This has been an extremely challenging time for Restaurants due to their reliance on person-to-person interaction, however despite the challenges there are some lessons from a business practice and revenue perspective that we can draw from a year into the “New Normal.”

Lesson 1) Holidays are becoming increasingly important for source of revenue for Restaurant. As the below chart from our friends at Womply payments to Restaurants in the past year peaked around Thanksgiving, New Years Eve, and most recently during Valentine’s Day. Restaurants should consider launching special promotions during or around holydays if they want to monetize on this trend.

Lesson 2) Partner with home delivery services such as MDHCC member DoorDash: the rollout of tighter restriction in November-January did not resulted in such a dramatic drop in payments to restaurants as the first ones imposed in April of last year, we believe this is attributed to customers being more comfortable with ordering from home and the great work that companies like Doordash have done with delivering food in a safe and reliable manner.

Lesson 3) Alcohol sales might be key: our friends at Womply also point out payments to Bars have been quite volatile, which might be caused by customers ordering alcoholic beverages to enjoy in the safety of their own homes. Restaurants might want to design menus and promotions centered around this strategy.

Learn more about Womply’s Covid-19 data here: Report: How COVID-19 has impacted sales at local restaurants and bars in the U.S. https://www.womply.com/blog/heres-exactly-how-covid-19-fears-have-impacted-sales-at-local-restaurants-and-bars-nationwide/