Designing an online restaurant menu has gone from being an alternative to a necessity for hospitality businesses that want to be more sustainable. For this reason, it is essential that you decide to implement it to be at the forefront of the gastronomic sector
Traditional menus are a thing of the past: it is time to reduce the waste caused by printed paper. And online menus are an innovative way to capture the attention and enhance the experience of your customers. Here’s how to create digital menus that wow your diners and help the environment.
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7 effective tips for designing online restaurant menus
Here are 7 effective tips to make your online restaurant menu a reality:
1. Create a menu that is easy to understand and navigate
To start designing an online restaurant menu, distribute your menu according to the different services you have during the day. Consider how the offer varies during peak times, including your dishes and drinks. Also, make sure that each component is separated into a separate tab that is properly identified.
Include descriptions to explain what the preparations, offers or promotions are about. And why? Keep in mind that most of your diners want clarity and concrete data for a better experience
This allows them to collect valuable information at the optimal time to make their purchases. For diners using this type of resource, knowing exactly what they are going to eat is valuable. In this regard, experts say that 75% of customers prefer an online menu with clear descriptions of the preparations.
2. Include vibrant images
Eye-catching images are an important tool if you want to highlight the creativity and technical level of your chefs. It is also a powerful strategy to stimulate the appetite of your visitors to buy your specialities.
It is not necessary to include a photograph of each ingredient, as a menu overloaded with visual stimuli is not recommended. The idea is to identify your specialities and seasonal products that highlight the work in your restaurant’s kitchen
Certainly capturing images in high definition will increase the potential of your dishes to attract potential customers.
3. Draw attention to your new dishes
Keep in mind that people feel comfortable repeating activities that are part of their routines. For this reason, if your customers have a penchant for certain flavours, they are likely to want to repeat the experience.
so how do you encourage them to try new preparations and convince them that it is really worth the risk? How do you influence their habits so that they decide to give your restaurant’s new promotion a try? The answer is to take advantage of the novelties tab of your online menu.
For example, if you decide to design your online restaurant menu with new dishes for vegan customers, you will hook their attention in that section.
4. Constantly update your online online
This is one of the most important points on the list. Having a customer come to your business, only to not find what you have posted on the menu is very serious. Or imagine that one of your most loyal customers comes to enjoy their favourite burger and finds out that it now costs €5 more.
Also consider that instead of 2 portions of meat, it now includes 1 portion of chicken and cheese. These are mistakes that jeopardise the reputation of your restaurant business and undermine the quality of your service.
To avoid this, make sure your online menu is updated frequently. And the best thing is, it’s much easier and more environmentally friendly than printing new menus every time you make changes.
5. Optimise your digital menu for mobile devices
did you know that the majority of customers who access websites in the gastronomic sector do so from their mobile devices? This makes it clear that if you develop an online menu it is important to ensure that it can be viewed properly on tablets o smartphones.
and how does your restaurant, bar or café benefit from that? Well, it’s simple, because when you look at your menu from mobile devices, the elements on the screen will be automatically aligned. As a result, their browsing experience is more pleasant and favours the review of preparations, prices, promotions and other important options.
Facilitate their interaction and help them decide which option best suits their needs. Remember that the idea is to guide them to the sections you want to highlight, such as the booking or shopping tab. And don’t forget to use concrete and easy to understand calls to action to help navigation.
6. Inform which are your most requested dishes
If your gastronomic offer includes a favourite dish for a large number of your customers, this is your chance to make it shine. To do so, take into account the opinions received by your visitors and their purchase intentions
Then use the tools included in your digital menu to highlight the most outstanding options. In addition, you can boost your results even further by incorporating eye-catching prices to attract potential customers. In this way, you can progressively design a menu that matches diners’ desires and preferences.
7. Ensure maximum visibility
Your visitors should be able to locate your menu on as many channels as possible. These should include major social networks such as Facebook and Instagram
Also, expand your reach on your website, email marketing strategies and WhatsApp. Establish partnerships with leading communicators in your sector to reach wider audiences with your digital menu
All this will make it easier for your diners to access your digital tool to make reservations or order your services at home.
Best apps to publish your menu online
Publishing a digital menu for your visitors is much easier than it sounds. In fact, nowadays there are multiple applications that will allow you to develop your menus online so that they are eye-catching without much effort.
Hosteleria.app
This is a digital menu created for hospitality businesses, which will reduce the use of paper in your business to achieve more sustainable practices. In addition, it covers various options that can be adapted for bars, pubs, restaurants, beach bars in the language of your choice
All this can be controlled from an accessible management panel compatible with your mobile, desktop or tablet. This will allow you to make constant modifications to your menu to add, remove ingredients, promotions or upload photographs of stunning dishes
And something important, the system produces a QR code to identify different products and speed up the attention inside the restaurant.
360° Menu
This is another tool that ensures various functions in your sustainable digital menu. For example, it includes a QR code that eliminates the accumulation of purchase orders, receipts and other documents that will become solid waste
It works on a variety of devices and includes data to comply with our country’s own safety regulations. In addition, it allows you to translate the letter into the main languages without the need to download additional software.
Entrecartas
A great alternative to avoid paper printouts every time you want to modify any menu item in your restaurant. It contains a QR code reader to select the dish or drinks of your choice. It also offers the possibility of modifying the image and distribution of the menu from its template manager in just a few minutes.
Something interesting is that it adds annotations to differentiate orders. For example, you can select a specific order and label “this pizza is without anchovies”
And the best thing is that it has a module to generate visitor satisfaction surveys. This way, you will know which dishes are standing out during the day or if any customer has made a complaint.
Tucartadigital
Now we analyse a tool for menus onlinethat will allow your restaurant’s operations to run more smoothly. When you log into the system, you will see a design panel that will help you create modern and attractive menus. All in correspondence to your tastes and the image you want to project in your establishment.
Then, your customers will be able to access the menu through a QR reader or from the camera on your smartphone. Certainly, a functional tool that you will be able to use at a more than affordable cost.
iCarta Digital
It is an application developed by the company Infotronic Software, specially created to place functional digital menus within reach of your customers. In this way, you get rid of the waste caused by your physical cards being discarded in order to achieve more efficient practices ecofriendly
With iCarta Digital you will offer high quality services, with the possibility of ordering directly from mobile devices. In addition, you will largely eliminate the queues to manage orders or formalize registrations to enter the establishment. Undoubtedly, one of the best digital proposals of its kind.
OfiMenu
It is a digital menu solution online that has revolutionised the work of bars, pubs, cafés and restaurants. It has two functional versions, a mobile app and a website version.
With OfiMenu, your customers will be able to view the menu from multiple devices with wide compatibility for Android and iOS terminals. It also adds the possibility of scanning QR codes in order to view the menu from the browser.
All this is an effective solution to avoid the use of physical letters, and the pollution generated by discarding them. Undoubtedly, a great opportunity to guarantee environmentally friendly processes from your restaurant.
Akarta
We conclude with an application that will help you design an online menu from downloadable templates. Then, you will have the opportunity to generate a QR code to post it in different places in your hospitality business
The idea is to offer easy access to your menu from the bar, tables or any other place in the venue.
In addition, you can change any detail of the offer at the moment you want without having to print the previously described codes. And the best thing is that it is a completely free tool.
This concludes our post on how to design online restaurant menus for more environmentally sustainable services. Trust us and incorporate these suggestions to ensure an innovative experience for the whole family to enjoy. And don’t forget that in our digital catalogue, you can find a wide range of eco-friendly products for your hospitality business. Visit us!
