How To Increase Restaurant Sales | 4 Adaptive Strategies In 2025

Although overall restaurant sales are expected to increase in 2025, rising business costs will continue to squeeze profit margins. Operators anticipate fierce competition, as consumers now have more foodservice options and access points than ever before.

Source: Escoffier

We can see that restaurant sales growth in the F&B industry has slowed down year after year since the epidemic. While not necessarily facing a crisis of closure, how to increase restaurant sales in an ever-changing environment is indeed the number one issue in front of every restaurant.

We’ve gathered hundreds of restaurant case studies and summarized their successes, failures, and lessons learned. By organizing this information into four growth strategies, we hope to inspire restaurant operators and F&B professionals with ideas to put into practice.

Make Informed F&B Decisions Supported By Data

We all know the key drivers for restaurant sales:

• Location & Accessibility 

• Menu Strategy

• Customer Experience

• Marketing

• Operational Efficiency 

Ask yourself, how often do you make decisions about these issues just based on experience, people's opinions, or purely rooted in your feelings?

Let’s look at Chipotle, the American chain of fast casual restaurants that used customer data to drive their restaurant sales to 50% of total revenue. Chipotle’s original goal was to enhance customer loyalty by creating more meaningful and personalized experiences. To achieve this, they recognized the need for comprehensive data about their customers.

Source: Second Measure 

By investing in customer feedback and analyzing over 400 million records, Chipotle enhanced their ability to deliver richer experiences that boost loyalty and brand advocacy. As a result, they project a potential annual sales growth of up to $280 million, tapping into 34% of newly discovered customers and cross-sales opportunities.

While cases like Chipotle’s are a strong demonstration of how to improve restaurant sales, every day, there are hundreds of restaurants making wrong decisions that lead to a downturn in restaurant performance because of insufficient data analysis, with location and menu items accounting for a large portion of that.

Here are a few examples where data-backed decision making was absent and led to serious repercussions:

Sbarro: The New York-style pizza chain expanded aggressively into malls without analyzing shifting consumer preferences, leading to numerous store closures.

Blockbuster Cafe: Now defunct video rental store Blockbuster who went bankrupt in 2010, attempted to enter the restaurant business with a cafe concept. However, they did not properly assess the market demand and consumer behavior, resulting in poor performance and eventual closure.

The Cheesecake Factory: In the early 2000s, the American restaurant chain known for its extensive menu and signature cheesecake, overexpanded without fully understanding regional preferences for menu items. This led to unsustainable operational costs and a decline in profitability in certain locations.

Red Robin: The casual dining restaurant chain, known for its gourmet burgers, bottomless fries and playful dining experience, tried to launch new menu items that didn't resonate with their customer base. Without thorough market research and customer feedback, these offerings failed, resulting in financial losses and a decline in customer loyalty.

Fuddruckers: This San Antonio, Texas founded gourmet burger chain expanded into new markets without proper analysis of local competition and consumer preferences. The failure to adapt their concept led to a decline in sales and numerous restaurant closures.

Collecting and analyzing data takes a lot of time and investment, and it's not something every restaurant can afford. But in fact, data is not far away, with the right tools and methods, you can still effectively collect customer opinions to help you make informed decisions. 

Some free community building tools such as Likaa, Discord, or Slack, can help you build genuine relationships with your customers. When you need to make an important decision, you can always ask your community what they think about it, and you can even use a series of polls, games, and rewards to get real customer feedback data to help you make the right decision.

Moving Restaurant Locations Isn’t The Solution

The most common things we hear when F&B industry business owners and managers are asked about what affects their bottom line and ability to improve restaurant sales are location, costs and people.

Your restaurant might have the best food, the coolest ambiance, and the most attentive customer service. But, if the restaurant area is low foot traffic or not easily accessible, you may think none of that matters.

But it’s not that simple, moving locations isn’t the solution either.

Applying what we learned in the first strategy, by analyzing your existing customers’ preferences, get creative with your marketing, and cultivate a loyal customer base to boost sales. The key is to meet customers where they are - whether that’s online, at events, or through tailored convenience.

For example, if you're a hidden sushi restaurant, would you consider offering "Omakase To-Go" boxes with premium ingredients, marketed as a luxury home-dining experience?

Also, with new working habits and changing consumer consciousness, more and more restaurants partner with local businesses and co-working spaces to create shared dining experiences. This not only provides additional traffic but leverages the existing customer base of the partner business.

People don’t miss the opportunity to visit your restaurant solely because of location. If you can reach out to them consistently with attractive offers, discounts and events to remind them they’re missed, you can increase your chances that they will come back. Give them the right reason to return for another meal, and suddenly your restaurant location doesn’t seem so far away.

Source: Emarketer

If you haven't set up any loyalty program for your restaurant, you should really stop what you're doing and plan for it now. This is a strategy that many restaurants are committing to. Loyalty programs retain customers and help grow your restaurant business through repeat visits and increased customer engagement. Use them to drive both customer satisfaction and long-term profitability.

You can even start from a paper loyalty stamp card if technology feels too daunting, but many of the best reward tools for restaurants involve apps or digital tools you can implement without much cost or time investment.

Try Likaa Coupon, which lets you create all kinds of F&B coupons in minutes, with the added bonus of being able to instantly share them in group chat rooms or DMs where your community is on the lookout for restaurant promotions and special deals. Your customers can easily bookmark coupons they like and will check their collection when they’re hungry and ready to visit.

Value will continue to motivate consumers in 2025, with loyalty and rewards programs growing in popularity.  Restaurant operators will respond to this demand by offering consumers more points of access - many driven by technology.

Learn to Deal With Higher Costs Across The Board

Food costs will be the biggest source of financial strain in 2025 and higher food costs are the number one obstacle that must be conquered in order to increase sales in a restaurant.

You probably already know how to find cheaper suppliers or buy in bulk to tackle food cost problems, but that’s pretty standard. 

If you are planning a budget to invest in restaurant tech, forecasting tools could be one feature to consider. Forecasting tools use predictive analytics technology to detect an increase in demand, enabling food service suppliers to place orders while items are still in stock or avoid waiting periods.

Use free trials or demos to test potential tools in your restaurant's environment. This step is crucial for assessing the tool's effectiveness in your unique real-world scenario. 

Let's take a look at tactics restaurants are using to combat rising food prices:

Vertical Farming & Hydroponics: Grow herbs and greens on-site or locally. By implementing these innovative farming techniques, restaurants can ensure fresher ingredients while reducing transportation costs and carbon footprints.

Upcycled Ingredients: Use food scraps creatively (e.g., vegetable stocks from peels). This not only minimizes waste but also adds unique flavors to dishes, allowing chefs to showcase their creativity and sustainability efforts.

Dynamic Pricing: Adjust prices based on demand and time. This flexible pricing strategy can help optimize revenue during peak hours while encouraging customers to dine during off-peak times with lower prices.

Cooperative Purchasing: Join forces with other restaurants to buy in bulk. By pooling resources, restaurants can negotiate better prices on ingredients and supplies, ultimately lowering costs and improving your profit margins.

Like food costs, concern around rising labor costs is among the biggest restaurant industry threats right now. In fact, 99% of full service operators reported spending more on labor this year.

Restaurant staffing shortages are commonly addressed by:

• Automation and digitization

• Minimizing your menu

• Cross-training your staff

• Reducing capacity and hours

But at the end of the day, it's still about people, which is fundamentally different from technology, expenses, or numbers. Our advice is to:

Keep improving your leadership skills

First of all, take a fresh look at your entire hiring process. Fixing staffing challenges goes beyond just 'finding people.' 

From 2021 forward, restaurant staffing requires a comprehensive and strategic approach to rethink hiring practices, the profiles of candidates we seek, and the effectiveness of our training and development programs for team members.

Next, If you want to improve your customer experience, start by improving your employee experience.

You may be focused on guest reviews - but how about feedback from the team that keeps your restaurant running? How often do you ask your staff about their day-to-day work experience?

This exercise reveals a fact that is overlooked by many restaurants: the customer experience doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is a direct reflection of the employee experience, which is too often overlooked.

Make a plan now to improve your employee satisfaction levels, it may not even cost you anything, but it will pay off massively in the long run. When employees feel empowered, respected, and aligned with their work, they don’t just deliver a good experience - they create it.  

An example of this is using Likaa Bots as automated assistants, which can be easily turned on or off, giving your online community an auto-pilot moderator to help with guest engagement without adding manpower.

Focus On Driving Repeat Restaurant Guests

If you’ve ever wondered how to increase restaurant sales without advertising, you should know that in 2025, customer retention will be a cornerstone of every successful restaurant marketing plan. The F&B industry is wising up to put more emphasis on retention driven by personalization, innovation, and ethical engagement, and placing less emphasis on manufactured ads with salesy taglines.

60-80% of an average restaurant's profit comes from their repeat guests. But F&B industries lose almost 50% of the customers after their first visit. 

Many restaurants are stuck in the predictable rut of chasing after new customers by promoting on social media. Platforms like Instagram or TikTok do bring value to restaurant acquisition strategies, but they often neglect the importance of keeping in touch with customers who have already made the first crucial step in becoming a repeat guest, and that is making the initial visit. 

Traditional advertising, once the cornerstone of restaurant marketing, is losing its edge. Consumers increasingly distrust polished ads, turning instead to peer recommendations. People trust word-of-mouth over branded content. Building a community transforms customers into vocal ambassadors who share their experiences freely. 

This organic promotion is not only cost-effective but also carries authenticity that money can’t buy. For instance, a diner raving about a chef’s signature dish or a cozy ambiance creates ripple effects far beyond a paid post.

Building Your Own F&B Community

Modern diners crave purpose beyond the plate. Overall, the restaurant industry is missing out when it comes to community. We spend most of our time looking for new guests, but don’t do much to build relationships with people who have already dined with us.

Restaurants promote their business mainly through one-way communication, which we call “broadcasting.” Creating your own community is the next trend in customer retention strategies for restaurants. It allows you to cultivate an engaged audience that doesn’t just passively consume information but actively participates in the conversation.

An example of this is using a restaurant community building tool. It's an app that makes it easy for restaurants and F&B insiders to host chat rooms, share discounts, and get honest feedback from the guests they value and want to welcome back.

Think Holistically About How To Increase Restaurant Sales

As the restaurant industry continues to evolve in 2025, staying competitive will require innovation, community building and leadership that strengthens teams.

These strategies thrive when combined. A tech-savvy, eco-friendly restaurant that personalizes guest journeys and markets creatively through first-hand experiences isn’t just adapting - it’s leading. Restaurant success hinges on your willingness to experiment, iterate, and stay attuned to shifting consumer and staff expectations.

The future belongs to restaurateurs who act now. Revisit your business model, invest in these adaptive F&B strategies, and watch as customer satisfaction and sales soar. 

What will be your first step to increase restaurant sales?

About Likaa:

Likaa makes it easy for restaurants and F&B insiders to host chat rooms, share discounts, and get honest feedback from the guests they value and want to welcome back.