Restaurants looking to attract millennial customers and drive up average order value would be best suited to look to their digital channels rather than their on-premise business.
For PYMNTS’ study The 2022 Restaurant Digital Divide: Food Aggregators Find Their Footing In Q2, we surveyed more than 2,200 U.S. consumers in August about their experiences with restaurants and aggregators. We found that, while most generations spend more on their restaurant meals purchased in-person, millennials are bigger spenders in cyberspace.
Get your copy: The 2022 Restaurant Digital Divide: Food Aggregators Find Their Footing In Q2
Specifically, the study found that the average millennial restaurant customer spends $24.10 on a meal when they order in person. On the other hand, when they order online, they spend more: $25.80 per meal for digital purchases.
Yet, restaurants’ highest-value digital customers are not millennials as a whole but rather the generation’s oldest part, bridge millennials. While these slightly older consumers only spend a little bit more on their in-person orders, averaging $25.60 per meal, they spend dramatically more via digital channels, averaging $31.50.
Read the report: The 2022 Restaurant Digital Divide: Food Aggregators Find Their Footing In Q2
Meanwhile, other generations spend less on their restaurant orders across all channels, going bigger on their in-person purchases than on digital alternatives. Gen Z spends the least on their restaurant orders, averaging $18.10 per meal purchased online versus $13.50 for digital orders. On the opposite end of the age spectrum, baby boomers and senior spend only slightly more ($19.40 in person, $14.10 online), and Gen X spends $23.70 in-person versus $21.20 online.
Consequently, restaurants looking to drive up order value with very young consumers or with older customers are best served to keep their focus on the in-person experience, but if they want to win the spending of their highest-value customers, eCommerce is the way to go.
https://www.pymnts.com/connectedeconomy/2022/millennials-seek-convenience-guidance-financial-super-apps/partial/
