survives but thrives, maximizing profits and delighting customers with every perfectly stocked ingredient and perfectly crafted drink. The future of hospitality is digital, and it begins with smart inventory management.
...Read more
Collaborative brewing, encompassing strategic partnerships and co-manufacturing, has emerged as a foundational element within the Canadian craft beverage sector. This methodology enables both nascent and established breweries to contend with a competitive marketplace, optimize expenditures, and foster innovation. Although these terms are frequently employed interchangeably, significant distinctions delineate the essence of these associations.
Understanding the Landscape: Co-Manufacturing vs. Co-Packing
While both co-manufacturing and co-packing involve outsourcing aspects of production, they fulfill distinct roles within the supply chain.
Co-manufacturing (also known as contract brewing) represents a full-service arrangement in which a brand owner—whether they operate their brewery or not—contracts another brewery to manage the entire production process. This includes sourcing ingredients, brewing the beer to the brand’s specifications, and, in some cases, handling packaging and labeling. For startups, this model provides an opportunity to enter the market without the significant capital investment required to build a brewery. For established brands, it offers a flexible way to scale quickly to meet rising demand or to produce specialty lines that their facilities may not support. In this arrangement, the brand owner retains ownership of the recipe and brand identity. At the same time, the co-manufacturer maintains ownership of the raw materials and the final product until the brand owner purchases it.
Co-packing, by contrast, is a more limited engagement focused exclusively on packaging. A brewery that produces its beer may rely on a co-packer to provide specific packaging formats—such as canning, bottling, or kegging—that it does not have in-house. In this model, the brand owner is responsible for brewing the beer and then supplies it to the co-packer for final packaging and labeling. This approach is particularly beneficial for brands seeking to diversify their offerings without incurring the cost of installing specialized packaging lines.
The Strategic Advantages of Collaboration
Strategic partnerships and co-manufacturing present Canadian craft brewers with valuable opportunities to enhance efficiency, foster innovation, and strengthen market competitiveness. One of the most immediate advantages lies in cost efficiency, as collaborating with an existing facility enables brewers to avoid the significant capital investment required to build and maintain a full-scale brewery. This allows them to redirect resources toward high-impact areas such as marketing, sales, and recipe development. Similarly, co-packing provides access to advanced, high-speed packaging lines without the prohibitive expense of owning such equipment.
These arrangements also deliver scalability and flexibility, critical in a market defined by seasonal fluctuations and rapid growth. Small breweries can quickly scale production to meet surging demand, while larger brands can experiment with limited-run or seasonal offerings without disrupting their primary operations. Beyond operational benefits, partnerships encourage innovation by facilitating the exchange of ideas, techniques, and ingredients among brewers. Co-manufacturers further contribute by providing specialized equipment and expertise, ensuring consistency and quality in every batch.
Equally important, outsourcing production helps mitigate operational risks. With the partner brewery overseeing manufacturing, quality control, and regulatory compliance, craft brands can concentrate on building their identity, strengthening customer relationships, and expanding their core business. Taken together, these advantages make strategic partnerships and co-manufacturing a powerful pathway for Canadian craft brewers to thrive in a competitive industry.
The Canadian craft beverage sector is flourishing, and collaborative models are poised to assume an even more significant role. As the market matures, an increasing number of breweries are recognizing the inherent value of collaborative efforts, not merely for isolated projects but as an integral component of their long-term growth strategy. This trend is propelled by a pursuit of enhanced efficiency, a demand for innovative solutions, and the collective understanding that mutual advancement benefits all participants. For brewers, a judiciously selected strategic partnership can serve as the linchpin for accessing nascent markets, undertaking product experimentation, and ultimately, cultivating a more resilient and prosperous brand.
...Read more
The restaurant and bar industry has made notable strides in efficiency, largely driven by a significant transformation in inventory management. Once reliant on manual methods, clipboards, and estimation, inventory control has evolved into a sophisticated, automated, and data-driven process—thanks to the rise of specialized software solutions. This shift has not only streamlined day-to-day operations but also redefined how hospitality businesses maximize profitability and enhance the guest experience.
Managing inventory in a restaurant or bar was a significant challenge. Physical counts were sporadic, often inaccurate, and prone to human error. Ordering decisions were frequently based on intuition or rough estimates, resulting in either excessive waste from overstocking or missed sales opportunities due to stockouts. This lack of precise control directly impacted the bottom line, making it challenging to understand actual costs and identify areas for improvement.
The advent of specialized inventory management software marked a significant turning point in the field. Early iterations focused on basic digital record-keeping, moving away from paper logs to spreadsheets and simple databases. This provided a foundational level of organization, allowing for more consistent tracking. However, these systems still required significant manual input and lacked the real-time capabilities that define modern solutions.
Core Functionalities Redefining Operations
Today's restaurant and bar inventory management software is a comprehensive ecosystem designed to optimize every facet of stock control. A core feature is real-time inventory tracking. This allows operators to know precisely what they have on hand at any given moment. Through seamless integration with Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, items are automatically deducted from inventory as they're sold. This eliminates the need for manual updates, providing an immediate and accurate picture of stock levels. The ability to monitor inventory in real-time is crucial for avoiding unexpected shortages, especially during peak service hours, and for making agile decisions about menu availability.
Beyond mere tracking, these systems provide advanced integration for ordering and purchasing. Based on consumption patterns and predefined minimum stock levels (often referred to as "par levels"), the software can generate suggestive reorder lists or even automate purchase orders directly with suppliers. This intelligent automation removes the guesswork from replenishment, ensuring that necessary ingredients and beverages are always available without tying up excessive capital in overstocked items. Some systems also include features for managing supplier relationships, centralizing invoices, and tracking pricing variations, allowing for more strategic procurement.
Recipe management and costing are integral components of modern inventory software. By meticulously detailing the ingredients and quantities required for each menu item, the system can accurately calculate the theoretical cost of every dish or drink. This empowers operators, giving them a sense of control and confidence to make informed decisions about menu pricing, identify profitable items, and pinpoint areas where ingredient costs might be disproportionately high. When combined with real-time inventory usage data, this feature provides invaluable insights into actual versus theoretical usage, highlighting potential discrepancies due to waste, spillage, or portion control issues.
Data-Driven Insights and Accessibility
The analytical capabilities of contemporary inventory software are profound. Data analytics and reporting tools transform raw inventory data into actionable insights. Operators can generate reports on sales trends, ingredient consumption, waste percentages, and profitability by category or individual item. This historical data is then leveraged for predictive analytics, with advanced algorithms anticipating future demand based on seasonality, promotions, and past sales performance. This foresight enables highly accurate forecasting, leading to optimized ordering, reduced spoilage, and improved overall financial performance.
For businesses with multiple locations, multi-location management features are indispensable. Centralized dashboards offer a comprehensive view of inventory across all establishments, enabling efficient stock transfers, standardized ordering processes, and consistent menu offerings. This ensures uniformity in operations and empowers management to identify and address inconsistencies across their portfolio.
The contemporary landscape also emphasizes mobile accessibility. Many solutions offer dedicated mobile applications, allowing staff to conduct inventory counts, receive deliveries, and check stock levels using handheld devices or even their smartphones. Features like barcode scanning or QR code integration further enhance accuracy and speed during physical inventory processes. This mobile flexibility significantly reduces the time and labor associated with traditional inventory tasks, freeing up staff to focus on guest service.
The Future of Inventory Management
Looking ahead, the trajectory of restaurant and bar inventory management software is one of increasing sophistication and integration. The continued rise of cloud-based solutions provides unparalleled accessibility, scalability, and data security. The infusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is making systems even smarter, moving beyond predictive analytics to intelligent automation, where systems can learn and adapt to business conditions with minimal human intervention. The emphasis on sustainability is driving features that help businesses minimize food waste and optimize resource utilization, aligning with growing consumer and industry demands for environmentally conscious practices.
Restaurant and bar inventory management software has evolved from a simple tracking tool to a strategic asset. It underpins operational efficiency, enhances profitability, and plays a vital role in delivering a consistent and high-quality experience for patrons. As the hospitality industry continues to embrace digital transformation, these sophisticated systems will remain at the forefront, driving smarter decisions and fostering greater success.
...Read more
IoT-based applications are significantly improving food safety in food processing establishments. They provide one opportunity to monitor a supply chain, use sensors to check food quality, and alert users to potential safety risks, thereby improving the process of food processing and manufacturing.
Real-Time Temperature Data
IoT systems employ a wide range of sensors, including real-time temperature, moisture, carbon dioxide, and heavy metal sensors, to monitor food quality in fields and during transportation and to alert users to potential contamination risks.
It is easier to identify any contaminated items or incorrect environmental conditions, whether handled on-site or throughout other operations. Then, before they damage further food or endanger consumers, they may be appropriately held or removed from a processing line.
IoT Sensors
During shipping, goods and packaging can frequently sustain damage that results in stock loss, lost time and money, and business interruption. It might be not easy to prevent downtime for food businesses that get their packaging from outside sources.
Nonetheless, IoT sensors might be useful since they can automatically identify damage and deterioration in packaging. This helps producers reduce the possibility that this will happen again, saves time, and guarantees the quality of packing.
Traceability and Food Safety
The origins of their food are a growing issue for consumers. The epidemic reaffirmed their demands for openness and traceability about the origins of their food. IoT technology, which enables consumers to follow items along the whole supply chain, can help satisfy these needs and foster customer trust. Customers will be provided with the transparency and assurance they require by being able to access information about ingredients, supply, raw materials, and finished food items.
Ensuring food safety is another benefit of IoT technology. Real-time food safety data is available to food makers, enabling them to closely monitor conditions and satisfy HACCP and food safety regulations. Additionally, IoT technology may alert employees to potential food safety violations, allowing them to promptly determine whether or not contamination has occurred.
Food Waste Reduction
A significant proportion of food is wasted during food manufacture, handling, and storage. IoTs, however, can assist in reducing this. Based on real demands, orders can be issued for new ingredients. Because of this, workers cannot estimate how much food is needed, which can result in wasteful food loss. IoT technology can even automate this process to increase productivity and decrease waste.
In addition, real-time sensor data collection on food production can assist in determining and mitigating the underlying causes of food waste. You can quickly decide which goods are overstocked and which aren't by using essential data that the IoT can offer, such as expiration dates and stock levels. This tackles the issue of food waste and stops people from placing unnecessary orders.
...Read more
Top
