Understanding the latest market trends will help keep you one step ahead of the competition. Below are the latest trends for quick service outlets that are most likely to have an impact on your business this year!
1. Soaring Snacking
- Every daypart is a snack daypart. A wide range of influences – around-the-clock eating, customer demand for flexible portions and prices, pop up food stands and street-food craze, and operators’ need to move beyond price-cutting on core menu items, to name a few – will keep snacking a hot trend.
- Check out your menu options, do you have snack-size handhelds, car-friendly packaging and step up their game with grab-and-go offerings? Is this something you could add? The snacking category needs to be supported through marketing, promotions & communications similar to traditional dayparts.
2. Breakfast Boom
- Breakfast is still an underdeveloped market in terms of fast food but the big chains are cashing in on the opportunity.
- QSR challenge: offer variety and quality whilst delivering on speed.
- Coffee is critical. The trend is towards healthier & more portable menu items as well as innovation around bread carriers (e.g. flatbreads).
3. Value Legacy
- Legacy of the recession set to continue into 2020.
- Vital for operators to communicate their value for money more than ever.
- Quality remains a factor that a majority are willing to pay for and should form part of any value message.
4. New-wave Le Loyalalty via Technology
- Several quick-service and fast-casual brands have found that an engaging and effective loyalty program can be one of the best ways to achieve a value position without simply slashing prices.
- Technology, not pizza, helps Domino’s crush competitors and grow faster than McDonald’s overseas.
5. Retail / QSR Merge
- There is a blurring of boundaries between foodservice and retail via retailers’ food-to-go concepts; particularly in the convenience sector.
- Retailers are mainlining food, discovering the magic of “dwell time”. Keep hungry customers on the premises longer and they buy much more.
If this has got you thinking about your menu options?
