Since COVID-19 came into our lives, customers have shifted towards take-out and delivery services than dine ins. Initially, dine ins were non-operational, but now as the situation has become more clear, more and more dine ins are reopening every day. Yet, people are hesitant to avail of this service. So, to maintain revenue streams, it is important for restaurants to have a good inventory management system for off-premises sales. A restaurant POS software can be of great assistance when it comes to inventory management. 

Restaurants have a very thin margin and therefore, it is imperative to control cost and minimize waste. You need to have a healthy bottom line in order to classify it as a successful restaurant. Today, we’ve rounded up a few essential tips for restaurants to effectively manage and analyze their resources and take care of inventory, increasing efficiency and profitability as a result. So, here is how you can enhance your performance by managing your off-premises inventory: 

Utilize Reporting and Analyses Feature: 

Through a good inventory management system, you can learn which of your dishes is the best selling and should be a top priority. The dishes that have high-profit margins and are popular too are gold mines for you. They should be heavily advertised on your social platforms and website. Through reporting and analytics, you can optimize your food costs and increase your profits. You can learn about your customer’s buying habits and come up with deals accordingly. When you have an efficient analytics tool, you can easily monitor the changes you make in your menu and learn whether or not a new dish is ‘hot’ among people. 

Have a Manageable Menu: 

or increasing efficiency and keeping costs in check, a restaurant should ensure that its menu is manageable. Having more than 40 dishes on your menu is not a good move for off-premise deliveries. You need to narrow it down to 15-20 dishes so you can manage the taste of these dishes. You should make sure that the same recipe is always followed to create a dish by your chefs so your customers aren’t disappointed. When there are a lot of dishes on your menu, it’s hard to do that. So, have your best dishes on your menu. Too many cooks spoil the broth, after all!

Track Your Food Movement: 

It’s crucial to track your food movement and understand how money is spent at your business. You need to minimize food waste to increase profits and here’s how you can do that: 

1. Reduce the risk of food going bad by shortening shelf-life of items. 

2. Make sure that the communication between order takers, servers and customers is unambiguous and clear. 

3. Always keep an eye on the inventory levels so you don’t have to suffer from any last-minute panic attacks! 

4. While deciding the cost of a dish, make sure to include the packing cost too. 

5. Use the reporting and analytics tools to give you a bird’s eye view of the business. 

Deliver Cool Beverages: 

Delivering liquid items can be a challenging task but it’s also true that ‘fancy’ beverages have the greatest profit margins too. Therefore, you need to provide your riders with the proper gear to transport drinks and beverages to your customers. In this way, not only will you stand out from your competitors but you’ll get to make a brand name for yourself too. Putting up offers on these cool beverages is also often very profitable to do keep that in mind! And if you get positive customer reviews on your platforms, it's amazing for your business!