Research: Independent Restaurants Benefit with Increased Digital Ordering and Payment Options

2021-Hero-Image-Paytronix — Forty-five percent of independent restaurant customers’ monthly food spend is on orders placed online, according to the new research.
3.22.2021

A new survey-based research report, published by Paytronix Systems, explores how expanding digital ordering and payments options can help independent restaurants drive customer spend.

The report found that almost half of the independent sit-down restaurant customers surveyed would spend more if the restaurants from which they are ordering offered loyalty programs.

This latest report, in a series of reports collectively entitled “Delivering on Restaurant Rewards,” produced with PYMNTS.com, explores the ways in which the pandemic has changed independent restaurant businesses in the United States. It surveys a census-balanced panel of 2,130 U.S. consumers about their food ordering habits to understand how independent restaurants have fared as digital ordering grows more integral to their survival — and what they can do to drive restaurant spend.

Key findings from the research include:

- Independent restaurants have lost 10% of their customers since beginning of the pandemic.
- Forty-five percent of independent restaurant customers’ monthly food spend is on orders placed online.
- Consumers who order online spend upwards of 50% more than those who order in person.
- Eleven million independent QSR customers and 32 million independent sit-down restaurant customers (almost half) would spend more if the restaurants from which they are ordering offered loyalty programs.
- Expanding digital ordering and payments options could help independent restaurants drive customer spend.

“Independent restaurants’ customers are more loyal than chain QSRs’ customers, but their engagement is still falling during the pandemic. Independent restaurants must take active measures to mitigate this decrease in customer engagement by adopting the digital ordering options that their customers want,” note the authors. “The two-pronged approach of providing these digital options, in addition to offering loyalty and rewards programs, can not only help them reach more customers but also encourage loyal customers to increase their food order spend and keep independent restaurants in the green.”