In the recent years, the restaurant industry has become a booming business. Along with this, came a change in the adaptation and practices of how restaurants operate to influence customers. If you walk into any restaurant today, installation of digital menu board display boards would be the first thing to draw your attention.
Why exactly are we witnessing this change in behavior in the way restaurants and QSRs are communicating with their customers? To understand this, let us take a look at regions like the United States and Europe, where the use of digital signages has surged over the recent years.
Dominance of digital signages in the QSR market of UK and USA
Among the key trends shaping the restaurant business in 2024; digital menu boards, contactless ordering and advanced point-of-sale systems operations are the primary drivers taking care of the dining experience today. This is because of the change in both customer behavior and introduction of smart technologies in business operations. People now prefer to order food via food delivery app. Based on their orders, these preferences get tracked as historical records, which are then utilized by artificial intelligence and data analytics to personalize menus and promotions. (Source: Forbes report)
Among the regions that are slowly capturing a larger chunk of the digital signage market in the coming years, Europe is forecasted to grow at an annual rate of 17.3%. (Source: Digital Signage Industry Trends and Statistics)
Examples of some of the big fast-food chains in the Europe market who have been to integrate digital signages in their daily customer interaction are TacoBell, Burger King, KFC to name a few. (Source: rise in adaptation of digital signages by the European Market )
Digital signage market in the US on the other hand is estimated to reach USD 12.41 billion by 2029. (Source: digital signage market in US size and share analysis). That means the current addressable market for the US restaurant industry is just over 238,000 locations (Source: Sixteen Nine reports)
Primary reasons behind the global adaptation of digital menu board for signages
It is absolutely impossible to overlook the role that digital menu board for signages play in raking up the profit margins. Digital signages modernize the restaurant environment. It also helps to improve customer interaction without the requirement of any verbal communication. In addition to this, there are other important reasons why digital signages are being globally adapted by restaurant owners. These are as follows –
- Engaging digital menu boards: 74% customers agree that an easy-to-read menu is an essential part of the experience. Digital signages can be updated quickly. Nowadays there are design apps available in the market, which allow the liberty to customize the look and feel of the content displayed by playing around with the font style and graphics.
Some design apps offer ready-made templates that enable restaurants to easily update the menu boards with the latest promotions and limited time offers. - Converting influences into conversions: 7-Eleven convenience stores in Denmark, for example, saw a rise in their coffee sales by 30% when advertised on digital sign boards. In addition to influencing customer purchase decisions, digital signages can also leave a long lasting impression even after one walks out of the restaurant scenario. This long lasting impression creates a lingering effect, which automatically influences conversions. Out of the 80% of customers, who have seen digital signage in the past month, 70% ended up making unplanned purchases.
In fact, 29.5% of customers find digital menus influential for purchase of products. Prime Burger for example, sitting at one of UK’s largest trade show center, increased sales by 50% by replacing static signs with digital ones.
Demand for digital signages calls for good digital content creation apps
With increased adaptation of digital signages, demand for good content delivery applications would soon be the next requirement among restaurant owners. Digital signages provide the advantage of dynamic content display. Hence content design design applications are expected to offer features that would help to address the current trends that all restaurant owners look for when display contents.
Advantages of today’s online digital menu board app for restaurant menu design
- Support of Multi-Media Content Display: Unlike traditional methods of displaying menu contents, digital signages offer a friendly platform for displaying multi-media content. These can be digital images, videos, streaming media and information, etc. All you need to have is an online restaurant menu design app that can help you to craft the template that you want to display. If the design app is integrated to a CMS, then the data can be save in a CMS and later distributed to media players.
- Usage of images and graphic elements for real-life experience: Digital signage design apps like MenuRepo enable users to create design templates for both static and video contents. They can drag and draw design elements like graphics and texts that help to build up the screen fluency, which comprises movement, colour, and freshness. Based on a screen fluency statistics report, because of digital signage, 76% of American consumers enter stores they have never visited before. Again, 68% of Americans ended up purchasing a product or service after being influence by a digital signage advertisement.
- Ability to deliver customized solutions: The rising need for enhanced customer experience had led to the rollout of digital integration initiatives on a chain-wide basis in various applications. As a result, there has been a huge demand for turnkey solutions in the current market scenario. For example, the ability of online restaurant menu design apps to deliver customized and curated content templates quickly without any labour support makes it an ideal solution when it comes to digital signage advertising.
Conclusion
Digital signages are the game changers when it comes to influencing customers entering restaurants and QSR. Marketers today are more focused on delivering content differently. If you are planning to operate or open a restaurant in USA/UK Locations, hope this article will help to guide you in your journey ahead.