Restaurant Industry Study Finds Online Daily Restaurant Deals Driving Consumer Behavior

June 16, 2011

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Online daily deals are attracting new and infrequent customers to participating restaurants, according to the Online Daily Deals Report by Chicago-based food industry research firm Technomic. The study also found that a high percentage of these customers claim they have returned to the restaurant without a daily deal or recommended it to family and friends. What’s more, many write about their specific experience on social media sites such as Yelp or Facebook.

As trusted partners in the truckstop and travel plaza industry, industry suppliers may want to share the results of the study with their customer and collaborate on ideas to boost restaurant sales.

The report revealed that 48 percent of deal buyers used the coupon at a restaurant they have not yet visited, and 25 percent used it at a restaurant they have only visited once before. Sixty seven percent later returned to the restaurant without a daily deal and 83 percent recommended the restaurant to family and/or friends. The deals can help generate word-of-mouth advertising, with 34 percent of customers posting a review of the restaurant on a site such as Yelp or Zagat, and 25 percent wrote about the restaurant on their Facebook page.

Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, said, “The fact that 85 percent of consumers plan to continue to purchase online restaurant deals and 79 percent look forward to receiving them is a strong indication of the impact the online daily deal business is having and of its potential within the restaurant space.”

{HBM} Highway Business Matters is a brief semi-monthly newsletter created exclusively for companies that provide products or services to the truckstop and travel plaza industry. Highway Business Matters will keep you informed on trends, tactics, and tips to help you connect to the $65 billion truckstop and travel plaza industry. 

Help tailor Highway Business Matters to meet your needs by sharing your feedback and story ideas. Send your input to: atoner@natso.com.

 

Mindy Long's photo

Before launching a full-time freelance career, Long edited NATSO's Stop Watch magazine. Prior to that Long worked as a staff reporter for Transport Topics, a weekly trade newspaper, covering freight transportation, fuel and environmental issues. In addition to covering the transportation sector, Long has written, reported and edited for a variety of media outlets. She was the Washington correspondent for WCAX-TV (CBS) in Burlington, Vt., a criminal court reporter in Chicago and a freelance copy editor for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine in Washington D.C. Long hold a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Ill., and a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Westminster College in Salt Lake City.More
Source:
Highway Business Matters (HBM)
Supplier Focus:
Technomic, Inc.

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