Gift baskets are a great way for restaurants to generate extra income using their existing facilities, staff and customers.
Regardless of cuisine, restaurants can offer signature food and wine pairings, artistically crafted specialty foods, kitchen tools, breads, crackers and cheeses, stylish personalized apparel, locally bottled condiments and sauces, gourmet European foods and cooking gifts for homeowners. Using local favorites like country hams, jerky, sausages, salsa and restaurant salads generate tremendous appeal as thoughtful gifts.
The rising interest in local ingredients and accountability and better customer communications options make gift-basket marketing practical and lucrative for many restaurants. Restaurants can use staff during slow times to put together custom orders and predesigned baskets to sell on-site.
Another opportunity is a restaurants own take on a holiday or season, say Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter or Summer. Of course, the Gift Basket should go with the restaurant’s brand and menu.
The gift basket industry is growing by 4 percent or more each year. Consumers are increasingly committed to local produce, foods and gifts, and restaurants are ideally positioned to take advantage of the escalating demand for gift baskets from men and women, corporate marketers and consumers of all ages.
A great way to plan an income-generating strategy is by using a SWOT analysis. The acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. By assessing these criteria, restaurant managers can plan an effective strategy for marketing gift baskets. Each restaurant will have its own unique situation, but some common characteristics of selling gift baskets include:
Restaurants can produce many signature foods in-house to reduce costs and create unique selling propositions. Marketing theme baskets for holidays, corporate gifting, birthdays and special occasions works better when restaurants offer multiple price points to appeal to consumers with all types of budgets.
Customized baskets command higher prices, and restaurants can offer various options straight from their inventories and suppliers. If possible, managers can establish mutually beneficial relationships with local farms and suppliers and receive lower wholesale prices and cooperative-marketing benefits. Gift cards for baskets allow customers to choose the products they want for their baskets from a list of similarly priced ingredients.
Thousands of suppliers offer baskets in traditional and specialized shapes. Wine and cheese, pastas and sauces, herbs and spices and sweet-based foods are just a few of the possibilities. Baskets with food that requires refrigeration are also possible, but be aware that these gifts will require safe storage andrequire sufficient cooler space and storage shelving.
Packing supplies for attractive and artistic baskets might include:
Pricing gift baskets depends on the cost of food, packaging materials, merchandise and the labor needed to assemble an attractive arrangement. The safest policy is to use nonperishable food items with shelf lives of 6–12 months. Of course, custom baskets can contain perishable foods, and restaurants can risk marketing fruit and perishables during the major holiday seasons.
With a strong enough brand, a restaurant may want to partner with a service that offers to create branded gift baskets and then ship online orders. Normally, you can join together branded products along with larger suppliers for the basket.
Restaurateurs look for alternative income streams to maximize profits in a highly competitive industry. Gift baskets are a perfect fit for almost any restaurant because they can be designed and marketed for any type of customer. Most restaurants are already equipped and stocked with the essential materials, and gift baskets provide both extra income and powerful publicity benefits.