The Food and Drink Federation notes that the food and drink industry contributes the huge sum of £28.8 billion to the economy, and that the United Kingdom's food and drink exports were worth over £22 billion in 2017.
Taking into account the big figures, it might surprise you to learn that 97% of the 7,000 food and drink manufacturing businesses in the UK are small or medium-sized businesses!
Whether you're working for a vacation spot, have just set up your first café, run a popular pub or have a number of initiatives, technology will be important in how you plan to grow.
Customers know what they need – including rising 'digital' expectations.
For example, the Waitrose Food and Drink Report 17 – 18 found that touchless payments had already jumped from 5% to 38%. But 'digital' isn't just a growing trend in how customers pay.
Customers now want to order online, view the menu on your website, share reviews on TripAdvisor, post about their visit on social media and receive updates and offers by email – and that doesn't even take into account how you manage staff, stock turnover and run a day-to-day business.
This blog contains simple online tools that you can use to save time, simplify sales and ordering processes, attract more customers and improve your standard of performance.
Broadly, these tools can help make your work life much easier!
Electronic Tally System (EpoS)
EpoS systems are great for giving customers options in how they pay.
Whether they choose to pay by card or by smartphone, you won't miss any customers who walk by or customers who don't keep cash on them. But there's more!
EpoS systems can make a measurable difference to your bottom line by helping you manage stock levels and keep track of customer information.
Treorchy-based Wonderstuff has increased sales by 33% and has reduced stock management time by 20% since using the EPoS system. Learn more here.
Online Booking Solutions
Managing orders on a digital platform is a great way to automate how you retain customer information, take transactions and integrate your payment systems.
Save time – time spent booking while also hooking up those customers who wish to receive online confirmation immediately rather than ordering over the phone.
Find out more about online ordering solutions designed for SMEs in Acceleration Wales' free Business Software Directory.
Make the most of social media
Social media is an easy, cost effective way to promote a food and beverage business.
You can share photos of your delicious items on Instagram, post updates about offers on Twitter or ask customers to leave reviews on Facebook. You can also try targeted advertising on social media to reach your local area and drive more customers in your direction.
Social media is a great way to spread the word and receive positive customer reviews to stimulate even more interest in your business. Bang On Brewery successfully used social media to drive demand, meaning they had to increase production by 33% after just 6 months!
Learn how you can use social media scheduling tools to save time in managing your social accounts while reaching out to your customers at the same time.
A useful, engaging website
Your website is the place to share useful information about your business such as what you offer, where customers can find you and how to contact you.
You should provide information to help customers make a decision, such as: season menus, order forms, phone numbers, where you sell your products and the holidays you attend.
Not only will this help attract customers, it will improve your score on search engines – especially if you work in a local area. Find out more about how to boost your score, reach more local customers and be prominent among the competition through our SEO blog.
You can also consider sharing interesting updates, news and posts in blog form. This could be a short weekly or fortnightly post containing recipes or words of advice.
Judith Bond Cakes has increased sales by 30% thanks to its new marketing campaign focusing on the website's blog and social media. Learn more about Judith's strategy!
These words of advice are just 4 of the easy ways you can consider to make your food and drink business more 'digitally friendly'.